Welcome the newness of 2017

It’s fitting the end of what is commonly referred to as the “holiday season” is the New Year; one last “hurrah” for 2016, as we venture forward — some with trepidation, others with composure — into 2017.

Henry Ward Beecher wrote once, “Every man should be born again on the first of January,” and while it’s nice to have the sense of an empty calendar year there’s no denying that, before long, each of us will have more than his or her share of commitments and activities to fill those boxes and pages.

And while that New Year is waiting for us just around the corner, the holiday also gives us pause for reflection what 2016 was to us. It’s hard not to think of Don McLean’s “American Pie” and its famous line “The day the music died,” as the year took from us David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Merle Haggard, Prince, Leonard Cohen and George Michael, just to name a few.

And Hollywood wasn’t immune from 2016’s wrath on celebrities either, shown by the passing of Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman, Abe Vigoda, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Alan Thicke, Gene Wilder, Garry Shandling, Patty Duke and Anton Yelchin.

But though 2016 took from us many, their legacy lives on every time we pop in a disc, turn a page or look to the sky once travelled by John Glenn. Hopefully 2017 will be a bit kinder than these past 12 months, and allow those pop icons still with us a bit of a reprieve.

And though the year had plenty of downer moments, there were plenty of up sides as well. Iran began dismantling its nuclear weapons program, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter was sent off to Mars while Juno began its 20-month survey of Jupiter, the Gotthard Base Tunnel opened, Rio de Janeiro hosted the Summer Olympics and progress was made toward an effective vaccine against Ebola.

And let’s not forget, 2017 brings with it a new president. Whether you voted for Trump or not, it already looks like the next four years are going to be interesting, to say the least.

So, when that final countdown comes December 31, take some time to remember everything that passed in 2016, and look — whether your eyes be new or old — at what’s to come in 2017.