This was an awful year for the world.

It seemed as if every time you turned around, there was one bad thing after another.

Orlando, Niece, the U.S. election, the deaths of Prince, Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, Alan Thicke, Carrie Fisher & her mother Debbie Reynolds, as well as many other celeberities this year, as well as the police shootings that claimed the lives of Philando Castille and Alton Sterling.

This year was rough. Real rough.

The silver lining in what has been an awful year, was the music, television, and movies that provided welcome distractions.

Chance the Rapper, Solange, Beyoncè, Childish Gambino and the Hamilton Mixtape were what I was listening to throughout this year.

The beauty of the Rio Olympics and the dominance of USA’s Women’s Gymnastics team, and swimmers Simone Biles & Michael Phelps made me proud over the summer.

The movies released such as the animated musical Sing and the Denzel Washington directed drama Fences, were praised by moviegoers and film critics.

Television soared with returning seasons of some of my favorite shows and arrivals of new series that peaked my interest.

Awards seasons brought Leo DiCaprio his first Oscar, and Lin Manuel Miranda and the cast of Hamilton took home 11 Tonys including Best Musical. Bringing Lin Manuel closer to achieving his EGOT( Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

As we set out on our final day of 2016, we can look back and see the sad events of this year, but also enjoy the good things that happened as well.

Happy New Year and I look forward to being with you all in 2017.