As society heads into 2023, some people are excited for a new year, and others are sad that they have to move on to a new year. Many people make new year’s resolutions in the hope to better themselves or have a better year in general. For most, their goals are to perhaps work out more, eat healthier, pick up a new hobby, achieve things in work or school, or anything else. Before we dismiss 2022 and focus on 2023, let’s review 2022 because, for most, it was a rather interesting year. 

Starting with the rather discouraging aspects of 2022, the main and arguably most frightening part of 2022 was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This event has impacted the entire world, not just Ukraine. Originally, Russia was insecure about Ukraine’s growing closeness to NATO members and launched a “special military operation” to force the demilitarization of Ukraine. It was a tricky situation because if the United States were to intervene at all, Vladimir Putin said there would be “consequences you have never seen.” This war caused the rest of the world to struggle with supply disruptions, price shocks, and food shortages. Most well known for America though was gas prices. Yes, the war made gas more difficult to obtain, but President Biden initially shut down local oil pipelines in America, causing prices to increase no matter the situation.

Another discouraging thing that happened in 2022 was that Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8th at 96 years old after a 70-year reign. With her death, her eldest son, Charles, the former Prince of Wales, was anointed as King and will be officially known as King Charles III. At 73, Charles will be the oldest person to become King in British history. The coronation of King Charles III is scheduled to be held on May 6, 2023. Most of the world mourned her death, and there were many because the world population also crossed 8 billion nearly 2 months after her death on November 15th. India was the largest contributor to the milestone, as it added 177 million to the final score and is expected to pass China as the most populous nation. According to the UN, it could take 15 years to reach nine billion, so we have a while till then.

Putting the dispiriting things aside, something surprising that happened was that Elon Musk bought Twitter and its entirety for $44 billion in October. Musk began buying shares of the company in January 2022, becoming its largest shareholder by April with a 9.1 percent ownership stake. After purchasing Twitter, Elon went straight to work as he fired top executives CEO Parag Agarwal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of legal policy, trust, and safety, Vijaya Gadde to start Twitter on a new path. He unblocked users like Donald Trump as well, which was met with hostility. This situation was very controversial and interesting, to say the least.

In conclusion, not everything that happened in 2022 was depressing or controversial. For example, Google released its annual search report outlining the top searches of 2022 around the world, and it revealed that the popular online game Wordle topped the list globally. Wordle was even very popular at Lewis Cass, and I did it almost every day for a while. The best movies of 2022 by box office reviews were Top Gun: Maverick and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with Avatar: The Way of Water creeping up slowly going into 2023. Also, the “miracle baby” was born on 2/22/22 at 2:22 A.M. in labor and delivery room 2, which is very interesting. Overall, 2022 was an interesting year that had a lot of ups and downs for the world. The best we can do is move into 2023 ready to take on any challenges it has and also enjoy the memorable moments it has. 

https://www.fox9.com/news/22-feel-good-heartwarming-things-that-happened-in-2022

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2022/

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-russia-moscow-kyiv-626a8c5ec22217bacb24ece60fac4fe1

https://thefederal.com/international/top-10-events-of-2022-that-shaped-shook-or-brightened-the-world/