Welcome to Twenty-Twelve

Jemma Wolfe

Senior ANDY Editor

It’s been over a week now since the start of the new year, and if you’re like me, your body is still recovering from Frost Week while your mind is struggling to get back on track with unforgiving classes.

It’s hard to find the time for a little nostalgia about the year past, or to wrap your head around the vastness of the year ahead. Allow me, then, to quickly recap.

On a somber note, 2011 marked the ten-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; coincidentally, it also marked the death of Osama bin Ladin. Political revolution took over countless nations across the pond, Occupy Wall Street exploded across North America, we said goodbye to Elizabeth Taylor and Steve Jobs, and Kate and William tied the knot.

As we welcome in the Year of the Dragon, a look ahead is also in order. In 2012, Daniel Radcliffe will attempt his first film since the finale of the Harry Potter franchise, Peter Jackson will finally release The Hobbit, and hopefully summertime comedies will be better than last year. (Really, could they get much worse?)

Fingers crossed, there will be a calming down of Skrillex-esque dubstep fever, horrible collaborations of desperate old fogeys will stop (yes, Lou Reed and Metallica, I mean you), and Rebecca Black will forever hold her peace.

Next month, we’ll see the first February 29 in four years and another crop of Leap Year babies. June will see the convocation of thousands of McMaster grads, and will mean a sad goodbye for two particularly exceptional ANDY editors. In September, I’ll reach my twenty-firstbirthday. (Where did the time go?) Come December, absurd apocalypse prophesies will inevitably take over the media – prepare not for the end of the world, but for the end of rationality.

As we reflect on the year past and look tentatively into the moths ahead, forget the half-hearted resolutions, the clichéd goals and the false sense of leaving-it-all-behind that January 1 seems to generate.

To quote President Patrick Deane, let’s simply go forward with integrity into this new year.