I would not, on the whole, say that 2017 was a great year for me. I love my job, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know my colleagues better. My family is phenomenal. My friends are the best. But the year was somewhat unremarkable, plagued by a summer full of too much hospital and what we all thought was going to be an end to something remarkable. In the end, it turned out better than I expected. Here are some things I loved about it:

Albums that were released in 2017:

5. Flicker – Niall Horan
4. Beautiful Trauma – Pink
3. Lovely Little Lonely – The Maine
2. Harry Styles
1. Last Young Renegade – All Time Low

Honorable Mentions:
Divide – Ed Sheeran, which I enjoyed but did not adore from top to bottom
From the Outside – Hey Violet
The Search for Everything – John Mayer

Albums not released in 2017 that were still important

5.  Even if It Kills Me – Motion City Soundtrack
4. Glory Days – Little Mix
3. X – Ed Sheeran
2. Sounds Good Feels Good – 5 Seconds of Summer
1. Better Weather – With Confidence

Top 5 Songs Released in 2017

Intentionally not choosing songs from the previously mentioned top albums because those albums were chosen due to how much I listened to THE WHOLE THING.

5. Like Home – Eminem (feat. Alicia Keys)
4. Take What You Want – One OK Rock (feat. 5 Seconds of Summer)
3. Dive – Ed Sheeran
2. Most Girls – Hailee Steinfeld
1. Slow Burn – State Champs

Honorable Mentions:
Let Me Go – Hailee Steinfeld (feat. Florida Georgia Line)
I Miss You – Louis Tomlinson
It Ain’t Me – Selena Gomez
All On Me – Devin Dawson

Top 5 Songs Not Released in 2017

5. ILYSB (Stripped) – LANY
4. Medicine – Havelin
3. She Burns – Foy Vance
2. Automatic – Castro
1. Favorite Liar – The Wrecks

Top Cover Songs of 2017

5. Touch – Ed Sheeran
4. Dancing on My Own – Pentatonix
3. Girl Crush – Harry Styles
2. Green Light – All Time Low
1. Issues – Niall Horan

2017 Concerts

5. John Mayer (with LANY) – Kansas City
4. The Main (with The Mowglis and Beach Weater) – Chicago
3. State Champs (with With Confidence and Don Broco) – Chicago
2. All Time Low (with The Wrecks and two other bands) – Kansas City
1. EdCon 2k17: Ed Sheeran  (with James Blunt) -Kansas City , Des Moines, Omaha, Chicago

Honorable Mention:
Twentyone Pilots (with Jon Bellion) – Omaha

On to non-music things!

Top 7 Books (because it’s 2017?)

7. Scythe – Neal Shusterman
6. We Are Okay – Nina LaCouer
5. Brain on Fire – Susannah Cahalan
4. Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty
3. Turtles All the Way Down – John Green
2. The Underground Girls of Kabul – Jenny Nordberg
1. The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas

Top 5 Stand Out Moments

5. Toby being born and managing to be unreasonably cute,  Laeken being adopted and also being unreasonably cute.

4. Adopting Breezie.

3. Turtles All the Way Down Tour, which was full of togetherness and hope for humanity and singing Sweet Caroline without the ba ba bas.

2. Getting to do an argument writing project with students that they were passionate about. Passion really changes everything.

1. Grandma being exited from Hospice, a thing that does not happen, because she’s 92 and she does what she wants.