Reflecting on 2014 - Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society © Touchstone Pictures
A FirstStep.me Feature
About this time last year we had decided, yes FirstStep.me had decided, that 2014 was going to be a year full of awesomeness. Sadly though, for every high there was potentially more than one low. This year has been a period of ups and downs to say the least. With the FirstStep.me team always seeing the proverbial glass being half full, we again boldly predict that 2015 is going to be one filled with super awesomeness!
That paragraph right there is filled with a lot of awesome.
When we look back on 2014, the business and finance world was rocked by a single story that weighed in at about – I don’t know – about 25-billion Dollars. The Alibaba IPO proved to the world that the East means business. American singer Taylor Swift also removed her music catalogue from Spotify, which shook the music industry a little bit. However, none of these news stories came anywhere near the announcement that student debt in the USA reached the trillion Dollar level! That’s big money.
Politics proved to be a global pressure point in 2014. Large scale protests brought cities to their knees, while media coverage of violent rebel groups and global governance raised concern about how the planet is setting itself up for the immediate future.
To put it lightly, second by second media coverage of significant global events ranged from extreme violence to just plain nasty.
But, we want to focus on the Fun Side of Being Serious. And as such, we want to reflect on the good. Often, the only way to do that is to turn to the sports field.
Germany dominated the Football World Cup with a tournament winning performance that was clinical and, well, nothing short of German precision. The tennis world took a look back at some of its champions gone by when the legendary Boris Becker returned to the sport as Novak Djokovic’s coach. His former rival, Stefan Edberg also took on the role of mentor for Rodger Federer!
Sadly though, all the positives in sport become a distant memory with the horrific accident involving F1 driver, Jules Bianchi. The death of South African football goalie and captain, Senzo Meyiwa and the tragic passing of Australian cricketer, Phillip Hughes also created more negative headlines. So maybe 2014 wasn’t such a good year on the sporting front. Luckily the entertainment industry is always there for us.
Wait, this year we said goodbye to entertainment legends, Robin Williams and Joe Cocker. Right, let’s close the 2014 chapter shall we.
Surely though, there must have been some glimmer of awesomeness, somewhere?
And yes, there was.
Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai took the world by the scruff of the neck and gave it the shake it needed by standing up for individual, gender, educational and youth rights. Emma Watson’s speech at the HeForShe Campaign at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on the 20th of September brought forward generational foresight on gender equality. Malala Yousafzai recently received the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17. Yes, that’s right, 17. She’s now in the same ranks as the likes of former South African President Nelson Mandela... not too bad for a teenager.
Right, 2015... let’s rather follow this trend and live up to all those awesome expectations. It sounds clichéd, but can’t there just be world peace?
With the 2015 Cricket World Cup the first on the list of large scale sporting events next year, can’t all battles just be fought on the sports field? Please.
Image source: Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society © Touchstone Pictures
