For us, the last two years have been a wild ride of irritated ears from masks strings, over-concerned friends with minor symptoms and a world pushed into the corner and scared.

In times like these, it is helpful to look back and remember times when there were no boundaries, no masks but new music, new styles, and a whole generation connected.

And to that, I’ll say the best year that’ll never happen again was 2016.

For some, this could be a complete disagreement, but you cannot deny the sheer intensity that 2016 brought. The happiness Lil Uzi Vert’s double album year brought to not just young teenagers but parents, elders, and every age demographic in-between. Or the odd and gruesome jokes of Sausage Party that brought a whole new type of comedy to the screen.

2016 was a year that felt different, many of us who were starting high school and those who were already a year or two in understood the shift in society that 2016 brought. We saw monumental changes in attire, making ripped skinny jeans and a faded haircut the outfit of the year. We saw the release of music bless our ears every weekend. To make it even better Harambe becomes a household figure, Stranger Things consumed a lot, if not all your time. It was a year that we would later find out we would never have again.

The style of 2016 brought out some of the wildest and coolest trends we still see today. From the adoption of a flannel shirt over a basic hoodie to graphic band tees. The roots were planted in 2016 and we took off running with it. Though some trends and clothing have been staying like: flannels over hoodies and jogger pants, we are also able to see some trends go in the past 6 years and thank goodness they did. Some of the trends leaving within the last years are brands and products like Kayne West’s Yeezy shoes and unnecessary long T-Shirts with purposeful holes in them. The world of streetwear brought some great products but also left us looking like customizable characters from a video game.

Now that we have grown in the past 6 years it is safe to say it’s good to see those styles and products move on and watch your closet mature with a slow but collectively growing “business causal” section in your wardrobe.

Much like the clothing, the music of years prior had been thrown to the back of the closet and forgotten. Unlike clothing, the music of 2016 is something we can all appreciate.

Whether you’re a fan of rap, country, or alternative, the singers, songwriters and producers of 2016 deserve an award for some of the most timeless songs in history. Of course, we have names like Drake, and Kayne West, Lil Uzi Vert, and Future featuring the Weeknd – what kind of a year would it be without those names? But we had also were gifted Florida Georgia Line for the warmer months of the year, and some Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert to let us envision a beach with a nice refreshment in our hands. The world of music was propelled into orbit in the year 2016.

Perhaps the most special thing about music in 2016 was we all collectively agree that G-Eazy was a monumental artist, which looking back now makes me question other decisions we’ve made. But Chance the Rapper also created tunes that would make your brain itch as you turned on that iPhone 7 and hit the rewind button repeatedly. We all had good taste in music, It was almost as if it was impossible to like “bad” music then, because there was no such thing.

The more I begin to reminisce on the good times, the more it comes evident that another 2016 won’t happen again. We as a society as a generation bonded over the simplest things, like photoshopping Drake’s “Views” album onto a random assortment of things. We conjoined as a society and took on anything the world threw at us. And sitting in 2022 I realize now that the Zika Virus in 2016 was just like an introductory video to what was to come, and we all disregarded it. Then there was the presidential election which probably lost us some friendships, but we were able to disregard political views and still manage to be a close-knit society

What I am trying to convey to you is a society bonded memes and clothing and music; a society saw political disagreement, and illness was generationally different from what we are seeing now here in 2022. The year of 2016 understood the inside jokes, understood how to laugh, understood how to be inclusive and how to help one another.

Yet we have started to drift away from what we once were, and I fear it’ll ever happen again. Though we are told not to look back and focus on the future, I can’t help but say; I miss you 2016.