Coming to the end of a challenging year, let’s see if there were also some shining lights to help us trudge forward. Here is a list of 20+ reasons to celebrate:

• OneGoal is helping teens in Chicago to finish high school and complete a year of trade school. The program started as an afterschool program for 23 students and now serves 15,000 nationwide.
• Women came back into the labor force in 2023 after 800,000 left at the height of the Pandemic—moving into higher-paying jobs. The gender pay gap is at an all-time low. American women working full time still earn just 84 cents for every $1 men earn, but that’s up from 78 cents a decade ago.
• The Camfed program has educated 1.8 million African girls, including 8,000 girls in sub-Saharan Africa in 2023. Women are the kick-starters of home-based small businesses in their countries.
•  Finland joined the North American Treaty Organization (NATO), which will give Ukraine another ally thanks to the agreement with Turkey to let the Scandinavian country join. Sweden’s request is next up, but no doubt Russia will put an even stronger squeeze on Turkey and others in an attempt to prevent another pro-US entry. Who knows what piece of bounty Turkey might have gotten to achieve this important strategic goal?
• The hole in the ozone layer is shrinking. (Slowly, don’t go crazy and drive faster; set your heat higher in the winter or at a lower temperature in the summer!) The CHIL United Nation’s trackers indicate by mid-century—that’s 26 years away—it could recover to 1980s levels.
• The United States expected a recession in 2023 to take away jobs in exchange for a drop in inflation. Instead, over 2.5 million jobs were added while inflation slowed (not enough to please everyone). Egg prices are back to $2 a dozen after soaring to $4 at one time due to a disease that infected hens but impacted shoppers needing this kitchen table staple.
• In the 19^th century, nearly 50% of children worldwide died before they reached age 15. In 2023, the United Nations Population Division projects the world reaches a low in global child mortality, with just 3.6 percent of newborns dying by the age of 5. While this is excellent news, serious work remains to address the causes, care, and delivery of pregnant black women, who die in childbirth at 2.6 times the rate of white mothers.
• Polio is expected to be eradicated worldwide by 2024, thanks to the efforts of Rotary International over decades. There were just 12 cases in 2023. The polio vaccine helped my generation avoid paralysis, living in steel iron lungs, and walking on crutches. This generation might need a reminder of the scourge they missed.
• CRISPR, a gene-editing technique, has begun to treat sickle disease and blood disease. Sufferers require hospitalization and blood cell transfusions, often when the temperature outside changes to hot or cold. Researchers are now looking to apply what they have learned to other gene-based diseases.
• Four Columbian kids survived 40 days in the jungle, aged 13, 9, 4, and 1. They survived a plane crash that killed their mother and were rescued by the Columbian military on June 9.
• Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour is expected to draw $2.1 billion worldwide. Taylor Swift’s Era Tour: $1.4 billion from touring and merchandise, enlarging their status as an American icon. Both women have been recognized, along with Alicia Keys, for writing eight #1 songs on the Billboard 100.
• Americans are traveling again—the number of air passengers—domestic and international are at pre-pandemic levels.
• The leading cause of blindness worldwide, Blinding trachoma, is near 0. In 1996, the United nations aimed to eradicate the disease by 2020 by helping provide clean water, relieving overcrowding, and improving sanitation. The numbers were 189 million sufferers in 2014 and 105 million in 2022. Now, the target has been set for 2030.
• Another win over disease has come with just 13 cases of the painful Guinea worm disease in 2022. This water-borne, sub-tropical disease removed disabled village workers from the farms, sending children to the fields, away from school. In 1986, the disease infected 3.5 million people. Former President Jimmy Carter fought to defeat the disease, wanting to end it in his lifetime. We’re hopeful he will, making it the second after smallpox to be eradicated by cleaning water supplies and digging deep wells.
• Runners will commend the ability of Kevin Kiptum, a Kenyan runner, who set a new official record at the Chicago Marathon in October: 2 hours and 35 seconds. Or lament the bar has gone even lower!
• American diners are selecting climate-conscious meals that are good for them as well as the planet. They’re called “climatarians” or “climavores.”
• Many looted antiquities were returned. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is returning objects to Cambodia, Thailand, Turkey, and Greece. Thirty looted objects are being sent back to Italy by the California man who took them. The Museum of the Bible and Cornell University packed up 17,000 pieces and returned them to Iraq. The Smithsonian has agreed to give back to the families the “racial brain collection” acquired during the 19^th century.
• Gymnast Simone Biles came back and dominated the 2023 world championships and got a new fault named after her (The Biles II) so hard that nearly no one else, male or female, can complete it.
• California is drought-free for the first time in years after snow and tropical storms—the reservoirs are filled.
• We’re off the couch and back to the theaters! Thanks to movies like the pink-infused comedy “Barbie” and the less light-hearted “Oppenheimer,” a three-hour sit-down about the creation of the atomic bomb.

You may disagree with the ranking. Let me know or write your own list between watching football, eating tamales or lighting firecrackers!

Thanks to the Washington Post’s December 27, 2023: “No, 2023 wasn’t all bad, and here are 23 reasons why.”  And Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, December 23, 2023“This Was a Terrible Year, and Also Maybe the Best One Yet for Humanity.”