BSR Web Staff: Best Of 2010’s

Photo credit: pastemagazine.com

The 2010’s will come to an end in about a month and a half. It’s the decade where most of the BSR Web Staff grew up in, so they decided to write about their favorite year from this decade.

Reegan Saunders

The 2010’s saw record-breaking numbers in mass shootings, countless environmental disasters due to climate change and the election of a racist, sexist hypocrite as president. However, the 2010’s also meant the rise of the Cronut, the creation of Airpods, the unexpected reunions of countless bands and more phenomenal music releases than we could have ever asked for. This is the decade that most of us went through middle school, high school and college. For me, the 2010’s meant change, finding out who I am and where I stand on this earth. The culmination of this growth resulted in the whirlwind that 2019 came to be arguably the best year of my existence so far. Here are the reasons why. 

1. I have gone to over 30 concerts this year(some being major music festivals such as MoPop while others were tiny house shows). I went to Mopop with two of my best friends, which was a life-changing experience in itself.
2. I further developed my love for photography and music journalism.
3. I went to Paris, France with my mom!
4. New music was released by Wallows, YUNGBLUD, The Raconteurs, Rex Orange County and King Princess!

Brandon Lewis

The decade that I essentially grew up in is now almost over. This decade means a lot to me. I made new friends, experienced new things and found myself as a person. However, if there’s one year in the 2010’s that sticks out to me the most, it’s 2016.

I know a ton of people think 2016 was the best year of this decade, and I can’t argue. For me personally, it felt like nothing could go wrong for me that year. It was my best year in high school by far. A lot of my “high school friends” were a year older than me, so my junior year felt like my senior year. I also didn’t have one bad teacher junior year, and I got straight A’s for the first time since the last quarter of eighth grade.

 I got to witness my first ever sports championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers overcoming the Golden State Warriors in unprecedented fashion. I got to see the Indians go to the World Series for the first time in my life, and even though they blew a 3-1 lead to the Chicago Cubs, I still will contest that Game 7 was the GOAT of baseball games. My favorite team in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles, drafted Carson Wentz in the 2016 NFL Draft, and they hired Doug Pederson after firing Chip Kelly. I don’t need to explain anything more about why those moves were so good!

Finally, my love for country music grew even stronger. Artists like Florida Georgia Line released new songs, and people like Jason Aldean, Cole Swindell and Dustin Lynch started to break out into my playlist. 

Rory Larrison

Looking back, it seems that 2012 was the closest we’ll ever get to a peaceful society. Besides the common fear that the world would come to an end(and who knows, maybe it did, maybe it didn’t– debate amongst yourselves…), the general American public seemed much more unified and supportive of each other. Pop culture staples like Psy’s “Gangnam Style”, One Direction, The Hunger Games and Honey Boo Boo rose to prominence and brought together people of all generations.

The Red Bull Stratos literally broke barriers when Felix Baumgartner free fell from the edge of space. The London Olympics brought families and friends around the television to watch their favorite athletes compete live. And most of all, Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” inspired thousands of car-dancing videos for everyone, from families to entire baseball teams. So although for me personally, the best year of this decade was 2018-2019, the nostalgia and unity supplied by 2012 makes it the best of the decade. May she rest in peace.

Nolan Shumate

After trying to figure this out, I’m afraid most of my identity as a person resides in who I was during 2016. So, to avoid exposing myself to the merciless goons of the internet, we’re gonna talk about the criminally underrated 2015. While it might feel like an eternity ago, 2015 gave us a lot of good honestly. We got the birth of a new Star Wars trilogy, which regardless of how you feel about Episode VII, gave us Daisy Ridley swinging a lightsaber and put Han Solo back on a movie screen, which are both huge wins in my book. Game of Thrones was operating at the peak of its powers, the world suddenly cared about stage productions when Hamilton was making its run at world domination.

We still believed the phrase “President Trump” was a punchline, Spotlight proved that a movie of people sitting around reading books can be cool, Fantastic Four proved that superhero movies aren’t bulletproof, LeBron James swung the Cavs from a state of bottoming-out to a state of “Finals or Bust”, AND same sex marriage was legalized nation wide.

We got some of my favorite tunes as well! Courtney Barnett dropped her debut studio album and skyrocketed up my “Favorite Austrailians” list, Sleater-Kinny came back with an absolute rocket-punch of an album and D’Angelo decided to visit us earthly peasants once more with Black Messiah.

Don’t underrate 2015! it gets better the more you look into it!

Oh, and the dress is *still* white and gold. 

Zac McDowell

After looking back on memories of my past, I have discovered that I have undergone massive changes as a person this decade(obviously because I started the decade in 5th grade, but that is beside the point). The best year for me personally was 2016.  Not to sound sad or anything, but I truly believe that this was the last time that I was truly happy. 

Friends were all happy around me as well, the summer was the best summer I ever had and senior year of high school was starting up in the fall. Something was in the air that year and I just want that aura back. Yes, it was a politically tense year, but I am not looking at that.  I am talking about my personal experiences.

DiCaprio finally won an Oscar and amazing films came out that year like Moonlight.  Games like Stardew Valley and Overwatch hit gaming like a storm, and I had not a care in the world except when my stupid high school assignments were due.  Honestly, there really isn’t much I can say regarding this year, but everyone in my circle of friends from back home will agree that 2016 is the best year of this decade.