A lot has changed in a year. The entire world has changed. Many will tell you that 2025 has been full of bad stuff—the media, for example.

Tune in to the news. You will see footage of explosions, nuclear weapons, and random acts of reality TV. But if you look deeper, you’ll see good peeking through the surface.

For starters, on September 12, Betty Kellenberger made history by becoming the oldest woman to complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

Betty began her hike, amazingly, almost immediately after knee replacement surgery. She traversed muddy bogs, snow, cold rain, and impossible rocks.

After completing her hike she told reporters, “I decided the Lord must love rocks because He made so many of them.”

Betty Kellenberger is 80 years old.

Also, Americans are making true progress in the fight against technological slavery. As of December, 35 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., have enacted laws effectively banning student cellphone usage in classrooms.

Now, if only we could get Congress to ban speakerphone calls in supermarkets.

Also, this year, Japan elected its first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, shattering a centuries-old glass ceiling.

Takaichi is turning out to be a real go-getter, saying she sleeps two hours per night, “four hours at the longest.” Her first words in office were: “I will abandon the idea of a ‘work-life balance’—I will work, work, work, work and work.”

Takaichi’s husband has likewise pledged to abandon the “work-life balance idea” and commits to playing significantly more golf.

The world also got its first American Pope, Robert Francis Prevost. Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago, raised in Dolton, Illinois, and he roots for the White Sox. Unfortunately, there is a conflict of interest inasmuch as God is a Braves fan.

Either way, Pope “Bob” is a regular guy. That’s why people love him. He watches movies. Makes jokes. And shortly before participating in a holy ceremony in the Sistine Chapel, the Pope was seen by several cardinals—really—playing Wordle on his phone.

The Pope told reporters, “I use a different word for Worlde every day, so there’s no set starting word.”

This past year also saw major medical breakthroughs. Particularly in the treatment of blindness.

Herculean advances in gene therapy, optogenics, and wireless retinal prosthetic implants are already partially restoring vision in some.

The PRIMA subretinal implant is a two-part device consisting of a small camera, mounted on a pair of smartglasses, capturing images and instantaneously projecting them via infrared light to a wireless chip embedded within the eye.

And, in case you were wondering, violent crime is lower than it’s been in decades. A lot lower, actually.

The U.S. homicide rate, in only one year, has dropped by 20 percent. There have also been significant drops in committed crimes, such as rape, robbery, aggravated assault, vehicle theft, burglary, and pop-country rap.

In ecological news, a recent study of Yellowstone National Park revealed that the migration of 5,000 bison across the park’s grasslands is successfully restoring ancient patterns, reshaping the landscape to pre-civilization conditions. A feat which, 20 years ago, ecologists would have told you was impossible, after which they would’ve told you to refill their vegan beers.

I could go on and on.

Heart attack deaths dropped by nearly 90 percent since 1970.

Green sea turtles were removed from the endangered species list—global population has increased by 30 percent.

Misty Combs, a Kentucky registered nurse, saved a drunk raccoon by administering CPR.

A new therapy is capable of slowing Huntington’s disease. For the first time in history, treatments have slowed progression by nearly 75 percent.

After almost 20 years off the air, “Reading Rainbow” is back on television.

Nine Guam kingfishers—previously extinct birds—were released into the wild. The species has not been seen since 1988.

The Antarctic hole in the ozone layer has shrunk to its smallest size in three decades.

A doctor in London discovered a way to successfully treat brain cancer in infants.

Advances in finding a cure for HIV were made by Melbourne scientists who found a groundbreaking way to force the virus out of hiding.

So a lot has happened, as I say. But if you ask me, the best news of this past year isn’t found in the headlines. Neither is it found in all the amazing advances, nor the wondrous beauty humanity is capable of. To me, the best news of 2025 is that you’re still here.

I love you dearly, whoever you are.

Happy 2026.