Why 2012 was a stinkin good year.

If I've learned one thing from the little life experience I have it's that doing what everyone else is doing can rarely go wrong. So I've decided that I too should write about what made 2012 a great year for me and the general popular of our planet Earth. Surely, the year 2012 consisted not only of joyous occasions and promising developments. On the contrary, some of the events of 2012 would rather be forgotten by many. The young lives lost in the Connecticut shooting, half of Europe and the world in general still struggling with the economic crisis, resulting in way too many hungry, homeless people. There was also hurricane Sandy, destroying thousands of homes and of course one of 2012's most popular songs, "Gagnam Style" which proved that there are in fact 1 billion idiots out there all willing to watch Korean pop singer PSY strut his shit. Just kidding about the last one, but in all seriousness, while all of these negative events of the year should be taken into consideration, I have to say that 2012 was a pretty good year, and here are, in no particular order, 11 reasons why:

1.We're all still alive

Despite the world being scheduled to end on December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan calendar, most of us are still on this Earth, whether we like it or not and in my opinion, that's a reason for a toast: Here's to the human race being way stronger than the apocalypse.









2.Instagram

        Granted, instagram has been around since way  
        before 2012 but I feel like it bloomed most in 
        the   past year. While there has been some
        controversy about their privacy policy and 
        whether it's an app worth using at all, let me just  
        tell you- instagram rocks. And if you disagree, 
        you probably don't.









3.Leather Everything

And I mean everything. Leather skirts, leather pants, leather dresses, leather sleeves, leather boots...I could go on all day. Leather has been a major staple in every fashion-conscious person's wardrobe this past autumn-winter and I too have been a loyal follower.







4.Felix F*****g Baumgartner

Must I say more...? An inspiration to all of us lethargs out there.









5.Romney isn't president of the US.

Now, while I am not a citizen of the United States of America and aren't really entitled to a political opinion what their system is concerned, I for one am glad that Obama was chosen president for another four years and so is more than half of the US population.

6. Travelling is also cool.

Another thing, definitely not related to 2012, but highly popular the past year was travelling. And travels were also a big part of my 2012. Travelling, in my opinion is one of the greatest gifts a person can give themselves, and after a summer of Berlin, Switzerland, Rome, New York and LA and a sweet ending to the year bag in the mountains of Switzerland, I can safely say that travelling was in fact one of the highlights of the preceding year.

7.The Big Screen

Let's also not forget some of 2012's contributions in entertainment, more specifically cinematography. 2012 was a year of big titles such as the highly awaited addition to the Bond series with Skyfall or something a little  more in the fantasy area of the movie scene with The Hobbit which as amazing as it may have been also consumed three tiresome, long hours of my life I'll never get back. 

8.Cro

While I understand that most of you reading this probably are neither German speaking nor under any German influence, I need to add one of my favourite musical obsessions this year which surprisingly is an ultra cool, panda-mask wearing German rapper called Cro who only rose to fame this past Summer 2012 and only released his first album this Fall (hipster much?). He only entered my sphere of interest in the last month of the year, enrapturing me with his uplifting but still pretty well thought-out lyrics and beats ( Forget Eminem, this guy's lyrics are meant to make your day a little bit brighter). Definitely worth a listen even if you might have to google translate some of those lyrics ;)

9.Finger Bling

And not in the form of diamond rings. Again, another late addition to things that made 2012 pretty cool (and most probably one of the least important ones) lies in the beauty department-glittery freakin nail polish yO. And this one is for the girls because I'm sure that more than at least half of you, and If you're a guy, half of the women at this years Christmas parties, were sporting this  version of nail-bling. Besides, a girl needs a little glamour from time to time and not everyone's wallet is permanently expandable.

10. Animal Pelages 

Let's not forget the fuuuur. Another fashion component of 2012 (sorry boys) was of course faux fur or  real fur if you can afford it, that is…Until you can, let's just stick to the faux stuff which looks equally cool and definitely completed a number of outfits this past year. From fur collars to coats to fur trimmed cardigans or fur vests, the outer part of hair covered mammals has been big this year, and I don't mind it at all.  You PETA advocates can also shut your trap cause I definitely will not be sporting the real stuff anytime soon. 

(accompanying image totally stolen from http://cablook.design42day.com/)  

11. The Food

Last but not least one of 2012's biggest culinary trends in my opinion, has been the movement of vegetarianism. It seems like more and more people I know, hear or read about seem  to be cutting meat out of their diets. While some of the nutrients meat contains have been proven to be essential in our diet, I believe that there are other ways to replenish those, even if you have to eat some foods you normally wouldn't touch. But that's the price of cutting out meat. Never having been a huge meat-lover I decided to halfway take on this trend, only eating meat every now and then, If I really feel like it. This has shown me how many other delicious foods the Earth has to offer and has made me a lot more creative what cooking is concerned. Even if you thought your mom was a crazy person when you were little, she was right all along,veggies are indeed not only healthy but also quite delicious.