We are now coming close to the end of 2017. It has been a very busy year. It has been a little crazy this year. We have seen many new things in the world. We have some reason to worry. But we also have reason to have hope too.

The beginning of 2017 was not so great. The most unpopular president in the history of the United States began his job. Mr. Trump was chosen by the American people, and every day from the beginning until now has been highly unusual. The actions that happen in America touch every country in the world, so that is a very serious thing. The good thing is that many countries in the world, for example Germany and Canada have decided to make stronger connections with each other, and not expect much from America in international relations.

This year, the world has had trouble with North Korea. There are missiles and promises of more missiles to come. We have some things to worry about, and I hope we can find some good solutions soon. The United Nations is doing its best to put pressure on North Korea, but we do not know if it is helpful or not yet.

This year we have seen some terrible violence. In America there were many people with guns who killed other people at concerts. Another concert in England was attacked by terrorists. It seems that there is too much crazy violence in our world, and many people do not feel safe in their own cities.

This year we have seen earthquakes in Mexico, Iraq and Iran, and hurricanes in North America and the Caribbean. Our planet continues to get warmer and governments are still too slow to respond to the problems quickly enough. We have both natural and environmental problems that need solutions.

There is increasing trouble with medical problems and not enough food in Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, and Nigeria. 20 million people are in trouble now, but there is not very much news about that area at all. Countries around the world will be too slow to help those people.

It seems that there were so many bad things that happened this year. It seemed that the world would be in a giant war again. It seemed that we had no hope for the future. But, we are still here. We did not have a giant war. We did not have troubles so big we cannot find solutions to them.

If we watch only the news we will feel that there is no hope for the future. But I think maybe we should not believe the news too much. Of course, we need to know the news and we should know what is happening in our community and country. We should know what is happening around the world. But we should not be afraid of the future. We should not think that we will all die or have some terrible trouble. The news reports sometimes are too noisy in how they report the news.

2017 was a strange year with many nervous feelings. 2018 is coming soon. But I think that next year will be a very good one for all of us. We will be in the next year together, and connected to each other. So, let us be hopeful and positive. Let us end 2017 with a good feeling, and promise each other and our neighbors and friends to make the next year a very ,very good year.

Thank you 2017. We are looking forward to 2018, and it is coming soon.