Royal Wedding. Olympics. World Cup. Major Leagues Soccer Cup.  National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) landing on Mars. It may be hard to believe that all of these events and many more happened within this past year.

“This year has been so crazy. I forgot we had a[n] Olympics,” Bryanna Cali, freshman, said.

Over the past year, many popular memes have come, gone, and evolved. The year started off strong with the FBI agent who hides in your laptop camera watching to provide advice, comfort, or discipline . Not long after, the “Change My Mind” meme became popular, followed by “Savage Patrick,” “Yodel Boy,” “I Don’t Feel So Good,” and “The Polite Cat.” Most recently,“Surprised Pikachu,” “Thank U, Next,” and “They Did Surgery on a Grape” have swept the internet.

“The memes this year were definitely creative,” Helena Ash, freshman, said.

To some, music is a huge part of life, and 2018 was a year filled with melodies and headphones. Artists, such as Camila Cabello, Bebe Rexha, Post Malone, and Ariana Grande, stole the stage with their award winning songs. This years music experienced a growth in Korean Pop or commonly referred to as K-Pop. K-pop bands like,“Bangtan Boys” and “Twice” exploded in the United States, while other bands such as “Panic! At The Disco,” “Florida Georgia Line,” and “Queen” were also popular.

“I really enjoyed Ariana Grande’s new “Sweetener” album,” Jennifer Hernandez, senior, said.

On Dec. 6, YouTtube came out with this years YouTube Rewind. The rewind recapped some of the biggest trends on YouTube throughout the year, and in a span of three days the video collected over 6.8 million dislikes and only two million likes. Now it is the most disliked video on top of Justin Bieber’s Baby with over 11 million dislikes.  Fans were outraged that many of their favorite YouTubers were not included, such as PewDiePie, Shane Dawson, Thomas Sanders, and more. Many think this was definitely not an accurate way for YouTube to wrap up the year.

“I watched it [YouTube Rewind], and I did not like it. [. . .] They focused on Fortnite, which was a thing that was so three months ago. I did like some parts but overall it wasn’t good,”Abby Higgs, sophomore, said.

Although YouTube was not as strong this year, according to many fans 2018 was a great year for movies. The top two most popular movies in 2018 were, “Black Panther” and “ Avengers: Infinity War.” This year was also the start of a long line of a fast growing trend with sequels and remakes of older popular movies. Remakes such as “The Grinch,” “Mary Poppins,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Incredibles 2,” and “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” were produced.

“The movies that came out this year had a higher quality in animation then previous years,” Isaiah Huff, freshman, said.

As 2019 peers around the corner people reflect on this year’s good, bad, and ugly with hope that 2019 will bring an even better year with great opportunities.