Let’s Not Forget These Early Days of 2018 (The Good Ones, Anyway)

It’s hard to believe, but it was just last week that James Corden shared his awesome “Carpool Karaoke” video with Paul McCartney with the world.

Less than a month and a half ago, we were all fighting about whether we heard “Laurel” or “Yanny.” (It’s Yanny. No question.)

Two and a half months ago, Desiree Linden won the Boston Marathon women’s race, by more than four minutes — even after stopping just over an hour into the race to wait while Shalane Flanagan went to the bathroom.

Less than three weeks before that, Brandon Victor Dixon’s performance blew us away in the live TV production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Black Panther, easily the best movie so far this year, came out just four months ago.

And a month before that, we were all cheering when the Minnesota Vikings staged an incredible comeback in the last minute of an NFL playoff game. (Unless you were a New Orleans Saints fan, that is.)

Yes, all of that happened this year.

Time moves so fast, and so much stuff happens every day, that it’s easy to lose track of it all. Especially when events like mass shootings and Supreme Court decisions and immigration debates and other Washington nastiness dominates headlines and social media chatter.

And sure, we should always keep our eye on those political events because our future depends on it. (Not to mention our present.) But if we’re able to, it’s important — for our own self-care — to celebrate and remember the good times. Some days we really need to.

So, in that spirit … When I look back on the first six months of 2018, I have a lot of good memories. There was all that I mentioned above, plus the fact that my dad had successful knee replacement and cataract surgeries; that I traveled to San Antonio, Las Vegas, Florida, New York City (three times), and elsewhere; that I saw multiple concerts and multiple musicals; that I was interviewed live (via FaceTime) by a Canadian news channel about the snow in Boston; that there were a lot of things that made me happy; that I got to spend time with some great people; and basically, that I tried to enjoy as much of my time as I could.

To help me remember all that, I put together a quick video recap of some of the highlights from the early days of 2018. (The good stuff, anyway.)

Enjoy!