Forget Trump, forget Brexit, forget it all!
I have a new story to tell you today - and that's about the way in which young people are taking matters into their own hands and shaping the future of the world they'd like to see.
2016 has certainly been a bumper year for the markets, the economy, politics and for the global stage in general. Shock results from elections and referendums, two major outcomes in particular, have made for a rocky time and much uncertainty. But for me, one thing does remain certain, and that is the power the now generation have to not let external factors derail them from their journeys to success and social change.
I spoke to Mx Jacob Thomas, LGBTQIA+ human rights advocate and Queen's Young Leader of Australia. These words really sum up what I want to say: "It's easy for young people to be disillusioned, to feel worthless and hopeless, to have that pit of grief sit deep and heavy in our stomachs. We know that feeling of despair, the one that makes us feel overwhelmed and empty, all at once with no recourse for cure or relief. There are many of us who are feeling this in multiple, knowing that there are people who are voting on issues of global magnitude to silence and hurt us because of who we are. It's easy to want to run, to hide, to bury our heads in the blissful sand of ignorance and hope it's only a bad dream which we will wake from; sweaty and gasping. We need to mourn these times so we can feel after we have been struck by petrifying numbness. We need to breathe deep and call on our courage to accept that generations before us may not have voted with us in mind - perhaps with purposeful arrogance that we, supposedly, don't know enough. But we do know. Young people are the catalyst that a pained world needs to start becoming stronger, unified, and persistent so that we may once again fight the injustices that we have been brought into and are frankly sick of. To the young people of the world, know that you are powerful and important. You can do this."
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said this week that we need to build bridges, not walls, and he is right. The more we focus on the differences and issues in our society, the less time we spend on actually making a difference to build connections and make the world better.
Why waste our time slinging mud across television networks just to win votes?
Why spend time criticising the government and ripping apart policies you don't agree with?
Why not spend time taking positive action to secure your position in the world and bring others with you?
The journey of change is one of both peaks and troughs, but whether you stay in those troughs and dwell on outcomes sometimes which are bigger than your direct control, is really up to you.
If you're a young person reading the news today and feeling gloomy about the type of world we're going to inheret - do not fear, for there is an army of young changemakers out there fixing problems and making the world better. Join them.