Donald Trump was inaugurated and the day after, the Women's March became the largest single-day protest in US history. And so began 2017.
It was also a year in which I travelled so much that I better plant a small forest. A year where 38 flights took me to Medellin, San Francisco, Aarhus, Shanghai, Reykjavik, Birmingham, New York, Geneva, and always back again. A year in which Leiden became a real place with great friends. A place to call home. It was also a year in which many wonderful trips to Paris came to an end, after the woman I thought I'd grow old with and I broke up. It was a strange year to do astronomy and try to find and understand planets than our own. Or could science, with its quest for pure knowledge rather than immediate impact, be more important than ever?
It may take many years to gauge, but there is no doubt that this year's populist toll is massive and extensive. It has been a year of believing we have truly reached the bottom, only to be surprised at how much deeper we could go. With a continuous attack on norms and values, it's hard not to normalize. It's hard not to shrug off what just a year ago would have caused outrage.
But there is also hope. A year ago, I feared a populist wave would conquer Europe. Geert Wilders did not win the Dutch elections. In France, Le Pen made it to the run-off but was soundly defeated - in Paris, arguably hit the worst by terrorism in all of Europe, her divisive message fell flat and she received only 10% of the voting share.
An entire generation that's never cared for politics or saw much of a purpose, is now awake for the social and political struggle of their lifetime. When I was ready to abandon hope, there was always a friend or stranger standing up for what is right. To borrow the words of Barack Obama, I tell you this not to lull you into complacency, but to spur you into action because there's still so much work to do.
Above all, I hope we will eventually remember 2017 as the year in which women claimed their voice as equals. A year in which we all became aware of the extent of injustice both large and small - an awareness that for some of our population led to empowerment empowerment long-overdue, and for others, including myself, to a somewhat embarassing confrontation with a mirror. In the end, through the brave voices that spoke up in 2017, the world will be a better place tomorrow and for generations to come. If that's what we take away from the past year, it was worth it.
Going in to the next, there are a lot of reasons to be worried, but at least as many to be hopeful. We may come to remember 2017 as the start of a darker time, or the start of a massive wave of progress. It's up to all of us. Happy 2018!
