So, we all know that the world is a little crazy right now. “A little” might be an understatement. Globally, the U.S. is at war with Iran, gas prices are still rising, there was a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship and the Epstein Files are a thing that exist.
In school news that isn’t really news to anyone, graduation is coming up for all of us seniors in high school, including yours truly, which, as exhilarating and exciting as it is, can be sad and stressful as we all end our high school careers. And that’s not to say that no other high school student is stressed out. Finals are coming up and AP tests just passed. As stressful and fast-paced as all this is — and it is — that makes us forget things that make life more bearable. I will be honest: I’d forgotten about most of this stuff because of how stressful life is right now. And I’m probably not the only one. So, here is a recap of the less stressful things that have happened so far in 2026.
The New England Patriots played the Denver Broncos in January at the AFC Championship, where QB Bo Nix injured his ankle. The Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl to play against the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl with a final score of 29-13. But, let’s be real, if Bo Nix hadn’t injured his ankle during that AFC Championship game, it might have been the Broncos playing against the Seahawks in that game.
Bad Bunny also performed at the Super Bowl halftime show this year, with 128.2 million viewers in the U.S., the fourth-most-watched halftime show in history. At the Grammy Awards, Bad Bunny also won Album of the Year and Best Musica Urbana Album for his album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS and Best Global Musical Performance for his song EoO.
Speaking of global events, the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics were held in February, with Colorado holding the record for the most athletes sent to compete — 36. The athletes from our home state won nine total medals. Five of those medals were gold. Thirty-three total medals were won by Team USA, and almost half of the gold medals won by Team USA were won by athletes from Colorado. In the Paralympics, three Team USA athletes from Colorado won gold medals; Noah Elliott in para snowboard, Brett Bolton was on the gold-medal-winning Team USA men’s hockey and Sydney Peterson in skiing.
More on the topic of sports: basketball season. It’s my favorite season because this season brings madness. And by madness, I mean March Madness. Most people, if not watching the games live, were at least following along with this tournament, and, like almost every basketball fan at the beginning of March, created a bracket in hopes that maybe, just maybe, they would have the perfect bracket.
That didn’t happen. Every single bracket got absolutely destroyed almost immediately. It’s called March Madness for a reason, after all. And this year especially, the tournament lived up to its name. There were so many upsets right off the bat leading up to some major three point shots later on, including that impressive quasi-half-court shot made by UCONN freshman Braylon Mullins in the Final Four game against Illinois. However, Michigan ended up winning the national championship with a final score of 69-63, stripping two-time defending champion UCONN of their title. This was only the second time Michigan has won the championship (their first national title was from 1989). I’m a UCONN fan. But even I was less sad about UCONN losing the championship when I found out they lost to a school that had just earned their second national basketball title.
The University of Denver Men’s Hockey Team also won the Division 1 hockey tournament, earning them their 11th national championship title.
Lastly on the topic of sports, the FIFA World Cup is scheduled for this June, and every soccer fan from every country competing is anticipating this.
Well, that was a lot of sports talk, but that’s definitely not all that has happened in 2026.
I mentioned the Grammys earlier in this column. That was an eventful night. Some Grammy winners other than Bad Bunny included Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar. Justin Bieber was nominated in a few categories, but he didn’t win any. Probably a good thing, because his current and past controversies have accumulated and are floating around him like the Ghost of Bieber Past. Bieber’s performance at Coachella this year is some of the latest controversy. He got paid $10 million to be on YouTube for that performance. It was immediately met with backlash from everyone, because the performance was “lazy.” And, for the record, that performance was like the equivalent of showing up to class just because you have to on the last day of senior year.
The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah also hosted the Grammys for the last time this year. He made a lot of jokes over the night, all of them funny, but some landed him in hot water with the Trump administration. Released shortly after the Grammys, his most recent Netflix special, “Joy in the Trenches,” talks about this controversy.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope that this column took your mind off of the political and global chaos that is surrounding us right now.