I have never seen so many people take to Facebook at the end of the year and start whining and complaining. “2016 Enough already!” “OMG I can’t take any more of this year!” “You think 2016 was bad, just wait until 2017 and the next 4 years.” “Oh my heart can’t take anything else this year,” and on and on and on.

What is everyone whining and complaining about, you ask? The plethora of celebrity deaths. Add to this the half of Americans that are still whining about Donald Trump being our President Elect, and we’ve got a huge cry fest going on. Don’t get me wrong, it’s sad to read about the celebrity deaths and it is tragic for their families and friends. I also am not a fan of Donald Trump being the leader of our country, but you won’t find me whining about these things on Facebook. My heart isn’t crushed because of the celebrity deaths. My heart hurts for their families, but my family was not broken, so I know the true realities of my 2016 and am not pretending to have someone else’s heartache.

It’s hard to read about death. It puts life in perspective for us all. It’s short and it can end at a moments notice. It’s a reality check for sure to read about so many deaths, but let’s not deceive ourselves into thinking there were significantly more deaths this year, or that those deaths were more important. Any death is important. Every single person is someone’s child; someone’s family. Every death is heartbreaking. But let’s not pretend that our hearts are breaking, unless we lost someone close to us.

America, we need to grow up and stop living on social media. Live your own lives. You are not devastated because of a celebrity death. That persons family is devastated and it is completely selfish of you to be acting like you even come close to feeling the devastation and sadness that they feel.

It is so embarrassing to think of all of the people out there that are acting so broken over this year, when there are actual parents that lost children this year. There are parents that lost a child to an alligator (that instead of showing empathy for, you all ridiculed), parents that fought and lost their little one to cancer, parents that lost their child to gun violence, sisters that unexpectedly lost their brothers, and on and on. There is a woman waiting to become a mom and her dreams keep getting crushed month after month. Those people are heartbroken this year. Those are also the people that aren’t taking to social media to whine and complain about their losses. Surprisingly those people seem to be the strong ones that are managing to continue to be positive through it all- through their real heartache and real devastation.

Why does it take celebrity deaths to get our attention? Where are the whines and complaints like this at the end of the year about school shootings? Why does this “heartache” only come after a loss of important celebrities? Wake up America. Donald Trump isn’t the problem- we are. We are a bunch of whining, complaining, easily offended people that take to social media to cry. Figure out the changes that you want to have happen and make them happen. Stop pretending to live someone else’s life. Stop pretending that some random thing that goes viral is at all important. Hug your kids, love your family, be the change you want to see happen. Be positive in 2017. Make your resolution be to not just bitch about the problems, or change your Facebook profile picture to “support” some cause… but actually do something to help the cause. Save your energy up for the time that you do have real loss in your life. Because, newsflash, unless you were Carrie Fisher’s mom or a close friend or family to her, you are not devastated. You are saddened for their loss.