In a similar vein to John's wearing Adidas because of a compliment years ago, I was told in high school by a female friend unprovoked "that shirt is amazing, green is your color, it really brings out your eyes" and a side effect of that compliment is my wardrobe is probably 80% green 20 years later. Compliments really are powerful things, that should be shared more often. So with that said, this is without a doubt my favorite yearly replayed video.
I said basically the same thing to my then bf now husband many years ago and last week I saw him covered in different shades of green (coat, hoodie, shoes) and only then slowly realized what had happened.
I was complimented on a red shirt years ago, and a large fraction of my shirts are red to this day. I try to spread compliments liberally, since I have recieved few. It never goes unappreciated when I compliment a person's choice in fashion.
One of the nicest compliments I got was when I first got together with my partner; he said I was one of the bravest people he'd ever met. After a lifetime of being assumed to be weak, naïve, incompetent and otherwise easily dismissed, it meant the world to me. I hold to it 10 years later.
"She is dead. The rare present tense sentence that, once it becomes true, it stays true forever." Jesus Christ, John, that set me back on my heels. I had to pause and take a second after that. Well done with that turn of phrase.
I remember him mentioning that in an old vlogbrothers video about Catcher in the Rye. Or maybe it was in the book. Either way, I remember it being a lovely video. It's nice to see how some thoughts have stayed with him for all those years.
Three years ago I was lying on my living room floor listening to this video, crying because it was New Year’s Day and my cat had been missing for 17 days. It had frankly been an awful holiday and hope that he was somehow still alive seemed foolish. It was time to say goodbye. Then, right when John took a breath during the story of the war truce, I heard a distinct meow. I thought I was hallucinating but scrabbled to the backdoor anyway. Where my emaciated cat pawed at the glass asking to come in. It might be the closest thing to a miracle I’ll ever experience, and I’ll take it. I know he likely got shut in some one’s shed mid-December when they were decorating for Christmas, and was lucky to be let out on New Year’s Day when my unknown neighbor was fortunately timely in putting away their decorations, but the timing was uncanny. This will forever be the John Green video that brought my cat back.
I’m a newer follower. Hank’s cancer diagnosis meant his videos were being pushed at me from every direction - as a cancer patient of ten years now, the algorithm hasn’t figured out the nuance of reciprocating trauma. I didn’t click on a single video until one day he was in remission. Then I ended up clicking on every video since, because now we all reside in the post-cancer limbo land of having lived through what you once felt couldn’t be lived through. I’ve accepted that life is lived one minute at a time, or one day, or for those doing really well, maybe it’s lived one week or month at a time. But it doesn’t matter what chunk of time you face at a time, because it always passes, and all we have left is the memory of how we chose to respond to the good and the bad. Be kind, my friends. Life is hard, and then you die.
Never thought of living life an interval at a time. I'm definitely lucky to currently get to live more than a minute or even a day at a time. But, that way of thinking definitely help put things in perspective and sort of help me brace for what the future might bring.
I'm spending New Year's in the psych ward this year following a mental health crisis, so "we're here because we're here" serves as an extra powerful and important reminder to me this year. Thank you, John and thank you, Amy.
You have a person you've never met rooting for you from this little corner of the world. Stay here, because we're here, because we're here, please. I am so glad you're getting the care you need.
A few weeks ago I got "we're here because" tattooed on my ankle because of how powerful and hopeful this message is. Thank you, John. Cheers to a better 2024 everyone
It's so beautiful to realize that the words of something can remain the same, but hearing them in different contexts, across many years, those words can take on new meaning. I first listened to this just a week after getting home from the inpatient treatment facility that finally pulled me out of a seven year addiction, and bawled thinking of my father whom I had lost to cancer 9 months prior. I listened again the following New Years Eve, belly swollen with my first child. A daughter, whom I was in love with before we ever met. I bawled with hope for her life and mine. A third time, last New Years, in the same bedroom I'm in now, a little lost and directionless, and bawled over the life I wanted to be living but was not. And now tonight, with my daughter curled up asleep by my side, I bawled with hope for my future once more. I'm starting school again in three days, still sober after all this time, and finally stable enough to rest easily. I've said this a hundred times before, but I'll say it again now. John, you've been such a significant part of my life for the past fifteen years, longer than anyone that's currently a part of my life, and its beautiful and wonderful to know that things like this can remain a constant through the ever changing tides of life. Through adolescence, young adulthood, first jobs and first losses, through addiction, through successes and failures .. we're here because we're here because we're here because we're here. Thank you.
I remember listening to this on the podcast for the first time. I was home for the holidays. Taking a bath and found myself singing along, alone in a bathtub followed by crying. I dont think I‘ve ever felt so vulnerable consuming a piece of media. Thank you, John. To another year. To Auld Lang Zyne.
I cried, lying alone on my bunk, listening to this. I'm passing this new year alone, while abroad. It didn't make me sad. It made me feel connected through memory and to a group of people that share your sentiments. Thank you for your beautiful and thoughtful words.
Last year I listened to this alone, this year I shared it with someone I love.. Everything is ephemeral, yet permanent, and frustratingly ineffably brilliant all at once. To quote the brilliant Adventure Time soundtrack, "everything stays, but it still changes, ever so slightly, daily and nightly, in little ways when everything stays". We're here because we're here.
No matter how many times I listen to this I am always caught off guard by the way the sudden tone switch with "how can this be happening, you do so much yoga" pulls me out of tears into a genuine laugh.
14:30 - I became best friends with a couple in college. A few years into living a dang good life, my friend called to tell me his wife who had been sick for the past 2 weeks was sicker than we thought, she had gone from work to the ER to a cancer facility after being diagnosed with leukemia. I was in the middle of his line of phone calls to make, and not realizing/knowing leukemia was a cancer at the time, I responded after the updates of the day - “Are you going to get checked out too?” - he laughed, told me thats not how cancer works, and after many dumb, stupid, jokey sentences we laughed and I fell against a cement pillar in the parking garage I was in. We told her a few years later, and its become quite the joke. In the middle of a dark day, random words gave laughter. Knowledge is power, but I feel it’s true as well of the bonds which create these stories.
Last year, I decided my 92 yr old grandpa would really enjoy the Anthropocene Review and bought it for him. He's a scholar of many things and times, something I have learned too. He rereads it every few months and reads parts of it to my grandma. They always have a good time reading it and thinking about things. I wonder if it helps my grandma since they don't talk about themselves too personally, but I know Grandma is tired and in pain. Anytime I hear excerpts or read it, I'll always think of my grandparents
My mother in law was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year in her 50s. I bought her The Anthropocene Reviewed for Christmas last year, because it contained the only bit of wisdom I found comforting during the whole ordeal--the bit about "your kids won't be okay, but they will go on, and the love you poured into them will go on." My husband read it at her graveside service this October. Anyway, I don't think I can watch this one this year.
This time of year, I’m constantly pointing out to friends that the melody to Auld Lang Syne is absurdly perfect for the theme of New Year’s Eve. It’s so filled with both longing and hope in a way that goes unequivocally hard.
as i sang with john i thought of the infinite number of us who would also sing with him, and thus each other. What a quirky, thoughtful and caring bunch we are together. Thank you for singing with each other!!!
My Aunt died this year. I don't know how to start the first year of my life that she hasn't been in. I've been trying to honour her, trying to include her into my Christmas traditions. I donated trees, her favourite type. And I made origami paper stars because they just reminded me of her so much, and it's something she would have done. She was, she is, amazing. It was hard, the first Christmas without her. I haven't figured out how to get my head around the fact that she won't be in any of my Christmases from now on. I read somewhere that someday we all become stories. And I thought that was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. This is the hardest loss I've ever been through and I am still very much in the thick of it - I don't want her to be a story, I want her to be here. I am in pain, but I am here. And I am hurting, but I am hopeful.
I believe that’s a doctor who, Matt smith era thing. Line went viral. Lost my dad this year it’s the inability to share those stories with him, that sucks
@@MrSlaidback I'm sorry you're going through that. That's what's floored me quite often - I keep thinking I'll be able to tell her all about this one day. And then it hits me again.
I will be spending New Year's in the NICU. I went into a routine prenatal appointment that I expected would take 20 minutes, but turned into being hospitalized for the remainder of my pregnancy. Plans quickly change as the schedule was pushed up. Our family experienced a very surreal Christmas with the parents in the hospital assisting with labor, leaving the siblings to celebrate on their own. We opened our stockings eventually but have not even wrapped the gifts for each other. Now we are parents, and Christmas will never be the same.
I encounter this for the first time just now. Thanks for tears of joy and recognition and loss. As I rouse from sleep and make coffee, get dressed, walk my dog, pick up some donuts and a friend, and drive to church I'll have some deep thoughts to think and feelings to feel. This year will be new in many ways.
Last New Year's Eve I was a cancer patient, forced to wonder if I would live to see next year's video. My husband & I held each other's hand, as we sang "We're here, because we're here" with you, tears of mutual terror & love running down our faces. Thank you for being with us; for letting us be with you in that moment. This year, my body is permanently changed, but I am alive & cancer-free. My husband held my hand and we sang and it is all so sweet and ordinary and more than I could have ever have hoped. May you be well, and may Hank be well, and may we Nerdfighters all be well.
I am so, so glad that you pulled through. May you see many, many more New Years, and may there be ever more reasons for you and those you love to be here.
I discovered this on New Year’s Eve 2021, and listening to it after the utterly draining experience of living through 2020 it brought tears to my eyes and a renewed optimism to my heart. It lead me to pick up The Anthropocene Reviewed, and I have since then recommended the book and especially this review to anyone with a big enough heart to take it in. It’s also become a tradition for me to play it once more every New Year’s Eve, by myself or with whoever I’m spending the evening with, and it’s never failed to make me emotional. I think this review, like John says of Auld Lang Syne, is genuinely wistful, a piece of art that understands human suffering without succumbing to it, and offers a more joyful alternative. Thank you for this review John, this year and every year.
RUclips helpfully recommended a re-watch for me on New Years Eve, 2023. I'm happy it did, and I hope to remember a year from now, and many years to come.
I lost my job this year and got a new one. The severance check may help me become a homeowner next year. My brother escaped years of suffering with a health condition that is now under control, and is rebuilding his life. I have much to be thankful for. So much. But more than thankful, I am hopeful. I am hopeful because despite all the bad in the world, I know what we are capable of when we set aside our differences and raise a cup of kindness for auld lang syne. Happy New Year's, Nerdfighteria. Love and light to you all.
I listened to this for the first time two years ago and while there are many memorable lines and lessons to take in, the one that sticks with me the most is “Don’t just do something, stand there”. I work as a social worker in a NICU. My job is to be there for people during one of the hardest times in their lives. Often things go well and the babies go home. But what do you say to someone whose infant is dying or unbelievably afflicted? In those moments this line comes back to me. In those moments they don’t need me to talk. What they so often need is someone to hold space for their grief and pain. They need someone to stand there.
I don’t know how many hours I spent writing my sermon for tomorrow’s worship service. And to think: I could have just played this video. I’m saving this, John, for another year.
@@michaelmannucci8585 Not that I have skin in the game, but so long as the flock cares to listen and follow the basic laws set forth by their shepherd, does he genuinely care the method? World's only getting older, approaches meeting the times are always necessary. The fact that you so much as comment on this video is blasphemous in certain sects claiming a God not too dissimilar to yours. My old man used to tell me that while the road to hell was paved with good intentions, the signage posted alongside it always proclaimed "Perfection x miles away".
@@michaelmannucci8585 Oh, no. Not deep at all. Don't let perfection get in the way of good. If someone wishes to preach with additional materials to hand, that isn't your problem. I don't foresee any reasonable God caring too much how people come to their kingdom, only that they find their way. Pretending your way is the only way to enlightenment is frankly ludicrous. Have a good year.
This was one of my favorite chapters in the Anthropocene Reviewed. We're here, because we're here, because we're here, because we're here. I am always struck by the melancholy of the original, but We're here because we're here is the one that makes me remember and weep while singing. Happy New Year, John. You have helped me in ways I'll never be able to repay.
Couldn't quite make it through the video. I lost my grandma and grandpa this year, and it's just so incredibly tough especially this time of year. I never realized just how deep Auld Lang Syne really was. Going to be a tough new years. Love the conversation here! Hope everyone has a wonderful New Years celebration.
You will always feel the love you had for them and the love they surrounded you with whenever you think of them! That still holds true for me even though my grandparents died half a century ago.
I heard this first when it was released on the podcast and years later it still makes me cry. I love how John and Hank spread hope and try to make this world a better place. I was practically raised by them and half of the reasons why I can find happiness and fulfiment in life are due to what I learnt from them. Whoever is reading this comment, I hope you can find hope, happiness and love in the coming year.
Hey John, I guess you’re never going to read this, but I wanted to send this out into the ether anyways. My grandfather passed on the 30th of December last year. We didn’t have the best relationship, but it still hit me very hard. I cancelled all my plans with my friends and as the clock ticked over into 2024, I sat on my parents living room couch, crying and hugging my dad so hard, it felt like I was trying to bring back that sense of childhood I had where the adults in my life never aged and were always going to be there for me. In hindsight, a ridiculous attitude to have for a child of a family of funeral directors. Since childhood, I grew up, moved out and went to medical school. I experienced many people die since, some going gratefully and some fighting death to their last breath, but nothing like this “review” of a song I have no cultural connection with has ever summed up both the grief and hope of death for me. Thank you, John, and I hope when I listen to this on New Year’s Eve this year, I will cry again.
Every year i have listened to this and every year i have laugh-cried at "...but you do so much yoga". It truly sums up how it feels to lose a friend too soon.
The one from I think last year with the crunching snow throughout still makes me cry every fucking time. Will watch this or some version of it every year from now until forever.
I woke up this morning from a dream where I hugged a dead loved one again. This has given me the space to grieve. I know it’s the repetition of modernity. But it’s also the soul fuel I needed.
I found myself singing "I'm here because" as a lullaby to my 3 month old today. Midway through I changed the lyrics to "I'm here for you" and felt bittersweet peace.
The immortal gestures that stay true forever from Auld Lang Syne reminds me of the time a few years ago when l went to see the Egtved Girl's burial mound. One of the placards read that she might have liked honey and kept bees, based on findings. And just then, a bumblebee flew by, one of my favourite animals. I thought of how she would have also seen a bee when she was alive, 3 millennia ago. That's the only time I've truly felt connected to history, and it was one of the most powerful feelings l've ever had.
This is where I let go of the year. Where I leave it's highs and lows, and where I start to look forward to another trip around our Sun. Another 365 days spent marveling at the miracle of human existence, looking at the trees, and trying to figure out where my place in this life really is. We're here, because we're here, because we're here, because we're here. That sentence - like many others - never stops being true. Each year, I come back here and weep silently. I hope that'll never change either. I give this video five stars.
Auld Lang Syne never ceases to bring a lump to my throat and your review expands upon that experience so beautifully. I lost my Ojiichan (grandfather) this year and the holidays have been difficult. He had a wonderful life though and put so much love into the people nearest to him. We're here because we're here because we're here because...we're here.
Often times we forget that we share a pain of surviving the years. With each one passing and each pain lapsing the other it is refreshing to hear the war cry “we are here because we are here”. We don’t have to do anything but exist, and what a beautiful form of retaliation that can be
Please never stop posting this. It always meant something, but now, I feel closer to my dad when listening. Thank you for such a beautiful review, John
This is my favorite chapter of book. I’m sorry your year is mentally ending for you John. I hope that you enter 2024 with hope and love. I hope that your 2024 is filled with peace and over whelming joy. Thank you for another year of keeping this community connected.
I sing "we're here because we're here" to myself every so often throughout the year. It makes me think of kindness, especially unbidden kindness. We're here because we're here, so why not be kind? Thank you for teaching it to me, years ago, at a preview show for the Turtles All The Way Down book tour.
I was in a fairly dark place last year when John uploaded this. Life isnt perfect, but I'm still here, and I'm here because I'm here, because I'm here. Happy New Year's everyone, hopefully we can continue into this new year so that we can continue to the next.
2023 hit me especially hard and I couldn’t be more glad that we got through it. This tradition is one of my all time favorites, I love spending time on either the last few days or first few days of the year listening to this. We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here
This has been one of the most difficult years of my life. It is hard to find hope. But we are here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here. And we have to keep going.
Since the original podcast episode came out, I listen to this each year close to midnight. I prefer to be somewhere alone and Journaling on new years eve because I almost never allow myself stillness throughout the year. Sometimes I just need to be reminded that I'm here because I'm here.
I have listened to this episode and chapter so many times over the years but this year it has so much more meaning. My wife nearly died this year from a mini stroke. I'm so so grateful that she's here because she's here ❤❤❤❤❤ I give this episode 5❤s
As every year, my first notes of quietly singing along are extra shaky because I'm fighting back tears. This year, I very much enjoyed the ducks' visit.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And ne'er brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days o' auld lang syne? (For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne, We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. ) (Chorus) And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp! And surely I’ll be mine! And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. We twa hae run about the braes And pu’d the gowans fine; But we’ve wander’d mony a weary feet Sin auld lang syne. We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn, Frae mornin’ sun till dine; But seas between us braid hae roar’d Sin auld lang syne. And here’s a hand, my trusty fiere! And gie’s a hand o’ thine! And we’ll tak a right guid willy waught, For days o' auld lang syne.
Thank you so much for including the lyrics ❤! Here’s a link to a wonderful traditional English-language Scottish rendition of the song for those who, like me, want to listen to the song after this video ruclips.net/video/xX47kd9L6oc/видео.html
It took me four consecutive listens before I could sing along at the end. I'm thankful that I got there, and for the journey. And for you, John, and for both of you, and for your brotherhood. I am deeply blessed by you.
I love singing this with you, every chance I get. I've sung this so often in the past, and will do so in the future, and so will you and have you, and so will and have so many others. We are a chorus across time and space: harmonizing with our past and future selves as much as we are with everyone else. We're here because we're here, John. Thank you ❤
I discovered this channel, this video, and this community this past summer, and was excited to finally be able to view this video in its proper context- at new year’s, thinking about the past. And suddenly, sadly, I am in the proper context in more ways than one- my grandfather passed away just a few days after Christmas, and thoughts turn towards that broad sea suddenly between him and us, and between all the departed and those who love them. I think about his love of poetry, and history, and literature, and the family that’s gathered to celebrate and grieve together, and the hope- the fact- that love survives when we do not. That we are here, because we are here, because we are here. Thank you for this. It’s a beautiful thing, in a very dark time.
I usually work a 12 hour shift Saturdays but this year the place where I work closed the 30th so Friday as I walked to my car in the parking lot and everybody had been saying happy new year all day I thought of the we are here because we’re here song from this it is bittersweet and I get emotional thank you for sharing this I appreciate it very much (sorry for lack of punctuation marks)
New Year's Eve is a trauma anniversary for me. Today is ten years since that trauma, and this year I lost my best friend, who was there with me, those ten years ago. I have listen to this episode every year since it came out, and it saves me a little bit every year. Thank you.
My favorite New Year's Eve party was December 31,1970, held at base housing (Andersen AFB) on Guam, with people from all over the U.S. during the Viet Nam war. Everyone, well, mostly the wives, had brought their favorite New Year good luck dishes and at midnight we all ran around with our spoons, tasting each to cover all the bases, and wishing each other the happiest and luckiest 1971✨
Its 11:18pm on New Years Eve and i lie alone in the bed i spent most of the year unable to lift myself up from thanks to this pain i suffer with no name. I hate this year, i hate the weeks of loneliness of being in this bed, I despise losing the career i spent my adult life searching for. I loathe the seas my broken body has let form between myself,friends, family and the man i hoped to be. But yet im here, despite being in the worse pit of despair i have ever had. Im still here. Still breathing, still holding onto the last of my sanity. Im here at the bottom, looking at the top because i know the hole aint getting deeper so until its filled i can hope i can work my way out of it as soon as possible. I'm here because we're here, because we're here, because we're here. Happy New Year John, here's hoping we can both get out of our trenches in 2024.
While I think I enjoy the Snow video mixed with the audio of snow crunching more this story has been such an incredible help to me when I’m feeling overwhelmed and lost. I’ve shared it with many people as I think the bittersweet nature of love and loss helps drive the mind from the darkest parts of itself by acknowledging that pain is often just the byproduct of great love and time spent. Thanks so much John for helping me grow into the person I want to be.
I showed this video to my husband when we were watching things together. I have talked about how I love the podcast and the book, but it was nice to be able to show somebody something, like, you can watch it together. He found it beautiful.
john- over the past few years, your review of Auld Lang Syne has become somewhat of a tradition for me. Every time I read or watch this essay, I feel like I learn something new. last year, it had me remembering all of the people who shaped me into who I am today. this year, as I look back on 2023, I'm reminded of the vast world around me. everyone has important people who shaped their lives. everyone has an Adidas story, or as I saw another commenter post, an 80% green closet because of a singular compliment. thank you for all of the videos you make, and I wish happiness and good fortune on you, and everyone who does or once did love you, without whom this video, this tradition, would not exist.
Damn. Aug. 8, 2008, was when I got hit by a truck and hospitalized for 3 months. I wasc13. Since then my life has never been the same. Thank you John for all of your wonderful work and contributions in this life. I am so happy I get to enjoy it in my lifetime. ❤❤
I listened to this when it first came out and found myself sobbing in the middle of a walk. All these years later, it still never fails to move me. Thanks, John.
Every year i cry over this same review. This year i feel like im crying the most over it. Sleeping at last put out a cover of this song i know ive listened to it once a day since it came out. Their cover came out 2 days after my bubby passed in November and 3 1/2 months after my tita (step grandmother passed) in july. The song just feels like home and dinner with family no longer here and i miss them so much
Thank you for this video, John. Some time early this year, I started watching all of the vlogbrothers videos in reverse sequential order on my days off. I work nights and needed something to keep my sleep schedule on track and my mind occupied. At a time when I desperately needed to hear it, I came to last year's version of this video. I don't know what clicked or changed in my brain in that moment, but I feel like it was a turning point in my life. It seemed like the colors of the world were a little brighter day by day and I could view people with bounds more empathy. I started dreaming again, both in my sleep and for my future. While mental illness will continue forever, that video became an invaluable tool in relieving some of that burden when the days felt dull again. I know the next few days will be filled with people repeating empty platitudes, like "new year, new me" or "it will be the best year yet," but I want to thank you for giving those phrases some actual hope for me. We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here.
Sometimes repetition is the opposite of hellish, like this podcast repeated each year. It's been a hell of a year for me and mine, just as for you and yours, but I find solace in the reminder that I am *here*, dammit. I am here. Thank you, John. I hope your new year is full of peace, and time to look at trees 💜
A few minutes into this, I remembered that I’d listened last year. This is still a new thing still for me. Pretty sure I cried last year, too. My best friend’s father -and godfather to one of my girls- died of cancer recently. I hadn’t kept in touch so the news was a surprise. I’ll go to the memorial in a few weeks & see my friend for the first time in years. Some of your words had more weight this time, thinking of Gerry, who died of cancer, and my mom, who’s survived it THREE times. Yet the love they’ve poured into us goes on, so they will go on, too. All the best for the coming new year. ~K
This episode has repeatedly deeply and profoundly moved me; I laughed, cried, and felt wistfully hopeful. The whole podcast has soothed my soul while also teaching and informed me, and for that I am very greatful.
Spending my last few minutes of the year singing along with John (and all of you, in a way) has become my favorite way to observe this holiday. Grateful to be here with this community.
This makes me cry everytime without fail. Also, completely accidentally, i timed this perfectly so i was singing "we're here because" with john at exactly midnight. Happy new year, Green family
This song... I can never make it through without crying. Hope and grief, thinking back to all the ones I've loved and lost, and thinking forward to all the ones I love that are still in life. I haven't seen the previous uploads, so I don't know what visual settings you chose for them, but this river flowing is perfect. (I admit, I got a little obsessed with watching the ducks, wondering how they'd deal with the mini-rapids coming up before them. Being ducks and therefore very practical, they dealt with the rapids by foraging, because they know all kinds of tasty things gather where the river's flow is interrupted.)
I actually didn't know the story of this song because I just started getting into your videos this year, but this song truly carries the emotion of every moment it has ever been central to. From that Christmas truce all the way to today. A song from an ether beyond time, truly. It blows my mind how you can consistently make me tear up, John, since the day I bought and fully consumed the Fault in Our Stars. (I also didn't know this was such a New Year's song either)
This is such a beautiful collection of stories, I'm close to tears on a train ride home to my parents. I'm grateful that I get to spend new year's in a safe home with people who love me
I have only met John once. And though we have paddled many of the same streams, there have ever only been oceans between us. And yet I’d like to think that he will someday, albeit unknowingly, speak at my funeral, for I will leave among my last wishes that this be played and sung, ducks and all.
I have sung this song with John many times having been around Nerdfighteria as long as I have. It never fails to make me cry. In the best way? I miss Amy and the beckoning of lovely and the many whimsical magical thoughts she turned to action. She is who I wanted to be when I grew up. ❤ happy new year yall. DFTBA
I found last year's iteration of the podcast earlier this year. I listen to it when life makes me forget that I am here, and that I AM here, and that I am HERE. John, the way you speak about your love for Amy makes me grateful to grieve someone I have never known and can never know. Your words remind me to live in love and in hope and in 12,395 trees and in flowers in dark alleys and in gifting mugging money clips and in being the reason someone wears the same shoes for decades. Auld Lang Syne made me cry when I was younger, before I had the words for futility and wistfulness and longing and resolve. I only knew that when I sang it, I was drowning in a beautiful sorrow, and in every drop of those roaring seas there was hope. Even if I do not sing that WE are here, and we ARE here, and we are HERE this year, I want to thank you for the annual reminder.
I listened to this last year and cried. This year, as a new Palestinian recipe is baking in my oven and a simmer pot bubbling on the stove to make the apartment smell nice, I listened faithfully to this wistful ode again. Towards the end, I turned off the lights, looked at Jupiter blazing alone in the dark sky, and, yeah, cried as per usual. The world is so cruel, but we must have hope that things will get better or we will never strive to make them so. We're here because we're here. Thank you, John & Hank, for keeping me going during a really hard point.
I’m currently writing the first draft of my first novel, and I’m in awe at your ability to write. I read looking for Alaska when I was in middle school, right after it came it. I hope one day to be even a fraction of the writer you are.
tonight I went down a rabbithole looking through my favorite old youtube videos from different creators, all of them now over a decade old. I get especially wistful and heartbroken over those that are long gone, deleted ages ago. I am still thinking of these song covers that various teenagers uploaded from their rooms so long ago now; I can't find them anywhere anymore. once upon a time, I had them saved as mp3 files on my computer and ipod. they were the soundtrack to so many of my important moments of my own teen years. I wish they could know that they are a part of me.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Ah, tradition.
It is our tradition now!
For auld lang syne!
Here because we're here because we're here
@@smeg0911 because we're here
@@JasonDivisbecause we're here
In a similar vein to John's wearing Adidas because of a compliment years ago, I was told in high school by a female friend unprovoked "that shirt is amazing, green is your color, it really brings out your eyes" and a side effect of that compliment is my wardrobe is probably 80% green 20 years later. Compliments really are powerful things, that should be shared more often.
So with that said, this is without a doubt my favorite yearly replayed video.
I said basically the same thing to my then bf now husband many years ago and last week I saw him covered in different shades of green (coat, hoodie, shoes) and only then slowly realized what had happened.
I was complimented on a red shirt years ago, and a large fraction of my shirts are red to this day. I try to spread compliments liberally, since I have recieved few. It never goes unappreciated when I compliment a person's choice in fashion.
A girl in my High School literature class complimented my reading voice. I still think about it over a decade later
A woman I worked with told me I smelled really good, so I haven't showered in the 27 years since
One of the nicest compliments I got was when I first got together with my partner; he said I was one of the bravest people he'd ever met.
After a lifetime of being assumed to be weak, naïve, incompetent and otherwise easily dismissed, it meant the world to me. I hold to it 10 years later.
"She is dead. The rare present tense sentence that, once it becomes true, it stays true forever." Jesus Christ, John, that set me back on my heels. I had to pause and take a second after that. Well done with that turn of phrase.
It still guts me. Even when I know its coming.
I remember him mentioning that in an old vlogbrothers video about Catcher in the Rye. Or maybe it was in the book. Either way, I remember it being a lovely video. It's nice to see how some thoughts have stayed with him for all those years.
Three years ago I was lying on my living room floor listening to this video, crying because it was New Year’s Day and my cat had been missing for 17 days. It had frankly been an awful holiday and hope that he was somehow still alive seemed foolish. It was time to say goodbye. Then, right when John took a breath during the story of the war truce, I heard a distinct meow. I thought I was hallucinating but scrabbled to the backdoor anyway. Where my emaciated cat pawed at the glass asking to come in. It might be the closest thing to a miracle I’ll ever experience, and I’ll take it. I know he likely got shut in some one’s shed mid-December when they were decorating for Christmas, and was lucky to be let out on New Year’s Day when my unknown neighbor was fortunately timely in putting away their decorations, but the timing was uncanny. This will forever be the John Green video that brought my cat back.
I’m a newer follower. Hank’s cancer diagnosis meant his videos were being pushed at me from every direction - as a cancer patient of ten years now, the algorithm hasn’t figured out the nuance of reciprocating trauma. I didn’t click on a single video until one day he was in remission. Then I ended up clicking on every video since, because now we all reside in the post-cancer limbo land of having lived through what you once felt couldn’t be lived through.
I’ve accepted that life is lived one minute at a time, or one day, or for those doing really well, maybe it’s lived one week or month at a time. But it doesn’t matter what chunk of time you face at a time, because it always passes, and all we have left is the memory of how we chose to respond to the good and the bad.
Be kind, my friends. Life is hard, and then you die.
"...the algorithm hasn't figured out the nuance of trauma". Oof indeed - well said.
Never thought of living life an interval at a time. I'm definitely lucky to currently get to live more than a minute or even a day at a time. But, that way of thinking definitely help put things in perspective and sort of help me brace for what the future might bring.
💚
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Well said and congratulations on still being here. ❤
Nothing is more powerful to me than the final “we’re here, because we’re here”
I get the chills just thinking of it at times.
I'm spending New Year's in the psych ward this year following a mental health crisis, so "we're here because we're here" serves as an extra powerful and important reminder to me this year. Thank you, John and thank you, Amy.
I hope you’re getting the help you need ❤ sending hugs and well wishes. You can do this.
Very, very best wishes to you
You have a person you've never met rooting for you from this little corner of the world. Stay here, because we're here, because we're here, please. I am so glad you're getting the care you need.
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The best is yet to come. DFTBA
A few weeks ago I got "we're here because" tattooed on my ankle because of how powerful and hopeful this message is. Thank you, John. Cheers to a better 2024 everyone
Heh, I'm eventually going to get it as a mobius strip likely around my arm. :)
It's so beautiful to realize that the words of something can remain the same, but hearing them in different contexts, across many years, those words can take on new meaning.
I first listened to this just a week after getting home from the inpatient treatment facility that finally pulled me out of a seven year addiction, and bawled thinking of my father whom I had lost to cancer 9 months prior.
I listened again the following New Years Eve, belly swollen with my first child. A daughter, whom I was in love with before we ever met. I bawled with hope for her life and mine.
A third time, last New Years, in the same bedroom I'm in now, a little lost and directionless, and bawled over the life I wanted to be living but was not.
And now tonight, with my daughter curled up asleep by my side, I bawled with hope for my future once more. I'm starting school again in three days, still sober after all this time, and finally stable enough to rest easily.
I've said this a hundred times before, but I'll say it again now. John, you've been such a significant part of my life for the past fifteen years, longer than anyone that's currently a part of my life, and its beautiful and wonderful to know that things like this can remain a constant through the ever changing tides of life. Through adolescence, young adulthood, first jobs and first losses, through addiction, through successes and failures .. we're here because we're here because we're here because we're here.
Thank you.
I remember listening to this on the podcast for the first time. I was home for the holidays. Taking a bath and found myself singing along, alone in a bathtub followed by crying. I dont think I‘ve ever felt so vulnerable consuming a piece of media. Thank you, John. To another year. To Auld Lang Zyne.
I can't begin to tell you how tear jerking this song is. I well up every time I hear it.
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I listen to this episode every year and every year I sob my eyes out, thank you John 🖤
This, exactly.
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I cried, lying alone on my bunk, listening to this. I'm passing this new year alone, while abroad. It didn't make me sad. It made me feel connected through memory and to a group of people that share your sentiments. Thank you for your beautiful and thoughtful words.
Come home soon!
wish you a happy 2024
I feel connected too. Thank you for being a part of this ❤
Last year I listened to this alone, this year I shared it with someone I love.. Everything is ephemeral, yet permanent, and frustratingly ineffably brilliant all at once. To quote the brilliant Adventure Time soundtrack, "everything stays, but it still changes, ever so slightly, daily and nightly, in little ways when everything stays". We're here because we're here.
@@grriotBeautiful. Thank you for sharing and happy 2024!
Haven't even watched yet, but every time I hear this episode I think both "What a great way to end the year" "What a great way to start the year"
My favorite New Year's tradition is forgetting about this until John posts it, and then crying as I whisper-sing along with him at the end 💙
No matter how many times I listen to this I am always caught off guard by the way the sudden tone switch with "how can this be happening, you do so much yoga" pulls me out of tears into a genuine laugh.
14:30 - I became best friends with a couple in college. A few years into living a dang good life, my friend called to tell me his wife who had been sick for the past 2 weeks was sicker than we thought, she had gone from work to the ER to a cancer facility after being diagnosed with leukemia. I was in the middle of his line of phone calls to make, and not realizing/knowing leukemia was a cancer at the time, I responded after the updates of the day - “Are you going to get checked out too?” - he laughed, told me thats not how cancer works, and after many dumb, stupid, jokey sentences we laughed and I fell against a cement pillar in the parking garage I was in.
We told her a few years later, and its become quite the joke. In the middle of a dark day, random words gave laughter. Knowledge is power, but I feel it’s true as well of the bonds which create these stories.
Last year, I decided my 92 yr old grandpa would really enjoy the Anthropocene Review and bought it for him. He's a scholar of many things and times, something I have learned too. He rereads it every few months and reads parts of it to my grandma. They always have a good time reading it and thinking about things. I wonder if it helps my grandma since they don't talk about themselves too personally, but I know Grandma is tired and in pain. Anytime I hear excerpts or read it, I'll always think of my grandparents
My mother in law was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year in her 50s. I bought her The Anthropocene Reviewed for Christmas last year, because it contained the only bit of wisdom I found comforting during the whole ordeal--the bit about "your kids won't be okay, but they will go on, and the love you poured into them will go on." My husband read it at her graveside service this October.
Anyway, I don't think I can watch this one this year.
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This time of year, I’m constantly pointing out to friends that the melody to Auld Lang Syne is absurdly perfect for the theme of New Year’s Eve. It’s so filled with both longing and hope in a way that goes unequivocally hard.
as i sang with john i thought of the infinite number of us who would also sing with him, and thus each other. What a quirky, thoughtful and caring bunch we are together. Thank you for singing with each other!!!
My Aunt died this year. I don't know how to start the first year of my life that she hasn't been in. I've been trying to honour her, trying to include her into my Christmas traditions. I donated trees, her favourite type. And I made origami paper stars because they just reminded me of her so much, and it's something she would have done. She was, she is, amazing. It was hard, the first Christmas without her. I haven't figured out how to get my head around the fact that she won't be in any of my Christmases from now on. I read somewhere that someday we all become stories. And I thought that was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. This is the hardest loss I've ever been through and I am still very much in the thick of it - I don't want her to be a story, I want her to be here. I am in pain, but I am here. And I am hurting, but I am hopeful.
May her memory be a blessing and may her story be forever in your heart.
@@N3rdfightermom thank you. Wishing you health and happiness for the new year.
And yet she is here right now, and you have kindly introduced her to me. Thank you.
I believe that’s a doctor who, Matt smith era thing. Line went viral. Lost my dad this year it’s the inability to share those stories with him, that sucks
@@MrSlaidback I'm sorry you're going through that. That's what's floored me quite often - I keep thinking I'll be able to tell her all about this one day. And then it hits me again.
I will be spending New Year's in the NICU. I went into a routine prenatal appointment that I expected would take 20 minutes, but turned into being hospitalized for the remainder of my pregnancy. Plans quickly change as the schedule was pushed up. Our family experienced a very surreal Christmas with the parents in the hospital assisting with labor, leaving the siblings to celebrate on their own. We opened our stockings eventually but have not even wrapped the gifts for each other. Now we are parents, and Christmas will never be the same.
I hope you are able to bring your baby home safe and healthy
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As a parent who spent weeks in the NICU... Bless you. Happy New Year.
I encounter this for the first time just now. Thanks for tears of joy and recognition and loss. As I rouse from sleep and make coffee, get dressed, walk my dog, pick up some donuts and a friend, and drive to church I'll have some deep thoughts to think and feelings to feel. This year will be new in many ways.
Last New Year's Eve I was a cancer patient, forced to wonder if I would live to see next year's video. My husband & I held each other's hand, as we sang "We're here, because we're here" with you, tears of mutual terror & love running down our faces. Thank you for being with us; for letting us be with you in that moment. This year, my body is permanently changed, but I am alive & cancer-free. My husband held my hand and we sang and it is all so sweet and ordinary and more than I could have ever have hoped. May you be well, and may Hank be well, and may we Nerdfighters all be well.
I am so, so glad that you pulled through. May you see many, many more New Years, and may there be ever more reasons for you and those you love to be here.
@@emstudies8791 thank you so much for your kind words - a loving & happy new year to you!
I discovered this on New Year’s Eve 2021, and listening to it after the utterly draining experience of living through 2020 it brought tears to my eyes and a renewed optimism to my heart. It lead me to pick up The Anthropocene Reviewed, and I have since then recommended the book and especially this review to anyone with a big enough heart to take it in. It’s also become a tradition for me to play it once more every New Year’s Eve, by myself or with whoever I’m spending the evening with, and it’s never failed to make me emotional. I think this review, like John says of Auld Lang Syne, is genuinely wistful, a piece of art that understands human suffering without succumbing to it, and offers a more joyful alternative. Thank you for this review John, this year and every year.
Almost exactly the same for me. John continues to be incredible, year after year
RUclips helpfully recommended a re-watch for me on New Years Eve, 2023. I'm happy it did, and I hope to remember a year from now, and many years to come.
I lost my job this year and got a new one. The severance check may help me become a homeowner next year. My brother escaped years of suffering with a health condition that is now under control, and is rebuilding his life. I have much to be thankful for. So much. But more than thankful, I am hopeful. I am hopeful because despite all the bad in the world, I know what we are capable of when we set aside our differences and raise a cup of kindness for auld lang syne.
Happy New Year's, Nerdfighteria. Love and light to you all.
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Thank you so much. Finding hope is super challenging for me. And you just lit a spark for me.
I listened to this for the first time two years ago and while there are many memorable lines and lessons to take in, the one that sticks with me the most is “Don’t just do something, stand there”. I work as a social worker in a NICU. My job is to be there for people during one of the hardest times in their lives. Often things go well and the babies go home. But what do you say to someone whose infant is dying or unbelievably afflicted? In those moments this line comes back to me. In those moments they don’t need me to talk. What they so often need is someone to hold space for their grief and pain. They need someone to stand there.
I don’t know how many hours I spent writing my sermon for tomorrow’s worship service. And to think: I could have just played this video. I’m saving this, John, for another year.
Pastors/reverends are called to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2), not play RUclips videos.
@@michaelmannucci8585
Not that I have skin in the game, but so long as the flock cares to listen and follow the basic laws set forth by their shepherd, does he genuinely care the method?
World's only getting older, approaches meeting the times are always necessary.
The fact that you so much as comment on this video is blasphemous in certain sects claiming a God not too dissimilar to yours.
My old man used to tell me that while the road to hell was paved with good intentions, the signage posted alongside it always proclaimed "Perfection x miles away".
@@SCh1m3ra That's some serious word-salad, but I'm sure you think it's very deep and felt very proud writing it.
@@michaelmannucci8585 John green literally studied to become a priest. And sermons are streamed on RUclips all the time. But go off weird.
@@michaelmannucci8585
Oh, no. Not deep at all.
Don't let perfection get in the way of good. If someone wishes to preach with additional materials to hand, that isn't your problem.
I don't foresee any reasonable God caring too much how people come to their kingdom, only that they find their way.
Pretending your way is the only way to enlightenment is frankly ludicrous.
Have a good year.
This was one of my favorite chapters in the Anthropocene Reviewed. We're here, because we're here, because we're here, because we're here. I am always struck by the melancholy of the original, but We're here because we're here is the one that makes me remember and weep while singing. Happy New Year, John. You have helped me in ways I'll never be able to repay.
Couldn't quite make it through the video. I lost my grandma and grandpa this year, and it's just so incredibly tough especially this time of year. I never realized just how deep Auld Lang Syne really was. Going to be a tough new years. Love the conversation here! Hope everyone has a wonderful New Years celebration.
Sending you love during these hard times, and all times
We're here...
You will always feel the love you had for them and the love they surrounded you with whenever you think of them! That still holds true for me even though my grandparents died half a century ago.
I’m very very sorry for your loss. I lost my grandma this year, too, and the holidays have been so incredibly tough. Please know you’re not alone.
Have a nice 2024. My condolences. Hope you feel better soon.
I heard this first when it was released on the podcast and years later it still makes me cry. I love how John and Hank spread hope and try to make this world a better place. I was practically raised by them and half of the reasons why I can find happiness and fulfiment in life are due to what I learnt from them. Whoever is reading this comment, I hope you can find hope, happiness and love in the coming year.
Thank you. You too. (But has it really been years??? Seems like only months ago.)
❤
Hey John, I guess you’re never going to read this, but I wanted to send this out into the ether anyways. My grandfather passed on the 30th of December last year. We didn’t have the best relationship, but it still hit me very hard. I cancelled all my plans with my friends and as the clock ticked over into 2024, I sat on my parents living room couch, crying and hugging my dad so hard, it felt like I was trying to bring back that sense of childhood I had where the adults in my life never aged and were always going to be there for me. In hindsight, a ridiculous attitude to have for a child of a family of funeral directors. Since childhood, I grew up, moved out and went to medical school. I experienced many people die since, some going gratefully and some fighting death to their last breath, but nothing like this “review” of a song I have no cultural connection with has ever summed up both the grief and hope of death for me. Thank you, John, and I hope when I listen to this on New Year’s Eve this year, I will cry again.
Every year i have listened to this and every year i have laugh-cried at "...but you do so much yoga".
It truly sums up how it feels to lose a friend too soon.
The one from I think last year with the crunching snow throughout still makes me cry every fucking time. Will watch this or some version of it every year from now until forever.
we're all collections of those we love and who have loved us. Amy sounds even more lovely every time John talks about her
I woke up this morning from a dream where I hugged a dead loved one again. This has given me the space to grieve.
I know it’s the repetition of modernity. But it’s also the soul fuel I needed.
I found myself singing "I'm here because" as a lullaby to my 3 month old today. Midway through I changed the lyrics to "I'm here for you" and felt bittersweet peace.
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The immortal gestures that stay true forever from Auld Lang Syne reminds me of the time a few years ago when l went to see the Egtved Girl's burial mound. One of the placards read that she might have liked honey and kept bees, based on findings. And just then, a bumblebee flew by, one of my favourite animals. I thought of how she would have also seen a bee when she was alive, 3 millennia ago. That's the only time I've truly felt connected to history, and it was one of the most powerful feelings l've ever had.
This is where I let go of the year. Where I leave it's highs and lows, and where I start to look forward to another trip around our Sun. Another 365 days spent marveling at the miracle of human existence, looking at the trees, and trying to figure out where my place in this life really is.
We're here, because we're here, because we're here, because we're here. That sentence - like many others - never stops being true. Each year, I come back here and weep silently. I hope that'll never change either.
I give this video five stars.
I know it’s coming every year. But every year I still find myself crying
Auld Lang Syne never ceases to bring a lump to my throat and your review expands upon that experience so beautifully. I lost my Ojiichan (grandfather) this year and the holidays have been difficult. He had a wonderful life though and put so much love into the people nearest to him. We're here because we're here because we're here because...we're here.
Often times we forget that we share a pain of surviving the years. With each one passing and each pain lapsing the other it is refreshing to hear the war cry “we are here because we are here”. We don’t have to do anything but exist, and what a beautiful form of retaliation that can be
Every year I listen to this. Every year I appreciate it. Every year I shed a tear, in remembrance.
Every year,
for auld lange syne.
Please never stop posting this. It always meant something, but now, I feel closer to my dad when listening. Thank you for such a beautiful review, John
This is my favorite chapter of book. I’m sorry your year is mentally ending for you John. I hope that you enter 2024 with hope and love. I hope that your 2024 is filled with peace and over whelming joy. Thank you for another year of keeping this community connected.
we’re here because
we're here because
We're here because ❤
we’re here because
we’re here because
we're here because
That's a new personal record. I cried 5 separate times during this video. Thank you for your poetry, John. I'm glad you were here.
Thanks!
I sing "we're here because we're here" to myself every so often throughout the year. It makes me think of kindness, especially unbidden kindness. We're here because we're here, so why not be kind? Thank you for teaching it to me, years ago, at a preview show for the Turtles All The Way Down book tour.
I was in a fairly dark place last year when John uploaded this.
Life isnt perfect, but I'm still here, and I'm here because I'm here, because I'm here.
Happy New Year's everyone, hopefully we can continue into this new year so that we can continue to the next.
I'm happy you're here.
❤️🩹❤️❤️🔥🤍🩶🖖 Here, and Still Here. 'Twas a close thing, my friend 🤍🕊🍂🪹🪺
Singing that song with the audience on the tatwd book tour is still one of the most impactful moments of my life
2023 hit me especially hard and I couldn’t be more glad that we got through it.
This tradition is one of my all time favorites, I love spending time on either the last few days or first few days of the year listening to this.
We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here
This has been one of the most difficult years of my life. It is hard to find hope. But we are here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here. And we have to keep going.
Since the original podcast episode came out, I listen to this each year close to midnight. I prefer to be somewhere alone and Journaling on new years eve because I almost never allow myself stillness throughout the year. Sometimes I just need to be reminded that I'm here because I'm here.
I have listened to this episode and chapter so many times over the years but this year it has so much more meaning.
My wife nearly died this year from a mini stroke. I'm so so grateful that she's here because she's here ❤❤❤❤❤ I give this episode 5❤s
As every year, my first notes of quietly singing along are extra shaky because I'm fighting back tears.
This year, I very much enjoyed the ducks' visit.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And ne'er brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' auld lang syne?
(For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne. ) (Chorus)
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
We twa hae run about the braes
And pu’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary feet
Sin auld lang syne.
We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn,
Frae mornin’ sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.
And here’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right guid willy waught,
For days o' auld lang syne.
Thank you so much for including the lyrics ❤! Here’s a link to a wonderful traditional English-language Scottish rendition of the song for those who, like me, want to listen to the song after this video ruclips.net/video/xX47kd9L6oc/видео.html
It took me four consecutive listens before I could sing along at the end. I'm thankful that I got there, and for the journey. And for you, John, and for both of you, and for your brotherhood. I am deeply blessed by you.
We’re here.
I love singing this with you, every chance I get. I've sung this so often in the past, and will do so in the future, and so will you and have you, and so will and have so many others. We are a chorus across time and space: harmonizing with our past and future selves as much as we are with everyone else.
We're here because we're here, John. Thank you ❤
I discovered this channel, this video, and this community this past summer, and was excited to finally be able to view this video in its proper context- at new year’s, thinking about the past.
And suddenly, sadly, I am in the proper context in more ways than one- my grandfather passed away just a few days after Christmas, and thoughts turn towards that broad sea suddenly between him and us, and between all the departed and those who love them. I think about his love of poetry, and history, and literature, and the family that’s gathered to celebrate and grieve together, and the hope- the fact- that love survives when we do not. That we are here, because we are here, because we are here.
Thank you for this. It’s a beautiful thing, in a very dark time.
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I usually work a 12 hour shift Saturdays but this year the place where I work closed the 30th so Friday as I walked to my car in the parking lot and everybody had been saying happy new year all day I thought of the we are here because we’re here song from this it is bittersweet and I get emotional thank you for sharing this I appreciate it very much (sorry for lack of punctuation marks)
New Year's Eve is a trauma anniversary for me. Today is ten years since that trauma, and this year I lost my best friend, who was there with me, those ten years ago. I have listen to this episode every year since it came out, and it saves me a little bit every year. Thank you.
My favorite New Year's Eve party was December 31,1970, held at base housing (Andersen AFB) on Guam, with people from all over the U.S. during the Viet Nam war. Everyone, well, mostly the wives, had brought their favorite New Year good luck dishes and at midnight we all ran around with our spoons, tasting each to cover all the bases, and wishing each other the happiest and luckiest 1971✨
Its 11:18pm on New Years Eve and i lie alone in the bed i spent most of the year unable to lift myself up from thanks to this pain i suffer with no name.
I hate this year, i hate the weeks of loneliness of being in this bed, I despise losing the career i spent my adult life searching for. I loathe the seas my broken body has let form between myself,friends, family and the man i hoped to be.
But yet im here, despite being in the worse pit of despair i have ever had. Im still here. Still breathing, still holding onto the last of my sanity. Im here at the bottom, looking at the top because i know the hole aint getting deeper so until its filled i can hope i can work my way out of it as soon as possible. I'm here because we're here, because we're here, because we're here.
Happy New Year John, here's hoping we can both get out of our trenches in 2024.
While I think I enjoy the Snow video mixed with the audio of snow crunching more this story has been such an incredible help to me when I’m feeling overwhelmed and lost. I’ve shared it with many people as I think the bittersweet nature of love and loss helps drive the mind from the darkest parts of itself by acknowledging that pain is often just the byproduct of great love and time spent. Thanks so much John for helping me grow into the person I want to be.
I showed this video to my husband when we were watching things together. I have talked about how I love the podcast and the book, but it was nice to be able to show somebody something, like, you can watch it together. He found it beautiful.
John, you have enriched my life since 2008. Thank you for existing, though that doesn’t really do justice to my gratitude
john- over the past few years, your review of Auld Lang Syne has become somewhat of a tradition for me. Every time I read or watch this essay, I feel like I learn something new. last year, it had me remembering all of the people who shaped me into who I am today. this year, as I look back on 2023, I'm reminded of the vast world around me. everyone has important people who shaped their lives. everyone has an Adidas story, or as I saw another commenter post, an 80% green closet because of a singular compliment. thank you for all of the videos you make, and I wish happiness and good fortune on you, and everyone who does or once did love you, without whom this video, this tradition, would not exist.
Damn. Aug. 8, 2008, was when I got hit by a truck and hospitalized for 3 months. I wasc13. Since then my life has never been the same. Thank you John for all of your wonderful work and contributions in this life. I am so happy I get to enjoy it in my lifetime. ❤❤
Winter is so hard every year but we're here because we're here because we're here because we're here
I listened to this when it first came out and found myself sobbing in the middle of a walk. All these years later, it still never fails to move me. Thanks, John.
Every year i cry over this same review. This year i feel like im crying the most over it.
Sleeping at last put out a cover of this song i know ive listened to it once a day since it came out. Their cover came out 2 days after my bubby passed in November and 3 1/2 months after my tita (step grandmother passed) in july. The song just feels like home and dinner with family no longer here and i miss them so much
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what a nice warm blanket on a cold day
I play this video every year, and every year I cry as it guts me.
And every year, I'm here because I'm here because I'm here...
Thank you for this video, John. Some time early this year, I started watching all of the vlogbrothers videos in reverse sequential order on my days off. I work nights and needed something to keep my sleep schedule on track and my mind occupied. At a time when I desperately needed to hear it, I came to last year's version of this video. I don't know what clicked or changed in my brain in that moment, but I feel like it was a turning point in my life. It seemed like the colors of the world were a little brighter day by day and I could view people with bounds more empathy. I started dreaming again, both in my sleep and for my future. While mental illness will continue forever, that video became an invaluable tool in relieving some of that burden when the days felt dull again. I know the next few days will be filled with people repeating empty platitudes, like "new year, new me" or "it will be the best year yet," but I want to thank you for giving those phrases some actual hope for me. We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here.
Sometimes repetition is the opposite of hellish, like this podcast repeated each year. It's been a hell of a year for me and mine, just as for you and yours, but I find solace in the reminder that I am *here*, dammit. I am here. Thank you, John. I hope your new year is full of peace, and time to look at trees 💜
My whole family watched this together and sang along.
We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here
A few minutes into this, I remembered that I’d listened last year. This is still a new thing still for me. Pretty sure I cried last year, too.
My best friend’s father -and godfather to one of my girls- died of cancer recently. I hadn’t kept in touch so the news was a surprise. I’ll go to the memorial in a few weeks & see my friend for the first time in years.
Some of your words had more weight this time, thinking of Gerry, who died of cancer, and my mom, who’s survived it THREE times.
Yet the love they’ve poured into us goes on, so they will go on, too.
All the best for the coming new year. ~K
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This is one of my favorites and I cry every time
John, this literally brought me to tears. Thank you for a glimmer of hope. We're here because we're here.
This episode has repeatedly deeply and profoundly moved me; I laughed, cried, and felt wistfully hopeful.
The whole podcast has soothed my soul while also teaching and informed me, and for that I am very greatful.
And no matter how many times I listen to this, I always find something meaningful and new that I haven't noticed before.
Spending my last few minutes of the year singing along with John (and all of you, in a way) has become my favorite way to observe this holiday. Grateful to be here with this community.
This makes me cry everytime without fail. Also, completely accidentally, i timed this perfectly so i was singing "we're here because" with john at exactly midnight. Happy new year, Green family
I do this every year
That's a wonderful tradition. I hope you have a good year
More episodes like this, please! Also, this song always makes me cry because of "We're here because we're here" WWI video.
thank you so much for writing this chapter and sharing with us your narrative, it meant a lot to me 😢
This review never fails to bring a tear to my eye. May all our 2024s be better than our 2023s. We're here because we're here, because....
This song... I can never make it through without crying. Hope and grief, thinking back to all the ones I've loved and lost, and thinking forward to all the ones I love that are still in life. I haven't seen the previous uploads, so I don't know what visual settings you chose for them, but this river flowing is perfect. (I admit, I got a little obsessed with watching the ducks, wondering how they'd deal with the mini-rapids coming up before them. Being ducks and therefore very practical, they dealt with the rapids by foraging, because they know all kinds of tasty things gather where the river's flow is interrupted.)
I actually didn't know the story of this song because I just started getting into your videos this year, but this song truly carries the emotion of every moment it has ever been central to. From that Christmas truce all the way to today. A song from an ether beyond time, truly.
It blows my mind how you can consistently make me tear up, John, since the day I bought and fully consumed the Fault in Our Stars.
(I also didn't know this was such a New Year's song either)
This is such a beautiful collection of stories, I'm close to tears on a train ride home to my parents. I'm grateful that I get to spend new year's in a safe home with people who love me
Love this video every year, don't ever stop. We're here.
We’re here because we’re here
I have only met John once. And though we have paddled many of the same streams, there have ever only been oceans between us. And yet I’d like to think that he will someday, albeit unknowingly, speak at my funeral, for I will leave among my last wishes that this be played and sung, ducks and all.
I have sung this song with John many times having been around Nerdfighteria as long as I have. It never fails to make me cry. In the best way? I miss Amy and the beckoning of lovely and the many whimsical magical thoughts she turned to action. She is who I wanted to be when I grew up. ❤ happy new year yall. DFTBA
Thank you for reminding me of this once again. This review will always hold a special place in my heart.
I found last year's iteration of the podcast earlier this year. I listen to it when life makes me forget that I am here, and that I AM here, and that I am HERE. John, the way you speak about your love for Amy makes me grateful to grieve someone I have never known and can never know. Your words remind me to live in love and in hope and in 12,395 trees and in flowers in dark alleys and in gifting mugging money clips and in being the reason someone wears the same shoes for decades. Auld Lang Syne made me cry when I was younger, before I had the words for futility and wistfulness and longing and resolve. I only knew that when I sang it, I was drowning in a beautiful sorrow, and in every drop of those roaring seas there was hope. Even if I do not sing that WE are here, and we ARE here, and we are HERE this year, I want to thank you for the annual reminder.
I listened to this last year and cried.
This year, as a new Palestinian recipe is baking in my oven and a simmer pot bubbling on the stove to make the apartment smell nice, I listened faithfully to this wistful ode again.
Towards the end, I turned off the lights, looked at Jupiter blazing alone in the dark sky, and, yeah, cried as per usual. The world is so cruel, but we must have hope that things will get better or we will never strive to make them so.
We're here because we're here.
Thank you, John & Hank, for keeping me going during a really hard point.
I’m currently writing the first draft of my first novel, and I’m in awe at your ability to write. I read looking for Alaska when I was in middle school, right after it came it. I hope one day to be even a fraction of the writer you are.
tonight I went down a rabbithole looking through my favorite old youtube videos from different creators, all of them now over a decade old. I get especially wistful and heartbroken over those that are long gone, deleted ages ago. I am still thinking of these song covers that various teenagers uploaded from their rooms so long ago now; I can't find them anywhere anymore. once upon a time, I had them saved as mp3 files on my computer and ipod. they were the soundtrack to so many of my important moments of my own teen years.
I wish they could know that they are a part of me.
Still a beautiful recording. You've got the best heart John, we love you