Born in 2012

If you were born in 2012, you came into a year bracketed by sorrow and resilience. The Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting in July—twelve people killed at a midnight screening of *The Dark Knight Rises*—and then in December, Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, twenty children between the ages of six and seven killed, six educators killed. Sandy Hook broke something in the country's chest that never fully healed.

The gun control argument, which had been dormant for years, screamed back into the public square and found, as before, that it could move nothing. Obama won re-election over Mitt Romney in November, Ohio securing the electoral college. *Argo* won the Oscars.

*The Avengers* was the summer spectacle and the Marvel Cinematic Universe had found its stride. "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen and "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye were the songs you couldn't escape. PSY's "Gangnam Style" hit YouTube in July and became the first video to a billion views.

Marriage equality was on the ballot in several states for the first time and won. Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast in October, New York's subway system flooded, the New Jersey Shore destroyed. Curiosity landed on Mars.

The country was grieving and arguing and, in certain ways, becoming more just.