It’s traditional at the end of the year to reflect on all the moments — good or bad — that made the year memorable.
I habitually think deeply about the past and often include those reflections in my columns. When I write about moments in the present that are rooted in the past, readers sometimes tell me to “move on” or “get over it.” But I like to give readers context.
And sometimes looking back can be a good thing. Sankofa, a word derived from the people of Ghana, literally means to “go back and get it.” As a principle, it means allowing the past to inform the future.
Since this is my last column of 2024, I decided to employ the principle of sankofa and the marketing of Spotify and offer readers Real Life Wrapped: the top 5 most engaging columns of 2024.
Spotify Wrapped, which reportedly used AI to compile its year-end lists of listeners’ most loved music, has delivered some questionable results this year.
In my personal lineup of top 5 artists, only two — Khruangbin and Chenayder — were accurate. I had no idea who Laura Karpman was until I looked her up and learned she was the soundtrack composer for “American Fiction,” an album I listened to for a few hours after I saw the film. Weird.
So in compiling Real Life Wrapped, I relied not only on AI but also on my own eyes to determine which Real Life columns struck a chord with readers this year. Some of those stories have evolved … and yes, just like Spotify Wrapped, there are some wild cards.
I was not surprised to see that my February column on Fani Willis, district attorney of Fulton County, topped the list. I’m even less surprised that this news from the past has come around again to the present.
Last week, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from continuing the election interference case against Donald Trump and his codefendants. Back in February, I wrote about my conflicting feelings on Willis’ decision to engage in a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to work on the case.
Those feelings stand, but watching the hearings unfold earlier this year, I knew we could end up exactly where we are now — with Willis disqualified and no easily identifiable prosecutor willing or able to take on the case. Willis plans to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, but I feel pretty clear on how that will turn out. Maybe the high court will prove me wrong.
An outlier among the top 5 columns featured a runaway goat in southwest Atlanta. Residents of the Kings Forest subdivision asked for my help in getting the city to respond to their claims that a neighbor planned to turn his residential home into a cultural event center. They also didn’t like his goats roaming around the area.
Writing that column earned me threats of a lawsuit from the homeowner/business owner. But more interesting was the lack of response from the city departments I contacted for information on zoning and code violations — the same lack of response residents had been getting for years. Residents told me in November the neighbor missed a court date for code violations the city had issued, so I’m sure this isn’t the end of the goat story.
In another surprise twist, my column about a converted trailer at a school in DeKalb County generated interest among readers. Dunaire Elementary in Stone Mountain struggled to overcome setbacks in 2011, but the school has since evolved into a haven for children from 29 different countries at a time when American concerns about immigration are at an all-time high.
Justine Robinson, a part-time school counselor, rallied supporters to repurpose a trailer into a resource center for students and parents and all seems to be going well for the Dunaire Dolphins.
As concerns about the presidential election ramped up, so did conversations about leaving the country. In October, I wrote about Americans who have left and their motivations. A dozen or so readers emailed to ask me for information on how to leave or said they were also in the process of leaving the U.S.
I’m no expert on relocating abroad, so I referred those readers to Jen Barnett, who I interviewed for the column. Barnett, an Emory alum who moved from Alabama to Mexico in April, is cofounder of Expatsi, a company that helps Americans research and prepare to move abroad. In the weeks before and after the election, tens of thousands of people took the company’s screening test to match themselves with countries that would be a good fit.
Moving abroad isn’t an easy decision and doing research doesn’t mean a person will take action, but history has shown that moving out of the country (or even across the country) has long been a form of resistance in America.
Coming in at number 5 on the list of the most engaging Real Life columns of the year is a September column on Hurricane Helene.
In preparing for the impending storm, meteorologists and climate scientists compared Hurricane Helene to Hurricane Irma in 2017. My column invited readers to consider what happens when you ignore warnings from people who know more than you do about extreme weather and climate change.
Hurricane Irma taught me a lot about preparing for Hurricane Helene in 2024 and that was yet another example of how lessons from the past can have a positive impact on the future.
From Donald Trump’s return to the White House to the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, we already have opportunities coming in 2025 to learn from the past. Let’s not waste that knowledge.
Happy holidays and sankofa!
Read more on the Real Life blog (www.ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/) and find Nedra on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and X (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.
About the Author
