2025 has been an awful year, and it’s trying to squeeze in as much awfulness as possible these last few weeks. As crazy as 2025 has been, 2026 will be crazier. How do I know? I’m not a psychic, but it’s not hard to guess the likely outcome of all the actions taken in the past year. But I’m sure 2026 will be wild because of a strange pattern of coincidences I’ve experienced throughout my life.

Years ending with 6 are ones of dramatic change. You can pin it on astrology, numerology, or any type of -ology you like, but 6 years for me have always paired terrible and life-changing events.

In every one of those years, the terrible event led to the life-changing event or shaped it in some way.

The influence of her father motivated my mom to get involved in my school’s PTA. Mary Ann’s murder had a huge impact on our high school experience. When I became an adult, major shakeups led to more conscious decisions to change. Dad’s death and the financial woes at Haba/Arrays motivated me to find the job at AST and move to Orange County. In 1996, my wife and I were putting off buying a house until after we had what would have been our middle child. After the miscarriage, we moved up our house search. While Little League season was well underway when Grandmother Yetta died, the loss added to an eventful spring. The situations we were dealing with in our family in 2016 inspired The Remainders, and I wrote Amiga to cope with the aftermath. Those manuscripts became the first novels accepted by a publisher.

Disaster goes hand in hand with transformation. Most of us have no incentive to change unless we lose what’s comfortable and familiar. Change doesn’t always come politely. It can kick in your door, drag you from what you’re used to, and force you to face the truths you’ve been avoiding. Even positive change can be abrupt. An opportunity suddenly drops in your lap, and you have to act on it immediately or lose it forever.

Whether change is welcomed or not, our futures are determined not by what happens to us, but by how we respond to it. They require an openness to consider new options while holding on to our dreams and principles. By being open to move away from Reseda in 1986, I was able to fulfill my goals of making a living as a professional writer and having the family I always wanted. But if I insisted on holding on to the life I had, even when it was untenable, I’d never have the life I enjoy today.

It’s the same situation we as a country are facing in 2026.

We wouldn’t be in as severe a position if Kamala Harris won last November, but we’ve been sitting on too many ticking time bombs for too long. Climate change, extreme wealth inequality, corporate consolidation and dominance over all aspects of life, widespread corruption and cowardice from both major political parties, a growing surveillance state, an economic system where older people can’t retire and younger people can’t move up, aggressiveness by nations that chafe at the current geopolitical order, and the mainstream platforming of the most horrific racist and misogynistic voices. It doesn’t take much of a black swan event (à la the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand) to set it all off.

That’s where the lessons I’ve learned in past 6 years can help me, and they can help you too.

We have to be open to dealing with whatever comes in 2026, but it’s especially important we hold onto our dreams and principles. Just as I learned in 2025, we can’t give up our hopes for the future because they will be the foundation for the new world we create. By holding onto our principles, we don’t accommodate tyrants, normalize cruelty, or sacrifice our deepest-held values for the illusion of safety. And when the danger passes, we can use those values to rebuild something that affirms them even more.

I’m not going to predict what will happen in 2026. This decade has thrown us so many curveballs that reliable forecasting is impossible. But what the six previous decades of 6 years taught me is we must face the future with openness and determination. The road ahead has plenty of roadblocks, detours, and traffic jams. But if you know where you’re going, you’ll find a way to get there.

Brace yourself for whatever 2026 brings. It won’t be an easy year, but the difficulties we may face can motivate us to make the substantial changes we need to have a better future.

Related topics:

Why I’m not the same person I was in 2019 How institutions change How nightmares end The end of American innocence

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