{"id":7616,"date":"2026-03-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/?p=7616"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:41:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:41:41","slug":"graces-ode-to-2016-al-maq-says-dabbing-needs-to-be-brought-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/graces-ode-to-2016-al-maq-says-dabbing-needs-to-be-brought-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace\u2019s Ode to 2016: Al-Maq says dabbing needs to be brought back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pictured: Post-Interview Dab with Ali Al-Maq, French teacher. Media Provided by Georges L. \u201828<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure we are all aware that 2016 nostalgia has been a trend. My guidepost for collective awareness is whether my dad knows the trend I\u2019m talking about, so I can safely say that if my dad knows #2016, all the readers of the Gazette (Grace’s parents, the rare student or 2, and the literature department) probably know it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Survey mostly says the dab needs to make a comeback, which is arguably the \u201c67\u201d of 2016. Beloved French teacher and snack lover Almaq agrees. He reminisces on the days of yore: \u201cBecause my kids were young [in 2016] and I tried to be a cool dad, so I just like dabbed with [my son], and he really liked it.\u201d His son liked it so much that he even bragged about it to his friends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember one day I was taking him to his playdate, and he said with a firm voice \u2018once you come to pick me up, when my friend opens the door, just dab,\u2019 and I had to do it. I did it and he was really happy. The friend thought it was crazy that an old man could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex G. \u201828 says: \u201cWe took the dab for granted; it was such a symbol of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and his friend Knoski ’28 also add that PBS Kids and the fidget spinnerneed to be brought back. Gosh. The fidget spinner. The doomscrolling of 2016 was probably a lot better for your brain. Spinning a little disk in your hand over and over again probably increases your attention span, rather than shrinking it to the point where you can\u2019t even watch a movie without simultaneously watching TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zachery G. \u201826: \u201cWe should waste our time fidgeting, not on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Luka T. \u201826 says that fidget spinners and the dab are \u201cjobless answers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When thinking back to 2016, Luka gets sentimental, \u201cThat\u2019s mad sad. Back in the day, bro, like 10 years ago, it was sweet, now it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBring back the time,\u201d he says, perhaps close to shedding a tear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mac echoes Luca\u2019s nostalgia, saying, \u201cI just liked the air better in 2016,\u201d then looking wistfully out the window at the slushy snow. He then promptly turned back and added excitedly, \u201cOh, and um, galaxy frappacino, sorry, unicorn frappucino.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the smell of the unicorn frappuccino, bring it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jed S. \u201827 wants to bring back \u201cPok\u00e9mon Go, just walking around doing Pok\u00e9mon, it\u2019s so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Caro C. \u201827 suggests the big pink wall in LA where everyone took pictures. It was the peak Tumblr era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mika H. \u201826 adds on about the Tumblr era, suggesting that flower crowns should reemerge: \u201cThose are tea, very summer, probably smell nice too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie S. \u201826, a visual artist, says the photo quality looked better in 2016, an ode to the previous generation of the iPhone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

iPhone 4 anyone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the words of Andy Bernard of The Office, Grace students \u201cwish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days, before you’ve actually left them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


It seems as though we appreciate 2016 more in 2026 than we did when we were actually living in it. Let\u2019s not make the same mistake with 2026. Start appreciating the now, now. Not in 2036.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serena H. \u201827, the author, is the Junior Deputy Editor of <\/em>The Grace Gazette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictured: Post-Interview Dab with Ali Al-Maq, French teacher. Media Provided by Georges L. \u201828 I\u2019m sure we are all aware that 2016 nostalgia has been a trend. My guidepost for… Continue reading “Grace\u2019s Ode to 2016: Al-Maq says dabbing needs to be brought back”<\/span> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":7617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,1001,200,7],"tags":[180],"appful":[],"class_list":["post-7616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news","category-recent","category-school","tag-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9uEnr-1YQ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-03-at-11.39.21-AM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7618,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7616\/revisions\/7618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7616"},{"taxonomy":"appful","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/appful?post=7616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}