There are over 100 major spoken languages in the world, each with millions of native speakers. Imagine for a moment how convenient it would be if everyone spoke a single language. Although the promise of Esperanto hasn't materialized, one can argue that JavaScript is the only programming language one needs to perform the most common of programming tasks.

As of 2016, JavaScript has been widely accepted for:

Web applications, both...
> Client-side
> Server-side
Mobile applications
Toolchains

and is poised to make a run at:

Desktop applications
Embedded systems

Here is a quick chronology of major events in JavaScript's history:

1995: JavaScript is created by Brendan Eich at Netscape
1996: JavaScript is adopted by Microsoft
1997: JavaScript is formally standardized as ECMAScript
1999: AJAX is created by Microsoft
2006: AJAX is standardized by the W3C
2008: V8, an open-source JavaScript Engine, is created by Google
2009: Node.js is created by Ryan Dahl
2009: PhoneGap is released, allowing development of hybrid mobile applications
2012: Grunt is created by Ben Alman at Bocoup
2014: NativeScript is released, allowing development of native mobile applications

Looking ahead, it is only a matter of time before tools like NativeScript evolve to allow development in JavaScript of native applications for desktop operating systems like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. In the world of embedded systems, tools like Espruino are already trying to make "JavaScript on Board" a reality.

In short, JavaScript is here to stay. Embrace and be glad.