2008, here I come
Happy New Year! I'm kind of thrilled that it's 2008. I have a good feeling about the year to come, and I've been excited for New Year's all week. It's gonna be cool.
I was planning on doing this really long run-down of my year, the good and the bad, but now that we're 13.5 hours into 2008 I just don't want to. :) I mean, let's take a quicker look. It started out with me coming out of a really bad time, with all kinds of painful stuff that I was happy to leave behind in 2006. Of course, last New Year's I got the flu, so maybe not the best start to the year. :D (I'm vomit-free this time!) The first half of the year was...well, it was okay. I was on the long road to recovery from all the stress I had been under, and while I still wasn't at 100% happy, I was at least making progress.
The most disappointing moment of the year was when I discovered, in late March, that the study-abroad program to Oxford that I had been planning on wasn't going to happen. I just didn't have the grades for it. Now, even though I missed Gen while she was there and I would have loved to travel the UK with her, I'm really not upset that I didn't have that experience. A semester is a long time, and I've never been out of the United States before in my life. Maybe it's best that I start small, with the study tour I'll be going on for 2.5 weeks this summer. I was really sad that first weekend, but afterwards I just learned to take that disappointment and put it behind me. I think that was the first sign that I was getting more emotionally stable, that moment when I got the news and said, "This sucks, but it's not the end of the world. Let's move on." I actually remember that day with remarkable clarity. It was a Friday, just about noon; that day after I found out I didn't make it in, I wrote a response paper for one of my classes, registered for the next semester's courses, and attended a piano recital. I also started writing again that very same night, and I haven't looked back since. So much good came out of that supremely bad day.
May was also quite the whirlwind, if I recall. No sooner had I gotten home from school than I got my wisdom teeth out, and no sooner was I recovered from that when I received news that a friend of mine had passed away. Only two days after that I celebrated my 20th birthday. 20 feels right to me. I feel exactly as old as I am, which I don't think will be true this year when I turn 21. :)
So there was bad this year, tension with friends and missed opportunities and sudden deaths and sickness. But there was a lot of good too. The trip to Ithaca, NY in August comes to mind. Living with Florence. In-jokes with friends. The rare times when I took it upon myself to actually have a social life and left my room, to find that the world out there isn't so scary. :) Dance show this semester. All of it, awesome!
Overall, I'm happy. I feel back to normal, ready to face the year ahead. This year I plan to have more adventures, take more risks, and generally live more. It's so easy for me to get into ruts, and now I'm resolving to try new things. I don't like making resolutions that are too specific- I prefer general ones like these, that can be applied to a wide range of circumstances. And I think this is definitely possible for me. I'm excited about living it out.
I wish all the best to all of you in the New Year. I hope I get to share it with each and every one of you. :D
Sarah
I was planning on doing this really long run-down of my year, the good and the bad, but now that we're 13.5 hours into 2008 I just don't want to. :) I mean, let's take a quicker look. It started out with me coming out of a really bad time, with all kinds of painful stuff that I was happy to leave behind in 2006. Of course, last New Year's I got the flu, so maybe not the best start to the year. :D (I'm vomit-free this time!) The first half of the year was...well, it was okay. I was on the long road to recovery from all the stress I had been under, and while I still wasn't at 100% happy, I was at least making progress.
The most disappointing moment of the year was when I discovered, in late March, that the study-abroad program to Oxford that I had been planning on wasn't going to happen. I just didn't have the grades for it. Now, even though I missed Gen while she was there and I would have loved to travel the UK with her, I'm really not upset that I didn't have that experience. A semester is a long time, and I've never been out of the United States before in my life. Maybe it's best that I start small, with the study tour I'll be going on for 2.5 weeks this summer. I was really sad that first weekend, but afterwards I just learned to take that disappointment and put it behind me. I think that was the first sign that I was getting more emotionally stable, that moment when I got the news and said, "This sucks, but it's not the end of the world. Let's move on." I actually remember that day with remarkable clarity. It was a Friday, just about noon; that day after I found out I didn't make it in, I wrote a response paper for one of my classes, registered for the next semester's courses, and attended a piano recital. I also started writing again that very same night, and I haven't looked back since. So much good came out of that supremely bad day.
May was also quite the whirlwind, if I recall. No sooner had I gotten home from school than I got my wisdom teeth out, and no sooner was I recovered from that when I received news that a friend of mine had passed away. Only two days after that I celebrated my 20th birthday. 20 feels right to me. I feel exactly as old as I am, which I don't think will be true this year when I turn 21. :)
So there was bad this year, tension with friends and missed opportunities and sudden deaths and sickness. But there was a lot of good too. The trip to Ithaca, NY in August comes to mind. Living with Florence. In-jokes with friends. The rare times when I took it upon myself to actually have a social life and left my room, to find that the world out there isn't so scary. :) Dance show this semester. All of it, awesome!
Overall, I'm happy. I feel back to normal, ready to face the year ahead. This year I plan to have more adventures, take more risks, and generally live more. It's so easy for me to get into ruts, and now I'm resolving to try new things. I don't like making resolutions that are too specific- I prefer general ones like these, that can be applied to a wide range of circumstances. And I think this is definitely possible for me. I'm excited about living it out.
I wish all the best to all of you in the New Year. I hope I get to share it with each and every one of you. :D
Sarah