The New Year is one of the few holidays I really enjoy simply on its own merits. Something about it connects with me–I’ve written about it at length in the past and have no intention of repeating all of that here. But it is a fine time for reflection. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: 2008 in review.
I started 2008 in Seattle, working the New Year’s Eve shift at an Italian restaurant. I was looking forward to a number of things–my birthday, landmark concerts later in the year–but I was starting to sense that my time in the Emerald City was running to its close. I’d lost focus, if I ever had it to begin with. It’s still the first city I can really call home, but something was missing.
The election injected some spirit into me. I hadn’t seen so many people in my demographic get excited about politics ever. John Kerry was a lackluster candidate, and we were too young to really care about or even really understand the 2000 election. Barack Obama was exciting. I started following the primaries, reading political blogs, visiting polling sites, talking about political news–and I had always been the apolitical “eh, I will start voting when they give me a candidate I like” type.
As summer came, a friend of mine moved from Ellensburg to Boston. I became increasingly aimless. Then he suggested I should move also, and the more I thought about it the less reason I could think of to stay. I’d even written a story about it–someone moving off to Boston and flying back for a visit. I’d move and try to find work. It would be a change of scenery. It would get me on track, though as always I never really made plans.
We flew east in my dad’s small plane. He dropped me off with my half sister and her family in New Hampshire, who drove me down to Boston and left me at my new house. I spent some time settling in, exploring, getting used to the area. Then, some time towards the beginning of October, things got weird. It is hard to really describe why it was weird, but the crowd I started hanging out with was filled with awesome people, who are fully in support of awesome things of any variety. Crazy ideas became more than ideas–they became possible. They became a reality.
As much as I missed Seattle, I knew the people here were a unique combination, and I was fortunate indeed to have found them.
I was also closer to my half-sister, who I never saw much when I was living in Washington. I spent Thanksgiving with her family, and met her half-brother for the first time. I really feel that my life has generally expanded. It’s been an interesting experiment, and I’m not going to hesitate to say it’s been a successful one, in ways I couldn’t have imagined before.
Finally, a look into what 2009 will hold. I am not generally given to making resolutions about self-improvement. Nothing about my health or being more confident or anything like that. But I do like projects. In the year of 2008, I tried to write a poem every day–this got derailed after a month, due largely to my contracting deathplagues in early February. (By the way, if you want to read them, I do not mind emailing them to people. Help me pick out the good ones!)
This year I am going to give myself a slightly easier project. I intend to write a blog post every day. 2009 will be the year of the blog. I will frequently do so on Dreamers Often Lie, and I will do so on here. You can obviously expect less politics. And when I finally put my website online, I’ll do a lot of my writing on there. I’ve got plans for the new year, and they are, as is appropriate, secret plans.
These are the plans that aren’t secret. I’m visiting Seattle again this month. I’m applying to transfer to colleges and finish up my bachelor’s in polisci. I’m still looking for work. I’m excited for 2009. I have focus, direction, and motivation. This will be my year.
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