Wednesday, January 6, 2010

A New Year and A New Beginning

I rang in 2009 standing in the middle of Times Square. This year I spent my New Year's Eve celebrating with friends on the Lower East Side. As we watched the ball drop from a nice warm living room I recalled our experience freezing for hours along with millions of people and was struck by how long ago that seemed and how little I could joyfully recall in between.

2009 was a pretty blah year for me. It could have been much worse - I was lucky enough to be able to land in NYC with friends and find a job - but it could also have been much better - a summer full of rain and little adventuring, too much time spent catching up financially, saying goodbye to too many people, etc.

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, but this is the year I'm letting go of a lot of things. I'm expecting a lot out of 2010 and, for that to happen, a lot of small changes must first take place.

So while I'm not setting "resolutions" I am making some declarations:

I am going to fully experience 2010 by
* taking on more adventure and risks
* learning as much as I am allowed
* laughing more and crying less
* being more grateful for what I have and less focused on things I think I don't have
* filling my life with more love and wasting less time worrying about the people who don't love me for who I am

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”

Goodbye 2009. I'm stepping forward.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That sounds great! I love that quote!

Also, that would be fun to hang out if we both ended up in the Chicago area! My HS friend Sarah is going to be moving there within the next year for sure so I will have to give you her number if you move there before me, because it sounds like you have a lot in common - her plan was to move from Iowa to Seattle or New York (she ended up in Seattle), then Boston, and then finally Chicago but she stayed in Seattle longer than she planned so she is starting to think she will be skipping Boston and just move to Chicago.

Thanks for the encouraging words on my writing! :)