Canadian Tuxedo Optional (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} michaelpop) wrote,@ 2008-01-08 09:05:00 |
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2007.
I know we're already into the second week of the new year and all, but I totally slept on posting my annual year-end poll, so here it is.
But first, allow me to reminisce a little bit. Looking back on 2007, it felt like a year of two halves, from January through July, and then August and everything after. It's trippy to think back to a year ago and try to recall where my head was at. I just remember so much uncertainty then. I felt so aimless, unsure of so much, stuck on the precipice between the past and the future, waiting for something to happen to give me the nudge I needed to propel into the next phase of my life. And it happened in the most unlikely of places under the most unlikely of circumstances, but it happened. On a trip I almost didn't take, I met a girl I almost didn't pursue, and then, slowly, the most amazing thing happened: things started falling into place. Not quite a complete metamorphosis or anything, but my life picked up momentum again and the future, once a vague, ill-defined concept, was coming into focus. Suddenly I had direction. Hey, the future that I've got mapped out actually is something to shout about! Awesome.
Don't get it twisted, though. It's not like I've got the next three to five years of my life down in permanent ink just yet. It's more like a very roughly sketched outline at this point. Ideas are still fluid at this stage of the game, but at least things are in motion. I'm extremely excited about what's to come, and I feel like I'm heading into '08 with positive momentum, which is a LOT more than I can say about this time last year. And yeah, okay, as great as that is, but believe me, I know the real heavy lifting is still to come. There's a lot of work ahead, especially over the next 8 months. And change isn't easy. It's not always going to be puppies and rainbows and cookies. It's going to get stressful at times. I know all too well that just when you think you've got it figured out, life has a way of throwing you a curveball, and also a way of balancing its books; I learned long ago there's no such thing as a conflict-free life. (When I was younger, I used to wonder why all movies had a villain. Like, why couldn't they just be all about happy good fun times? Then I realized how totally unrealistic and fraudulent that'd be. It's good to learn early on that life's not perfect and that there's always going to be a little tension to make things interesting.) With a new plan comes a new round of uncertainty, but it's different now. I'm done with being scared of change. I think I've finally figured out how to embrace it a little. I know everything that's going to be happening is for the better and that things will work themselves out. They always do. Yay optimism.
If I've learned one thing this year, it's that the old saying is true: it does happen when you least expect it to. It being love, obviously. I don't know how it happens, but it does, and it's amazing. It's one of the great mysteries of life, right up there with how airplanes fly and why the sky is blue. No one really knows anything, and if they tell you they do, they're lying.
...
Poll #1117747 2007
Open to: All, results viewable to: All
Click here for previous years
I know we're already into the second week of the new year and all, but I totally slept on posting my annual year-end poll, so here it is.
But first, allow me to reminisce a little bit. Looking back on 2007, it felt like a year of two halves, from January through July, and then August and everything after. It's trippy to think back to a year ago and try to recall where my head was at. I just remember so much uncertainty then. I felt so aimless, unsure of so much, stuck on the precipice between the past and the future, waiting for something to happen to give me the nudge I needed to propel into the next phase of my life. And it happened in the most unlikely of places under the most unlikely of circumstances, but it happened. On a trip I almost didn't take, I met a girl I almost didn't pursue, and then, slowly, the most amazing thing happened: things started falling into place. Not quite a complete metamorphosis or anything, but my life picked up momentum again and the future, once a vague, ill-defined concept, was coming into focus. Suddenly I had direction. Hey, the future that I've got mapped out actually is something to shout about! Awesome.
Don't get it twisted, though. It's not like I've got the next three to five years of my life down in permanent ink just yet. It's more like a very roughly sketched outline at this point. Ideas are still fluid at this stage of the game, but at least things are in motion. I'm extremely excited about what's to come, and I feel like I'm heading into '08 with positive momentum, which is a LOT more than I can say about this time last year. And yeah, okay, as great as that is, but believe me, I know the real heavy lifting is still to come. There's a lot of work ahead, especially over the next 8 months. And change isn't easy. It's not always going to be puppies and rainbows and cookies. It's going to get stressful at times. I know all too well that just when you think you've got it figured out, life has a way of throwing you a curveball, and also a way of balancing its books; I learned long ago there's no such thing as a conflict-free life. (When I was younger, I used to wonder why all movies had a villain. Like, why couldn't they just be all about happy good fun times? Then I realized how totally unrealistic and fraudulent that'd be. It's good to learn early on that life's not perfect and that there's always going to be a little tension to make things interesting.) With a new plan comes a new round of uncertainty, but it's different now. I'm done with being scared of change. I think I've finally figured out how to embrace it a little. I know everything that's going to be happening is for the better and that things will work themselves out. They always do. Yay optimism.
If I've learned one thing this year, it's that the old saying is true: it does happen when you least expect it to. It being love, obviously. I don't know how it happens, but it does, and it's amazing. It's one of the great mysteries of life, right up there with how airplanes fly and why the sky is blue. No one really knows anything, and if they tell you they do, they're lying.
...
Poll #1117747 2007
Open to: All, results viewable to: All
2007 was...
View Answers
better than 2006
23 (46.9%)
worse than 2006 8 (16.3%)
about the same as 2006 10 (20.4%)
the best year ever 5 (10.2%)
the worst year ever 3 (6.1%)
New Year's resolutions?
Personal goals for 2008?
Click here for previous years
