This is it! Ole Years, as they say down in the islands, is upon us, and New Years is just around the corner!
In case you didn't know, New Years' Eve is my birthday! As I turn another metaphorical page in my short life, I once again join the millions of people who reflect on the previous year. Isn't it funny how we reflect on our year every year as if we've gotten another chance, setting resolutions, forgiving ourselves and patting ourselves on the back for a year well-done. But what is really funny about this is that sometimes we act like our new year will now just give us another chance, when in fact each year is unique. It only happens once. We will not be seeing 2014 again. And perhaps that is a good thing.
As always, good and bad colored 2014. I went to Germany with my Dad and brother, and my best friend visited me in Ireland. I finally got to go to Scotland. I learned to surf, I graduated with another diploma, I said I love you. I worked six jobs, finished one degree and started another one, and moved house twice.
(I will leave you to decide which parts are good and which parts are bad.)
Around this time of year, with the holiday season, everyone seems to be a bit nicer, a bit friendlier, a bit more forgiving of those people shoving them out of the way at Bloomingdale's. A friend in Ireland was telling me how they liked Christmastime because people just behaved more like kind people and the kind of people we'd like to encounter always.
This reminded me of the year following September 11th for all of us in the States. After such an unbelievably harrowing event, everyone was a bit nicer, realizing we are all Americans, we have all be affected, and we all have short lives which we live together. Sometimes, we only remember our common humanity around a gorgeous time like a community-wide holiday. And sometimes, unfortunately, it takes a catastrophe to find it the strongest.
This year has taught me to remember that sense of humanity that comes with beautiful or tragic events; and with this sensation, I'm hoping to enter another year in gratitude. Because that's what it's all about, it seems. Gratitude to others for making our lives a little nicer, gratitude to ourselves for always moving on, and gratitude for life itself, short and beautiful and always a gift.
So as this year ends, here's to little life lessons that have shaped each one of us this year. May we all have many, many more, and a brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime 2015.
(I will leave you to decide which parts are good and which parts are bad.)
Around this time of year, with the holiday season, everyone seems to be a bit nicer, a bit friendlier, a bit more forgiving of those people shoving them out of the way at Bloomingdale's. A friend in Ireland was telling me how they liked Christmastime because people just behaved more like kind people and the kind of people we'd like to encounter always.
This reminded me of the year following September 11th for all of us in the States. After such an unbelievably harrowing event, everyone was a bit nicer, realizing we are all Americans, we have all be affected, and we all have short lives which we live together. Sometimes, we only remember our common humanity around a gorgeous time like a community-wide holiday. And sometimes, unfortunately, it takes a catastrophe to find it the strongest.
This year has taught me to remember that sense of humanity that comes with beautiful or tragic events; and with this sensation, I'm hoping to enter another year in gratitude. Because that's what it's all about, it seems. Gratitude to others for making our lives a little nicer, gratitude to ourselves for always moving on, and gratitude for life itself, short and beautiful and always a gift.
So as this year ends, here's to little life lessons that have shaped each one of us this year. May we all have many, many more, and a brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime 2015.
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