2013 is here, and after a monstrosity of a sleep-in (even by my standards), I thought this might be an appropriate time to reflect on the year that has come to an end, and perhaps share a few of my hopes for the new one.
2012 was a hell of a year. Seems like I’ve been saying this every year for the past ten years or so, but this time as well it holds true that as the year ended stuff had happened in my life that I despite my wild imagination hadn’t thought possible at the beginning of the year. If 2011 was a year of getting back on my feet after unfortunate and tumultuous events, 2012 was a year of using that momentum to accomplish things, and riding the waves of success. A fun year, an intense year, a year of disappointment and success, and most of all a year of learning. My favourite kind of year.
I succeeded in at least two of my goals for the year: to finish my bachelor’s degree in astronomy, and to successfully participate in NaNoWriMo. Apart from the joy those things brought me I also managed to do quite a tremendous amount of things.
I went to five gaming conventions. A habit I hope to keep up, since I know of hardly any other place where I feel so at home and have so much fun even when surrounded by strangers. I decided to stick to a vegan diet even after my one-year pledge ran out. I moved to a new apartment together with my co-habitant. Yay, twice as much space! I went to China on tour with the orchestra. I went mountain-hiking with good friends to the top of Kebnekaise. I got a summer-job at the department and learned a tiny bit of radio astronomy in the process. I did, for maybe the first year ever, not fail a single one of my exams. I saw Emil Jensen, Opeth and Dark Tranquility live in concert, and on a related note re-discovered the joys of headbanging. I started running and made some progress in the quest of learning to love it instead of hating it. Still have a long way to go, but it’s a start. I got to know a whole bunch of lovely new friends, but also drifted further away from a few old ones. I fell in love, but also got heartbroken. I took up role-playing again, but also let my sword lie neglected and unused. I dreamed and hoped, and saw some of it turn real before my eyes, but also watched a good deal of it crumble into pieces. I was not sick as much as last year, and I might have procrastinated a tiny bit less than usual. But then again, I might merely have found new ways of procrastination. I learned a great deal, about others and myself, and also about the Universe in general.
Well, that pretty much sums up the past year, as seen from the centre of my own egocentric world. Maybe it would be more constructive of me to reflect on the political situation in the world instead, but I figure I have to get myself sorted before I can even begin to understand the mayhem around me. That, or maybe I’m just scared to take a look outside my comfort-zone. I care, I really do, it’s just that reading the news fills me with such a feeling of frustration that I just want to cover my eyes and ears and pretend that everything is all right. And I do try to make the world a better place, if not by screaming at the barricades then by my everyday choices. I believe that form of activism is essential if the demonstrations and opinionising are to have any effect in the end.
So, 2013. Happy new year, I hope. I will make two resolutions publicly, with the intention that this will spur me further to fulfil them.
- I resolve to finish draft number two of the book I wrote during NaNoWriMo in 2013. Knowing me and my ambitions this will be a tough challenge indeed, but bring it on I say! I stand ready with the pen in my hand, and I refuse to further muzzle this creativity of mine.
- I resolve to be brave. I will not let silly little notions such as “it’s scary” stop me from doing things I really want to do, or from saying things I feel are important.
How about you, dear reader? Do you have any resolutions to make, or any hopes of what the new year will bring? Or do you think that the practice of using the fact that the Earth has successfully completed another orbit around the Sun as an excuse for introspection is silly, and just won’t bother? Either way, I wish you will live the following year in interesting times. And if you consider that to be a curse rather than a well-wish, then I suppose it must suck to be you.
Love and hope,
Winterdragon
