Friday, December 31, 2010

Why Do We Celebrate a New Year?

If you really think about it, New Year's day is the most useless holiday. You get a new calendar, you have to remember to sign your checks with 2011 instead of 2010, some people get drunk, and almost all of us make goals that we won't keep. Most people under the age of 14 and over the age of 30 don't even stay up for the countdown to a New Year.

All of that said, I love the idea of the holiday. It is a great time to step back and re-evaluate your life and the changes that have taken place. It is hard to really sum up 365 individual days without bunching them together. Summing up a month also seems a bit pointless, it just happened. But summing up a year is expansive enough to sound important but small enough that you can still (mostly) recall what happened.

There is also that new hope for a better you. I've had many days that changed my life forever, none of the were January the 1st. Maybe that's why I'm a bit humbuggy about the holiday. The really big days when you finally step up to take responsibility for your future are never the convenient ones. It is always random one that usually is later forgotten. Here's three just from this last year that will probably go unmarked as my future moves on but that made this year something to remember.

On June 3rd I decide to get serious about losing a bit of weight. I'm not sure why everything worked out this time. Since then I've lost (and kept off) 30 pounds.

On October 23 I decided that I needed to write more. So far, I've re-edited my first two books and written the first draft on a third. I don't plan on stopping there!

On January 28 my husband and left our home in Idaho and moved to Maine. We miss the west but it has been great to experience something new.

I guess that the real use of New Year's is for one day to dream of what the future can hold. And if you are lucky it is a great excuse for a kiss!


What did 2010 bring to you guys this year? Any hopes for 2011?

4 comments:

  1. We saw you and Kris last year. Grandpa had his 90th birthday. Derek graduated from college and got a job with the college. Those are probably the three biggies.

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  2. Steve I'm flattered to be listed amongst your top three for the year. Visiting your house on our way out to Maine was one of the highlights of that trip.

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  3. No, remember we got to eat breakfast with Sarah too. But other than that, yup that trip sucked. I hope that our trip home is better planned out and much more relaxing!

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