Much like its younger counterpart, I can only assume that the fast approaching year of 2012 will also be a blur. I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast, let alone all of the things that happened during this action packed, yet apparently forgettable year. Yet I’m supposed to make New Year’s resolutions, the way our culture dictates.
I thought it would be a good time to revisit my stash of journals that live in a box in the storage room. There are many of them – some in three ring binders, some in notebooks and one in a traditional journal. Most of them had to be kept for English classes in high school but I think I went a little overboard on the requirements of those writing assignments. I wanted to remember everything about high school – the good, the bad and the ugly. Who knows why? Years ago I wanted to burn them, now I’m kind of glad I let the thoughts of the younger me live on in ink and now-faded paper.
I wondered if I had ever been one to write out New Year’s resolutions, since I don’t really remember that being a big part of my traditions. Here’s what I found for the first line of each January post:
January 27, 1992 – “The sleigh ride was fun.” (I was twelve-years-old).
January 1, 1995 – “Welcome to 1995!!”
January 1, 1996 –“I can’t believe it’s already 1996! I decided to start the new year off with a positive attitude and clear up anything that had been bothering me…”
January 4, 1997 – “Well, seven hours of volleyball sure can wear a person out!”
January 1, 2000 – “So, we made it into the new Millennium without anything going wrong at all.” (Age 19 is the last journal I could find).
The entries contain many instances of ‘stating the obvious’ and clearly there were no resolutions being crafted.
In the past, if I’ve made resolutions I forgot what I promised myself. Then in the middle of June I would exclaim out loud, “Oh yeah, this year I was going to be better at remembering to fulfill my New Year’s resolutions.” The last time this happened was 2006.
So here’s my New Year’s resolution for 2012: I will not make a New Year’s resolution.
Nope. No resolutions around here. Now goals, well goals are in a whole different category – now you’re speaking my language. In 2012, I am setting goals – achievable, awesome goals that will be crossed off by the year 2013. (Can you believe that 2013 is within reach? Weird.)
One goal is to remember to change the year when I write checks. Another goal is to achieve this goal before March 2012. Maybe I’m not writing enough checks.
So in the words of a younger me and the current me all rolled into one: Wow, I really can’t believe that it’s almost 2012. I think a good attitude this year is doable. Yep, it will be the best year ever.
How about you?