Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life, I don’t know what this song means. I mean, ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot’? Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot?
Sally: Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something. Anyway, it’s about old friends.
For whatever reason, the new year has never really felt like much of a new beginning to me. It falls precisely in the middle of the school year, and I was a student for so long I suppose September was always the real new year.
This is my first new year as a sort-of real adult…and I don’t really know what to make of it. 2010 might have been my best year ever, so far. It’s been a rough road, in a lot of ways, but it’s also been the beginning of coming into my own, of settling in to the friends and the habits and the quirks that will carry me through life.
In 2010, I…
-graduated from college
-traveled to Boston, New York, Iowa, and Georgia, in addition to the old standbys
-helped build two houses for Habitat for Humanity
-taught high schoolers about writing
-sang in what may have been my last recital ever
-had a lead role in a musical
-went berry picking and made jam
-visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder house, waded in Plum Creek
-went skinny dipping at midnight with friends in the river
-explored the state fair
-wrote a children’s book about fossils for my senior thesis project
-built a magical fort filled with fairy lights and slept in it for two straight weeks
-met a bunch of wonderful new people while working at the college all summer
-had a spectacular birthday, surrounded by (almost) all the people I love, complete with giant round balloons and champagne. my friends really are the greatest.
Here’s hoping that 2011 is as lovely as this year has been.
sounds like it was a fantastic year. even 3 years out of school january doesn’t feel like the start of the year. in fact, i’m really not a fan of new year’s at all. but i’m gonna keep my chin up and hope that 2011 is good to all of us. new beginnings can come at any time right?
oh meg, your post on auspicious beginnings made me feel so much better about accidentally breaking my new year’s resolution…on january first. the worse the beginning, the better it’ll get from here, right?!