Old Long Since

Apparently, that’s the literal Scottish translation of “Auld Lang Syne",” the song typically sung at New Year’s. The song with the melody everyone knows and the words no one knows. More “idiomatically” (according to Wikipedia), it means “long, long ago.” That seemed more appropriate for a near-end of the year blog post.

Yesterday, I aged another year without the world being profoundly different for it. For me, however, this year has been one of the most influential of my life.

Long, long ago, I stepped off a canoe onto the banks of a Peruvian village called “Shevojah” where I slept in a tent, ate more power bars than I ever care to eat for the rest of my life, and faced the first major and irrevocable change to my life plans in quite some time.

Long, long ago I made the decision to return to CLR for summer 2009. Anyone who has ever spent more than an hour in my company knows how integral that place has been in my life for the past year. Past three years, if we’re honest with ourselves.

This year I went to more weddings and heard about more engagements than ever before; however, I’m certain 2010 will surpass 2009 in that happy respect.

This past semester, Fall 2009, was my last semester in undergraduate classes; I worked harder in those four months than I think I ever have at more tasks than I’ve ever had to tackle. I think I miffed many people with my slightly hermit-esque behavior at school and with my tendency to flee to camp almost every other weekend. I don’t regret it, but I do hope to cling harder to my social life in 2010. Perhaps as a student teacher, that is a fool’s hope. We’ll see.

This year taught me many pretty lessons, the most stunning of which was learning that being a professional writer is not actually one of my dreams. Even the world of fiction writing becomes tedious if visited too often and out of obligation. My goal for my life, then, is balance. Never making the things I love too overtly into jobs.

Many people make resolutions at this point… mine, I think, are simple enough.

1. Love more.
2. Talk less.
3. Walk more.
4. Sit less.
5. Read more.
6. Watch less.
7. Pray more.
8. Worry less.
9. Trust more.
10. Hide less.

We’ll see how it goes, won’t we?