Reflection

Well, it's a new year, and I haven't gushed about what I'm looking forward to, yet. There may be some repeats, but eh, it'll be nice to type something out again. I so rarely am motivated to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) that I may as well appreciate it while it lasts.

I'm looking forward to flourishing friendships, from those people back home who I've known for years, the people here who I am just beginning to know, and people who are at present complete strangers to me. Everything seems so new; even when I go home, it seems like so much has changed between visits that everything is novel and interesting again. The new people I've encountered, shared meals and drinks with, and sat in front of a glowing movie or television screen with have been incredible, every single one of them unique and irreplaceable. Oh and the people I pass on the street whose names I don't know, I look forward to shaking your hands, too.

I look forward to more people from back home seeing how I live now. I look forward to seeing more of them head off into the world and make new lives for themselves, or stay content in the lives they have now. I'm especially curious about the juxtaposition of the old and new, for those who would be open to such things; the environments of home mixed with the faces of Philadelphia, the voices of Minnesota speaking in my apartment.

I'm excited to see where my career continues to move. It was recently shared that I may be taking the leadership position that Brian may vacate come the summer, along with responsibilities and visibilities I've never had working anywhere. It will be a challenge, but I'm determined to continue learning and growing to fill the role when it's ready for me.

I look backward in awe of all the things I saw and learned throughout 2008. New experiences, new locales, new feelings. Obviously I've never been a college graduate before, but along with that I've never experienced a September that I was not attending school that I remember, much less the rest of the year. It was a curious feeling and almost uneasy at times, but now that I'm comfortable with it, it's fairly liberating, but a little regretful at the same time. A stage exited, a new entered.

I look on with excitement to all the things that I will see and experience in 2009. I hope last year was merely a crescendo, leading up to an even more adventurous and enlightening one.

Perhaps most importantly, though, I look forward to the people in my life and being there for them through fun and bad times. It's cheesy, yes, as is most of this post, but there are times when the magnitude of sunlight in someone's day depends solely on someone whose hand they can grasp, someone who will listen. I want all the people I love to have to use SPF-60.