The New Year is Upon Us

So here it is. The last day of 2011.

In recent memory I can't recall a New Years eve that didn't involve me expressing a desire to be rid of the previous year. Generally this is mixed in with sentiments about the soon to be had drinks. This year is different however.

Despite a few ups and downs and a start to the year that was "rocky" at best, 2011 was pretty damned good to me. I started a job with my current employer that I was well suited for. It was a stressful job for a few months, but it paid the bills and ultimately led to my current position. One that I feel I'm perfectly suited for, and actually enjoy quite a bit.

I moved from a rather low class accommodation into a beautiful apartment of which the novelty still has yet to wear off 7 months later.

I've said goodbye to some friends, and grown closer with others. I've learned that while my life has led to a relatively small circle of friends, those friendships are strong and very important to me.

I've made what I consider to be some great strides forward in my personal life and my way of thinking about the world around me. Placing greater importance on the things that matter, and letting all of the little, unimportant nuisances that used to consume me, sort themselves out.

So this New Years I'm breaking with my unintentional tradition of lamenting the previous years hardships. I'm going to set aside a recap of the things that made 2011 difficult in favor of remembering how much further ahead in my life I am compared to 365 days ago. Like I said, while this year was far from perfect, and had some definite challenges and low points, the good has far outweighed the bad at the end of the day (and year).

So for the first time in quite literally decades, I'm looking forward to the oncoming year. Not because I'm desperate to be done with the previous one, and not because I'm looking forward to some "reset" that gives me the hope of a clean slate, but because 2011 was such an improvement over 2010 that I'm excited to see how 2012 can improve on that.

I have no doubt that there will be challenges and hardships ahead, but that's life. I'm sure there will be many a post on here complaining about some mundane issue that's driving me mad, I am after all still me, but I'm also sure that I'll get through it.

At the risk of sounding corny and sentimental, 2011 was a warm up for 2012. The last 365 days have been practice of a sort for the oncoming year. Maybe 52 weeks from now I'll think differently. Perhaps I'll be writing a lengthy diatribe about how 2012 was horrible and I can't wait to be rid of it. For now though, bring it on.

I'm ready.