Reflections & Projections

2010. This is one of those years that is defined as “the future” in many movies from the 80’s and earlier (Hmm…2010: The Year We Make Contact would be a great title for a movie). One of my resolutions for this year is to start a journal. Journals strike me as a way to vent and talk about things that I don’t otherwise feel comfortable talking with other people, even family.

Before looking ahead, let’s look back on what happened in 2009. The biggest event in my life last year was unquestionably moving to Virginia. The whole soap opera is far, far too detailed to get into here, but I’m happy to have settled in my place (but it still needs some personality and decoration). My new home is closer to DC, there seems to be a great number of events in the area, and I’m still within driving distance of Baltimore so I can go back to visit my friends and family there at will.

Moving to Virginia was nearly usurped as the biggest event in 2009 for me by a shocking and upsetting event: my parents splitting up. My mom called me on a Friday afternoon to suddenly tell me she was moving away from my dad and that she needed my help to move her in an apartment the next day. That was the day before Halloween. The next several weeks were extremely tough for me, and seeing the toll taken on my father and my sisters made it all the more difficult. I have many friends whose parents had split up, and when I was growing up I had always appreciated having my family as a single unit. Having had a taste of what it’s like to not have a single family unit gave me a new appreciation for how fortunate I have been in life. The good news is that my parents have been seeing a marriage counselor for several weeks and look like they are fixing their relationship. There’s still a lot of work to do for them though, so this will be an on-going thing well into 2010.

Moving ahead to this year, there’s a lot that I want to accomplish. This blog/journal will hopefully become a regular thing, possibly involving a new entry at least twice a week. I’d also like to take a REAL vacation, not just some weekend getaway to the beach or anything. I haven’t taken one in years, and I keep saying I’ll do it eventually, but I always back off. Of course, there’s also the cliché of hitting the gym regularly as well. I had started a gym routine a couple months ago, but I had slacked off and need to get it in gear.

So I raise my glass and toast a new beginning. This year is going to be a big year. And I hope to look back on this blog later in life and reflect more on how life has changed over the next 30 years.