Also known as: The 2010 recap that I thought I wouldn’t be doing
I really wasn’t planning to do this, for reasons that I do not know because I was really feeling lazy. But my sentimentality reared its head and I felt the need to do a recap of how 2010 was, even if I thought it was quiet for the most part. Perhaps this is the wise part of me saying that I need to do this, or maybe because I don’t feel like reading so I do the next best thing: write.
Anyway. Like I said, 2010 was mostly quiet. This is relative to 2009, which totally beat me up as it ended, so I’m pretty sure my definition of quiet in 2010 is not the same as others. Nevertheless, I do consider 2010 as a good year, even if it isn’t really as busy as 2008.
So what exactly happened in 2010?
A word of warning: this is a very long entry.
January
I started the year by attending my friend’s mom’s wake. :( I think I speak for all when I say wakes give you a chance to reevaluate your life and your relationships with other people. I never met my friend’s mom, but from the stories I hear from her, she seemed like an awesome woman. She’s doing a 365 days of Mom in her blog, so you may want to drop by and read about this woman who raised such a beautiful person.
And to further emphasize how life really is in the world, I attended a surprise birthday party for my friend the next day. It was the first of many, many surprises for the year, and it was fun! Plus I realized how much I love Grimace the mascot, especially when he (she? it?) looks like this:
Ended the month by having a team building/planning with some office folks in Baguio. It was the first time I went to Baguio again after 11 years. Fun times and I love, love, loooove the cold weather. Friendships, can we go to Baguio again before January ends?
Like I said in one tweet, the time I blog the most is whenever I have a new blog, or when I have a new layout. There’s something so exciting about writing whenever there is something new, especially if it’s so new that it’s practically empty. Or shiny. Or both. :)
But it’s even more fun to blog because it’s the New Year. The turn of the year is always the most exciting part of the year other than my birthday or Christmas or Easter. New year means a blank slate, a time when everything seems plausible, and there are an infinite number of possibilities waiting for us to be discovered. And claimed.
And because I’m a sucker for all the New Year hullaballoo, this post is a dedicated to that. :P
Image from weheartit.com
2010 was…a strange year. Strange, not because many odd things happened, but because it seemed pretty quiet compared to the past few years. I used to set a theme for every year. 2006 was a different year, 2007 was a difficult year, 2008 was the year of the extraordinary, 2009 was the year of the unexpected. 2010 was a year that I just wanted to come because 2009 (especially the last few months of it) felt like it was a bad and neverending nightmare. I just wanted to get to 2010 just so I can say that 2009 was over.
I wasn’t expecting 2010 to blow me away, and now that I think about it…it didn’t. There were so many good things that happened last year, though, and I am honestly very thankful about that. It’s so quiet that the end of the year kind of took me by surprise and it took me a while to accept that it’s ending already. Right now I’m still trying to recall the stuff that happened, the smaller ones that I should remember, but they’re fuzzy. There wasn’t even too many monumental things, but I do remember the people, and some of the events and the happiness that comes with being with them.
How to describe 2010 still kind of evades me, but I’m happy it happened. It was almost like God was giving me a chance to rest after a tumultuous 2009. And maybe it is His way of letting me recharge, you know. Of letting me recover from the challenges of the previous year. And I’m pretty sure it’s his way of preparing me for the year ahead.
In the past years, I’ve always made new year’s resolutions. I like writing down goals, I like challenging myself to do new stuff or more stuff (or both). However, I realized that I barely accomplish half of those goals, and this non-accomplishment just ends up frustrating me. I guess that’s what being young does to you: you set out to do so many things that you spread yourself out too thinly and only end up doing a few things and not all. That is also how we set ourselves up for disappointment, don’t you think?
Oh so emo on the first day of the year.
I’m pretty sure I only accomplished half (or less) on my 2010 goals. And I honestly do not want to beat myself up with it. Past is past, you know. Move on. No use crying over spilled milk. [insert another cliche here]
As 2010 came to a close, I wasn’t really thinking of things I need to accomplish the next year. In fact, the only thing I was thinking of as midnight came were things that I need to start doing if only because I can’t stand not doing them anymore. So instead of writing a loooong list of goals that I know I won’t be able to accomplish anyway, I will just focus on a few things that I need and want to do this year. And they are:
Drive on my own. I’ve had this in my resolution for the looooongest time, almost like the lose weight resolution. I’ve managed to lose a lot of weight successfully, and since that proved to be doable, driving on my own should, too. After all the hassle of commuting I experienced last year, I need to learn how to drive. Especially now that my brother is married and is not around to fetch me anytime I need him. I must drive. I MUST DRIVE.
Go to Spain for World Youth Day. I missed World Youth Day Sydney in 2008 (quite miserably, if I may add), and I was pretty heartbroken about it. I was pretty sad about it. Late 2010, I was asked if I want to attend the WYD at Madrid and I jumped at the chance. I still have a lot of papers to fix and my bank accounts need to get ready, but I do want to go to Madrid and finally experience a World Youth Day. So, by God’s grace, I will go to Spain on World Youth Day in August 2011.
And those are the only two things I can think of. It may seem easy for others, but for me, this is already quite…daunting. Having fewer resolutions means it’s less excuse to not accomplish them, you know?
Oh, but I have other side projects in mind, but let’s not put them in the goals list. For now, those two are the BIG, FUN AND SCARY THINGS TO DO IN 2011. Big, fun and scary, all right.
Early today, as I was doing some reflecting, I felt that someone was telling me, “It’s time to grow up, Tina.” And maybe it is. I am turning 25 this year, and…well, maybe it is time to start focusing on some grown up stuff that I’ve refused to acknowledge in the past years since I turned 21. What are those things? I have yet to figure out.
And now I think I’ve rambled enough. That is one thing I don’t think I can get rid of this year. Sorry everyone, you’re stuck with me (as long as you keep reading my blog, anyway). :P
