There's a song from Rent that most of you must know that goes something like this...
"Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes.
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights,
in cups of coffee, in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife..."
Every new year I can't help thinking about this song. I look back to the year that has just ended and think: How do we measure a year?
In days? minutes? Parties? People?
When I look back to my 2010 the amount of things that happened this year really astounds me...I began the year with a trip to NYC with my best friend at the time to celebrate my 20th birthday, I played soccer, I injured my ankle while playing soccer, I was part of the production of a shortfilm,I went to see Coldplay and The Sounds on concert, I worked all sumer, I was the art director of a show in the theater I created in summer too, I saw my sister who I hadn't seen in a year and a half, I went back to painting, I traveled across the country, I visited Baja twice, I went whale-seeing twice, my grandma passed away, I had to quit school for a while, I lost my best friend but made a lot of new friends who I adore, I saw my sister again, I started this blog...really 2010 was a year of highs and lows, and there will always be lows, but the important things is to climb "up" again.
All of this is part of 2010. 2010 now belongs to the past, but I'm taking all of this things into 2011. Everything we live, everything we experience builds us, it makes us who we are, and no matter what happens we learn from it and we move on. Now we're moving on to 2011 but we're taking everything 2010 taught us with us.
And it may sound like I say this every year, but I think 2010 is the year I've learned (not academically of course) most in my life. Maybe I can't come up with an exact number of how many things I learned, but this is how I'm measuring my year because it's what I'm taking with me along the way.
I learned that the only thing that remains constant in life is change, as ironic as that may sound.
I learned that you can't always get what you want, but sometimes even when it's hard to acknowledge it, you get what you need.
I learned that fear is useless. When you think about what could be worse things that could happen...the truth is nothing.
I learned that things aren't always as we think they are, there are always to sides of the story and we only see from one point of view. Sometimes we need to go a little distance to see things from another perspective.
I learned that drama is really useless.
I learned that there's nothing like spending time with your family.
I learned that you can plan as much as you like and talk about the future, but talking about the future is like writing bad checks, so fuck forever.
I learned that it's entirely up to you when you want something.
I learned to never say never...and I learned that as bad things can seem to be, time is wise and sometimes we must give time itself a little time to sort things out.
So to everyone who was part of my 2010 and who in some way or other helped me learn all of this: thank you.
And thank you 2010 for a year of experiences, opportunities, lessons, friends and memories.
2011, bring it on. I think I already love you.
xx, em.
