Happy New Year

There’s nothing inherently special about a new year. It’s a fairly arbitrary date when we decided that everyone would get a new calendar, and we’d start our four month cycle over once again. Even so, the new year is powerful, because we’ve decided that it is.

We’ve decided that the new year is a time to start again, to get working on all the things that we’ve never gotten around to, but want to. It’s a time of hope and celebration. It’s midwinter, but it’s a time where we can look ahead and see that the winter is going to end, and the spring will come.

The New Year isn’t going to live up to the hype. Nothing is going to change tonight, just because we say it is. We won’t solve problems, just because we’ve reached 2010. If we’re going to change anything, it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

But the New Year is a time when we can believe that we can, and that’s important. A lot of people will try to change, and many will fail. But some people will succeed, and they’ll succeed because they believed enough to try.

So try to do something new this year. Try to make yourself better; try to make the world better. Create something, learn something, help someone. And don’t give up when you fail.

I’ve decided that this year I’m going to learn some new things, and I’m going to apply for Grad School. It’s a big change for me, because I’ve spent the last two years not deciding anything; not doing anything.

To who’s going to try: good luck.

And to everyone: Happy New Year.