New Year's Eve

So evidently 2009 is ending tonight. I'm not really sure where the past 365 days went, but that's what the calendar tells me.

I guess it's been a pretty eventuful year. During 2009 I graduated from college, got very tan, moved from California to Boston, (sadly) lost my tan, started my first real job... and then there are some other things I'd better not mention here.

I think the strangest part about 2010 will be not being a student anymore. Because in school, it seemed like every year was going to be different... different schedule, different things to be learned, different people to meet. And of course in school, you are working toward the ultimate goal of earning a degree. So it always seemed like graduation served as some kind of driving purpose behind the things I was doing, or at least some kind of reward at the end. But I'm not sure how I like post-graduated life. If getting a degree has been my goal for the past 4... 8?... or maybe even 16 years if you consider all those long years of education leading up to this point... then what is my goal supposed to be now? Because I have a job, and while I guess I'm glad not to be unemployed and bumming around right now, I can't say that the "real" world actually seems real or meaningful at all, or that I have any long-term goals related to this world. Maybe to survive through my first year at this job and come out with some kind of a personality in tact, but that's about it.

After that... well. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be waiting around for some kind of magical enlightening moment to occur where I suddenly become wise and understand the secrets of the world, or if I'm supposed to be figuring those out for myself. Personally I think it would be nice if a white owl named Hedwig would just come along and tell me.

Sometimes life seems like it's going to take a really, really long time. I'm pretty sure that it's not, and that I'll end up becoming one of those slightly annoying old ladies who goes around exclaiming how time has flown by. But right now I can't even imagine what it will be like to be 30, or 40, or maybe even 25. It's weird not to be measuring time in terms of academic years, or summer vacations, or whatever else I've been doing up til this point. Maybe everything is going to blur together now. I'm not sure if I like that.

Anyway. It looks like my sunny 60-degree Californian Christmas will be followed by a very cold, white New Year in Boston.

Remember to wear you red or yellow undies at midnight, depending on what you want the new year to bring. Red is for love, yellow is for wealth. Don't ask me where I got that from because I don't remember. Just do it.