Welcome 2011 | Life is What You Make It

As the new year rolls in, I look back at everything that happened opposed to making new resolutions.  I believe you have to examine the past before you can prepare for the future.  Even then, I don't make a specific resolution. I have goals, but they are always there and usually take more than one year to achieve.  No need to rush.  There was a lot of transition in 2010---a little too much at times but I believe I ended up where I needed to be in the  end. I always do seem to take the long way.

This was my very, very first holiday season away from home. I anticipated it to be hard, but it wasn't that bad.  I found people to hang out with and did small things to honor the occasion.  The atmosphere in China is very different for Western holidays so they kind of all just quietly came and went with out much commotion. The "holidays" presented themselves as what they essentially are: just another day.  It's not that they were suppressed in any way---the country just attaches no meaning to the holidays, the people have no childhood sentiments, and the traditions have become another import.  Christmas specifically is a fashionable holiday where young people have an excuse to shop their hearts out. This reconfirmed in me the oh-so-cliche proverb "life is what you make it."  It is the meaning and memories we attach to people, places, objects, and days(events) that make them special. Everything is the same everywhere.