Farewell 2007

2007 has been a big year.

It was a year of endings and beginnings, milestones and other life-changing events. I remember a teacher in high school letting us do Top Five lists periodically in class, to get the day started when we came into class with particularly apathetic adolescent attitudes.

I always thought it was fun, and ever the list-maker, I thought I would do a year-end top five full of cliche categories to sum up my year.

Top Five:

Songs of 2007:
- “Apologize" -Timbaland feat. OneRepublic
- “Stereo” –John Legend
- “No One” –Alicia Keyes
- “Won’t Go Home Without You” –Maroon 5
- “Only Grace” –Matthew West

Memories of the Year:
- Watching the sunset on the beach in Destin, Florida over Spring Break with my friends
- Finding out that I could, indeed successfully complete two math courses in the same semester of college
- Graduating
- Moving three times… oops, wrong list
- Spending my first Christmas in my parents’ new home in Texas

New York Moments:
- Discovering the washer/dryer in the studio we were living in with MK
- Walking into the apartment we now live in for the first time, and actually getting excited about living here
- Waking up to the first snow in the city
- The first time I was asked for directions and could successfully help the confused party
- Leaving IKEA alive

I have learned that with all of the changes and decisions life throws at you, you have to commit to a direction and go with it. If you stand staring at a closed door, you’ll miss everything happening behind you. And by ‘everything’, I mean life.

2007 taught me to take life as it comes. Plans are useless, but goals are important. My dad told me in high school to write down my goals and keep them somewhere I could see them often. The goals had so be tangible and also realistic. I did write them down, when I started my college career, and I recently took the time to read my list again and see that I had indeed accomplished my goals. I could hardly marvel and pat myself on the back for long before I realized that it only meant I should take it upon myself to create new ones. I told my dad this over Christmas and so instead of making New Year’s Resolutions, I get to make a new list of goals for myself.

New York is the perfect place for me right now because it is making me the best version of myself. I think AV and KR would agree that the city accepts only the best. You have to work hard to get to here, to stay here and to thrive here.

This time last year I had just returned home from the city, visiting with my friends, and the thought of moving to NYC was hidden in the far reaches of my mind.

What a difference a year makes.

"Nothing is too wonderful to be true."
-Michael Faraday