Year in Review (because if you keep a blog you pretty much have to)

12/30
December is once again set to yield power back to January, its unwavering usurper, and we find ourselves at the end of another year. Looking back over 2007, I can’t escape the feeling that this has been one of the more important years in my life. With all that’s happened and that I’ve experienced, the innocence and ignorance of childhood seem as far off as ever, and adulthood has managed to tighten its lasso around my ankle.

It’s been an emotionally charged year for me: elation as I helped usher good friends into marriages, the mournful celebration of another friend’s life, heartbreak, as much pain and joy as I have ever experienced, all accompanied by the steady thrill of life as a mariner – life seasoned with salt.

It’s interesting how this year of so much change and uncertainty will be followed by a year that promises very little of either, as my fate is more or less outlined in the itinerary of the Picton Castle’s trip across the north Atlantic. Not that I am complaining.

It’s been a year of coming full circle as a sailor. I spent the summer sailing as crew onboard the Harvey Gamage, the same ship where I first fell in love with seafaring as a kid. On top of that, while getting some formal marine safety training last month and found that the man with the beard sitting next to me was the captain of the Harvey Gamage that same week when I was there ten years ago.

I have found this year that life at sea augments all of the traits in me that I knew existed, yet hadn’t really been tested: commitment, courage, leadership, and selflessness. If life on a tall ship can’t bring these out in you, then you don’t have them. For my part, I was pleased to meet them.

With all that came in 2007, I am excited to see how 2008 will follow the act, just so long as it is without all the bummer stuff.
Right, I resolve to never have sad things happen in 2008...?
But seriously, you just can’t ring in the New Year with realism. Have you ever tried to party with a committed realist? It’s awful. Nothing but talk of gas prices, or the fact that Walt Disney was anti-Semitic, or that Iowa State will never field a national championship football team. No no, I will ring in the new year with the most unrealistic expectations possible. My friend the realist would call that “hope.”