So... it's 2008. And you know, I think this is the first time in, well I can't remember how long, that it has actually surprised me when a new year dawned. I think it has to do with the fact that the weather hasn't shifted in the ways I'm used to. It doesn't feel like it could be a new year because it never got cold like it's supposed to when the year changes over and I never went home to mark the holidays with my family and friends. Even in New Year's preparations, even going out to Waikiki to watch the fireworks, even kissing Michael as the crowds screamed, it didn't quite register that I'm going to have to start dating things with a different number.
Not that that really matters. It's just... odd.
Some of you know I write fanfiction. I've just completed (yesterday, on New Year's Eve) a project I'd been working on for four years. I'm still estatic having finished it, and my readers were just great cheering me on as I made a mad-dash to the finish before the end of the calendar year. I updated the story on December 30, noting my hopes to be done by the closing of December 31. "But luckily I get a bit more time," I said (paraphrasing myself here), "Because I live in Hawaii, so I'm at the very end of the day." And I am. There's one more hour I think before the international date line.
I really like that idea. The very end of the day. Like, we get to close everything up for the night. I feel like there's a story there, but I don't know what it is. But I feel it in me.
This year holds exciting things. I'm taking Cliff O'Donnell's class that will tie me in to policy work as a Community Psychologist -- the class goes to the state legislature, gets involved in local politics from the perspective of Cultural Community Psychology. I'm so excited about that class.
Next, over the summer, I'll be participating in the Quentin Burdick practicum that will take me for six weeks to rural Hawaii on the Big Island, living in a community of activist academics, working closely with the local community to further develop their social programs. Again, very exciting stuff.
And finally, come winter, ("winter"), I'll be closing out the year with 20 billion of my closest relatives since everyone is coming up to see me. It's just the best thing to look forward to. I love this rock, but I really do feel so very far away. Even in Chicago I never felt this cut off -- I could always just rent a car and drive home in eight or nine hours if it came to it. But my god, I'm half an ocean away from the mainland, and then almost the entire mainland away from my friends and family. It's a great feeling of anticipation to know they're all coming here.
I guess I kind of feel like, no matter what I do, this is going to be a great year. Things are in the works. I can coast through and it'll be better than fine, will be good, will be great. But I don't want to sit back and let the year happen to me. I want to be the cause, the instigator, the impetus, the drive of the good things that happen. But I don't want to take away from these great things already in the works by spreading myself too thin.
So, my grand plans for 2008: I will take my opportunities and run with them. I should be proposing my Masters in the next three or four months. I should be getting involved with Hawaii politics. I should be developing a relationship with a rural community on the Big Island. So, what I really want to do... I want to get to know Hawaii. It's time to get involved. It's time to really BE HERE, be a part of it. And I already have these parts of my year leading me to that goal... I just need to throw myself into them. Really DO them. Be an active member of my community (school, neighborhood, political, etc.). That's what I want to do this year.
My friend Jeremie reminded me that that's what I like to do, who I like to be, and what I value most about myself. So that's what I'm gonna do.
And also take ukulele lessons at Kaimuki Community School down the street.
And develop a taste for poi (haoles are supposed to hate poi).
Oh, and finish my nano novel rewrite and sell it for millions of dollars. (but that goes without saying, so I don't know why I bothered to say it)
No comments:
Post a Comment