Be Proud

From A Field Journal

I think New Year's Eve is one of the strangest times of the year. We draw lines in our smartphone calendars for this party or that party, all on some unsaid urge to have fun and make tonight special. As if sparkles and alcohol could accomplish that properly.

What I do love about New Year's Eve, though, is that these lines help us re-evaluate the past 12 months. If anything, it's a good way to allow ourselves to truly analyse what made us happy, what made us sad, and what we can change by the time 2014 rolls around.

People always forget to be proud of their accomplishments. It seems that there are those who claim we're entering a generation of wimps, where parents and elders constantly look out for us to make sure we don't get hit too hard by real life. But I think there's more than that to us. Maybe because we aren't faced by certain hardships that past generations have, we can allow ourselves to enjoy different things, things that they weren't allowed to before. We can travel. We can cast our social net wider than ever before, and make friends who are more diverse than ever. We can allow ourselves to be more creative, drawing inspiration from just about anything we see.

There's so much to do, and it seems that I always fall prey to the same things as anyone else when it comes to being proud.

Here are some things I'm proud of this year. I hope that this inspires you to take a look back and see what you're proud of too.

• While I lost some good friends, I reconnected (very happily) with a few old ones.
• Finally found a writing style that I love.
• Read a lot of great books, like this, this, this, and this.
• Learned to love knitting and love tea.
• I cooked more than I did the year before!
• Did school work (curricular and extra-curricular) that I'm proud of.
• Saved money for a Reading Week trip, hopefully somewhere down south.
• Learned how to wear red lipstick and not feel like a clown.

Have a great new year's eve, whether you're at a huge party or cuddled in bed watching a movie. And countdowns are always exciting, so make sure you say 3-2-1 out loud.