opticnerve

The year 2008 has come and gone. It started with so much promise, with a marriage proposal accepted and fanciful dreams of matrimonial happiness close to becoming reality. However, what should have been a joyous engagement turned into a bad episode of a relationship sitcom, when Mary Jane dumped me for some Hollywood screenwriter. The year ended with my family feeling the effects of the global economic crisis. My sister lost her job at an investment bank. My beloved uncle drove himself into the grave because of stress resulting from failed investments, at Christmas and so close to his birthday no less. Watching your aunt crying on Christmas Eve because she lost the love of her life is just indescribably heart-rending. This Nick Hornby quote was on my mind as I grieved with my family:

It wasn't all sad. I got a new job that I love, working with extremely talented people on an MMO game that I'm super-jazzed about. I fought hard against my innate shyness to really try to socialize at work, and it has paid big dividends. Though there was a lot of drama that threatened to drag me down, I really was able to keep my head above the melancholy and I'm a lot happier than I was a year ago. I am also happy to report that I was proven wrong in my theory that the majority of SG people are all pants, after having made the real-life acquaintance of several charming people from this site (you all know who you are).

What will 2009 bring? There is trepidation for sure because of the uncertain economic times and because of the upheavals in my family right now. I'm hopeful, though, that we will seize the opportunities to turn things around. I'm not going to go through a laundry list of resolutions, like losing weight or improving my time management skills or getting over MJ. I am resolved, though, to make 2009 count.