Happy New Year! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Another year has passed, another is beginning. We’re back at an arbitrary point in our rotation around the sun, so people will get drunk and spend too much money on dinner. (As for me, I’m in Phoenix, hanging out with my parents and planning on doing very little this evening.)
Arbitrary though it may be, the end of the year prompts reflection. For me, after some big events in 2013 — buying a house, getting into and out of and into relationships — 2014 was a year of continuity. On December 31, I have the same apartment, job, and girlfriend as on January 1. I’m still in school, working on that master’s degree in Asian studies. I spent three weeks in Korea this summer, like I did in 2013, again in pursuit of academic goals. I traveled to a couple of new places — a resort in Costa Rica as part of a work event, Tobago for a friend’s wedding, and most significantly, Israel — but I’ve also traveled in past years.
So it was, as the sign says, a year in which “the current trend is reinterpreted” rather than reinvented. What stands out most about 2014 is that I shared it with someone in a new way, and I got to be part of her journey as well as my own. (Out of respect for my partner’s privacy, I don’t tend to blog much about my dating life, but she’ll be OK with everyone knowing that her role in my life added a lot to 2014 for me.)
And what’s up for 2015? Big things. Stay tuned.