あけましておめでとうございます。

Right now my family is playing risk and due to the lack of a good hand (not strategy) I was the first to get out. There’s techno music playing and my dad is getting ready for Sunday dinner tomorrow. And now is the time I decide to think about the end of a huge year.

2010 was definitely a crazy ride. So far, it’s been the biggest year of my life. I had my first serious boyfriend, I graduated, I worked all summer instead of being carefree, I went to college, and I officially became an adult. But no matter what my birth certificate says, I still don’t feel like an adult. I’m still the girl that wants to have sleepovers and secretly go TPing. I still throw tantrums and I like having my mom pay for stuff.

But this year also taught me to love being independent. My parents weren’t really strict in high school so I pretty much had free reign and did what I wanted to (within reason of course). But I like not having to report to my mom where I’m going. I love going grocery shopping. I love the politeness in my dorm (my mom just told my brothers she was going for the jugular; she wants to win haha).

Just like Christmas, bringing in the New Year was different than our normal family tradition. New Years always reminds me of Japan because normally, we would be in there. On New Year’s Eve, we would go to the Buddhist temple down the street and gong the gong 108 times. The belief behind this is that there are 108 sins and by hitting the gong 108 times, you are getting rid of those sins for the new year. And then in the morning, we wake up really early and climb a neighboring mountain. It’s an intense hike but watching the first sunrise of the new year is so worth it. However, staying up until 3 o’clock this year didn’t really make me excited to wake up early and watch it as great as it is. Maybe next year.

(Risk update: Mom has Asia, Australia, half of North and South America, and half of Europe).

I haven’t gone through last year’s resolutions yet but I’ve been crossing them off throughout the year. This year has been the most successful so far! I’ve been trying to think of this year’s but I keep coming up with the typical ones: be nice, be more grateful, read my scriptures, etc. As great as those are, I’ve been trying to think of some that will help other people as well as myself. I found this quote that I really like.

         "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

So my main theme this year is to help others. Somehow I will try and incorporate that into all of my resolutions.  Hopefully. But I’m ready for a clean start, a new beginning, another door---a new year.



Sunrise of last time I was in Japan.



Fujie
Oh how I miss you






There's always a new day.

 

今年もよろしくお願いします。