As I sit here a year later writing again to the last 365 days, I think about where I've been, what I've seen and done, the crests and the troughs, the people still by my side, and the one's I no longer see or hear from. I think about what the future holds.
In many ways 2019 for me could be seen through the same lens of pattern recognition that 2018 and the last 10 years before it could. In a less dramatic sense, I pressed on, "in the face of aridity and disenchantment" (Desiderata), achieving great things, seeing more of the world, and experiencing new lows that I could not have predicted.
I traveled to 10 US cities, lived in the Southeast, Midwest and the Northwest, witnessed extreme poverty in Colombia juxtaposed by connection and joy, drove 3000 miles from Florida to Seattle, aged another year, and had the time of my life with my family in the Southwest, completing what some consider to be the scariest hike in America. I advanced my career, advanced my learning, advanced my experience and worldliness, advanced my physical body, read fascinating books, worked on fascinating assignments, and continued to develop friendships that I cherish, all the while, quietly dealing with and contemplating the cruelty and unfairness of our biology.
Perspective is a powerful ally and yet it is tool for comfort in theory only. Perspective of the world, gained through experience, travel, conversations, and learning, will help you to conceptualize your place in the world, in the dynamic spectrum of fortune and misfortune, but it will not shield you from unrelenting physical pain, ambiguity and uncertainty, and the ubiquitous nature of our own mortality. This I have learned.
What I hope to learn in 2020 is how I can improve myself, my circumstances, my attitude, my friendships and my contributions to others in the face of the hard facts that perspective alone cannot triumph over. But I must be thankful for where I've arrived, and work with what blessings I do have, for they are bountiful and plenty.
To my friends and family, thank you for continuing to support me, continuing to adventure with me, and continuing to be by my side during the good and the bad.
2020 will be another year of achievement and success, that I can promise, by my own hand and by my own actions. If the past is any indicator, 2020 will also come with new challenges. 2020 will be a new year to yield new learning and new experience, and a new year to continue striving to answer omnipresent questions. To continue the cartography of life itself, through choppy waters.
To 2019, you were an interesting trip around the sun, you were surprising and yet predictable. You were exciting and humbling.
To 2020, you will be interesting, surprising, predictable, exciting, and humbling as well, yet so different and new.
To life, I'm grateful for time received and grateful for more time granted.
In many ways 2019 for me could be seen through the same lens of pattern recognition that 2018 and the last 10 years before it could. In a less dramatic sense, I pressed on, "in the face of aridity and disenchantment" (Desiderata), achieving great things, seeing more of the world, and experiencing new lows that I could not have predicted.
I traveled to 10 US cities, lived in the Southeast, Midwest and the Northwest, witnessed extreme poverty in Colombia juxtaposed by connection and joy, drove 3000 miles from Florida to Seattle, aged another year, and had the time of my life with my family in the Southwest, completing what some consider to be the scariest hike in America. I advanced my career, advanced my learning, advanced my experience and worldliness, advanced my physical body, read fascinating books, worked on fascinating assignments, and continued to develop friendships that I cherish, all the while, quietly dealing with and contemplating the cruelty and unfairness of our biology.
Perspective is a powerful ally and yet it is tool for comfort in theory only. Perspective of the world, gained through experience, travel, conversations, and learning, will help you to conceptualize your place in the world, in the dynamic spectrum of fortune and misfortune, but it will not shield you from unrelenting physical pain, ambiguity and uncertainty, and the ubiquitous nature of our own mortality. This I have learned.
What I hope to learn in 2020 is how I can improve myself, my circumstances, my attitude, my friendships and my contributions to others in the face of the hard facts that perspective alone cannot triumph over. But I must be thankful for where I've arrived, and work with what blessings I do have, for they are bountiful and plenty.
To my friends and family, thank you for continuing to support me, continuing to adventure with me, and continuing to be by my side during the good and the bad.
2020 will be another year of achievement and success, that I can promise, by my own hand and by my own actions. If the past is any indicator, 2020 will also come with new challenges. 2020 will be a new year to yield new learning and new experience, and a new year to continue striving to answer omnipresent questions. To continue the cartography of life itself, through choppy waters.
To 2019, you were an interesting trip around the sun, you were surprising and yet predictable. You were exciting and humbling.
To 2020, you will be interesting, surprising, predictable, exciting, and humbling as well, yet so different and new.
To life, I'm grateful for time received and grateful for more time granted.
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