Twenty Ten

Twenty-ten? Two-thousand-ten? Two-oh-ten? Whatever you're calling it, it's here. A new year, a new decade, an entirely fresh start.

I love that it's new and fresh but...has it really been 10 years since Y2K? Instead of doing the usual, here's what I did last year post (I like those, don't get me wrong) I'm going to visit my life ten years ago...

I was in sixth grade. I had a boyfriend named Toby. He was adorable but he wanted to be like Stone Cold Steve Austin when he grew up. (I'm pretty sure that's where the relationship went awry.) I played clarinet in the school band, Titanic was still my favorite movie, and the Backstreet Boys' Millennium never left my CD player. My best friend was Amanda, I had known her since kindergarten because our dads were good friends. (She did a little backstabbing that year, though.) I wanted to be Lizzie McGuire (not Hilary Duff, Lizzie McGuire.) I adored the Olsen twins and I was sure Aaron Carter was my soulmate. I got braces, which I would end up wearing until tenth grade. On a more serious note, I was dealing with my dad's MS. He had been diagnosed in 1998 but didn't start seeing serious effects until two years later. He could no longer walk, he could no longer be an electrician, he was depressed. That was a difficult time for all of us. I felt silly for pining over a stupid bag or shirt I wanted when I knew my parents were struggling to make ends meet with my dad not able to work. That's where my adolescence differed from everyone else, I think. But in every other way, I was a normal sixth grader. And I knew the world wouldn't end at midnight.

And it didn't.

And I was all, "I told you so!" No really, I was. Because computers know that after 1,999 comes 2,000, right? Right. Computers can control corporations, surely they know how to count. And why would it reset to 1,900? That's random. The more I think about it, the more random and silly it sounds.

I love looking to the past, seeing how much things change (and doing that thing where you tell younger people, "In my day we had Clarissa Explains It All, not that Hannah Montana you whippersnappers have now.") I also like looking to the future because there's never a dull moment in military life!

My plans for this year include, first and foremost, getting a car. Well, two cars. We need to be a two-car household. I also plan to do some traveling, in and out of state. I'm going to get my Etsy shops back up and running. I'm also going to do a lot of actual running. I've got my goals laid out, now all I have to do is it.

So I encourage you to do it this year. Whatever your it is, get it done and have a great 2010!