Whatever It Takes 2012

be loving 2006
live it up 2007
don’t give up, embrace (one family) 2008
just do it 2009
new places new faces 2010
make it happen 2011
whatever it takes 2012

I don’t keep a journal, but I keep a calendar. Beyond the usual scheduling of dinners with friends, doctors’ appointments, weekend trips and weddings, I kept track of significant dates too: the Japan earthquake, the day I finished a book, the sad day of a friend passing, a first kiss.

When I look back at my year and the memories from my calendar, I laugh and become nostalgic because I think it has been a really good year. I love to see the days and miles that I ran preparing for my half marathon, the weeks spent in Paris and New York, the dates with a boy, the long weekends spent with best friends and the most impulsive day that I went to Disneyland on a Wednesday night after work and came back on Friday to work. Many things were planned while a lot was unexpected, but with all that has happened this year, I did #makeithappen.

In 2012, I anticipate a greater learning curve. While I fear comfort and complacency, I will still be at the same job and the same residence this year. Graduating from college three years ago, I wondered what it would be like to settle in a town, call it home and truly believe that it was home. I had been living year-by-year, enjoying the transient traveled life and believed I would continue this life for many years. But I feel that age fading and maybe that comes with growing up. Sometimes I yearn for the freedoms of a nomadic life again, but there is confidence, happiness and peace in finding a home.

As much as I loved 2011 and am excited about 2012, Whatever It Takes will keep me grounded. It is not my typical merry motto, but a more realistic approach of fighting against a pacified life, the hurdles that may be faced when feeling complacent or being overanalytical and dissatisfied with a situation. It is about endurance, making it work and doing whatever it takes to make something better, to make something positive. Work may get dull and living with your eighty-something roommates may not always be easy, but I can be thankful that I have a great job and enjoy the people I work with and I can be grateful that I get to know and love my grandparents that much more. Whatever It Takes is that one extra push that we may need to get through another exam, another pay check, another day.

For your motto or mine, let it be yours and let it be your year.

Happy New Year 2012.