TwentyTwelve

2012

"Fresh starts. Thanks to the calendar they happen every year--just set your watch to January. Our reward for surviving the holiday season is a new year. Bringing on the great tradition of New Years resolutions. Put your past behind you and start over. It's hard to resist the chance of a new beginning, a chance to put the problems of last year to bed. Who gets to determine when the old ends and the new begins? It's not a day on a calender, not a birthday, not a new year. It's an event--big or small--something that changes us. Ideally it gives us hope. A new way of living and looking at the world. Letting go of old habits, old memories. What's important is that we never stop believing we can have a new beginning. But it's also important to remember that amid all the crap are a few things really worth holding onto."

-Meredith Grey

"This coming year, I hope you create a story that you love. I hope you make something beautiful and take great risks. I hope you dare yourself to do brave things. I hope you will have a conviction and see it through. I hope you will fall in love--with art or a person or anything. I hope you have the courage to take the weak things and amplify them until your life overflows with only the good stuff. I hope you see the world and meet interesting people but above all, I hope you have an absolutely passionate love affair with life."

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."
-Oprah Winfrey

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and it's first chapter is called New Year's Day."

-Edith Lovejoy Pierce

What Charley did on New Years Eve years ago... 

I wrote in my journals on some of these occasions so I looked back and saw what happened.

2006--> I hung out my sister McHale, our friend Brooke, my boyfriend at the time Toby (name changed), and his friend Kyle (name changed). We watched a movie, played hide and go seek in the dark, and then went out to dinner. After that, we came back to my house and watched another movie. I got a New Years Eve kiss from Toby at 12:00 when the ball dropped. 

2007--> Sleepover with McHale & Lexie.

2008--> Dinner & a movie with Sam and his family. 

2009-->?

2010-->New Years Eve party at my dad's house with him, Tasha, the siblings, Sam, and Lacey. We had dinner and sparkling cider, games, and watched the Twilight Zone marathon. I wrote, "Well I have a few New Years goals for this year. Overall, I just want to be better in everything I do. I want to be the best person I can be for everyone. I want to be less shy. I want to be a healthier and happier person. I want to have more confidence in myself. I want 2010 to be absolutely, completely, "irrevocably" amazing."

2011--> Party at my dad's house with him, Angie, the siblings, and myself. We played lots of fun games. We  played Just Dance on the Wii which I won! That's right, I'm an incredibe dancer :) I stated, "I'm so excited for the new year 2011. I'm going to make it a year worth remembering, living life to the fullest! This will be the best year!"

2012--> '"Hello 2012... this is going to be my year, the best year, the year of making each day count." I worked a double shift but didn't mind. After that, Stacey (my coworker/friend) and I met up at the ISU Student Union building for this New Years Eve dance. They had free food, drinks, games, etc. The dance was rather pathetic haha... Hardly anyone was actually dancing. We talked most of the time about everything. Our other coworker Aubrey showed up and hung out with us for a while. We had fun being silly and dancing. At midnight, everyone huddled under this net of balloons on the dance floor and the net was released. We all reached for them, kicked them, threw them, jumped around, danced, shouted, hugged, and cheered for 2012. It was a fun time. 

I, for one, am excited for this new year and 365 days full of possibility, change, chances, wonder, dreams, goals, anything and everything. Lets make it count lovelies!