2007 Year in review

Yes, I know.  This is a terribly cliche'd thing to be doing.  After all, perhaps at least 90% of the people in the world who blog would have posted this same entry, in a form or another.  And I was always one of those presumed 10% blogging population who never did write about my 200X-Year-In-Review.  Well, here it is.

Before I begin though, I just want a chance to explain for myself on what made me sit down on 8 a.m. New Years day and write an entry on something as cliched as a Valentine's day rant on Craigslist. (Update:  my friend Tess has since popped in the movie "The Holiday" and we ended up falling asleep to that until Ben and Jess woke us up 3 hours later, hence this post being published 2 days after the New Year celebration.)   As a kid, my parents would ask me about MY year in review.  Mainly on Chinese new year, but it serves the same purpose.  Back in high school, my review generally is surrounding my then aspiring swimming career.  I would say something like "I got 2nd place in whatever event in some important swim meet of the year" to my dad.  And usually the response I'd get will be "So...when are you going to be 1st place".  You get my point.  It wasn't too bad, since part of being a kid is that there's always endless possibilities and I always, ALWAYS believed that I was going to see my rival in the next important qualifying time trial and beat him, even by a touch.  And that was fine.   What was not fine was when my mother started asking me the same question, but will not allow me to rejoice in the positive happenings but instead, to dwell in my mistakes.  And I remembered hating that, but subconciously, I was slowly getting brain washed into having the same exact pessimistic philosophy my mother held.  To be quite frank with you, I can see why she did that.  As much as I hated it, part of growing up and looking back also made me realize the pros and cons on methods my parents used in the upbringing of my brother and I.  She wanted me to keep competing, even with myself, and never feel like I've done enough right in life, and never feel like I've ever trully won.  I get it.  But this type of thinking is becoming increasingly harder and harder to live with.  I am not the best just yet.  I'd like to be, but I'm still getting there.  Yet everyday I feel like I'm not good enough, not for myself, not for my surroundings, never...for my parents.

I believe I'm slowly getting over the fact of feeling not good enough, and I believe that making myself write a review on my year will help.  This doesn't mean I've accepted second-rated work from myself, it just means..I can see the positive elements in my life and build on that.  So, without further a do, here it goes.

2007:

-Bought a new car, paid full premium insurance for the first time in my life, and managed to always get a full tank of gas.

-Paid off all my debt.

-Got a promotion at work (technically it was late 2006, but the raise didn't kick in until 2007).

-My uncle passed away, and that actually brought me back closer to my aunt.

-Became eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship and realized that I need to find the extra $600 to do it (Anybody want to contribute?)

-Still, did not lose weight.

-Statyed single

-Hung out with the brother more often than 2006, which is something I meant to do.

-After more than 10 years of separation, my sometimes very childish parents finally started filing for divorce.  Keyword:  Started.

-Lost some commitment toward my church due to the new increasingly busy schedule.

-Wisdom teeth's been hurting since summer and for some strange pathetic reason, it is still in the back of my jaw and is currently hurting as I type.

-Played through the Rabbit game on Wii within 5 days, and watched the entire season 3 of Grey's anatomy in 2 days.

-Rocky and Joce got married, Vincent got married, and a crap load of others got engaged.

-I turned a quarter century old.

I know some of the above listed items are definitely random and completely irrelevent to the topic.  But I tried.  I never remember what  happened when I'm trying to look back.  All I know is, this is definitely a much better year than the previous 3.  Wait for the new year resolutions to come.

P.S.  I had a pet peeve just for this "P.S."  that occured while I was stuck in traffic today, but now I can't remember.  So we'll have to come back to that.

P.S.S.  I had something else here specificly for this "P.S.S." but I can't remember that either.

...more to come.