My Favorite Time of Year

Merry Christmas! 

This time of year is most definitely my favorite. It's a time when the dust from a year's worth of work and play and experiences settles down, leaving a vacuum of space and time for reflection. In Boston, it's always cold by late December. While a layer of frost physically covers the ground, a layer of frost almost freezes of momentum of time and stops it in its tracks. So as the New Year approaches and as I enjoy the very last few hours of this Christmas Day, I reflect on the passing year. 

Our tree this year :)

In one word: tumultuous. This has been a tumultuous year. 

The world continues to struggle with COVID-19 on a daily basis and the new variant Omicron is driving a new surge in infections. This has driven worldwide repercussions. While schools and businesses were open for some, this new strain of the virus is threatening to shut down everything once again. 

There have been political and ideological tensions between the East and the West, particularly between the US and China. These tensions threaten to produce global effects as other countries take sides and each side insists on winning. 

Joe Biden became President of the US this and his first year so far has marked tremendous amounts of government stimulus spending. His signature Build Back Better plan, on which he campaigned, did not pass the Senate vote earlier this week. This has threatened to pull apart Congress, pitting the left against the right. 

2021 was also a tumultuous year for me personally. It was the year I applied to college. It was a time that left me stressed out and in retrospect, left me in one of the darkest periods of my life. It was a milestone that I couldn't seem to overcome and somehow did. But this year, my family lost a very important member of the family: our dear cat BeiBei. We still think about her every day and I still find myself growing emotional some nights thinking about her. But I know she's in a better place now. 

While 2021 started out on a rough foot for me, with high school graduation, college apps, and BeiBei's passing, I feel as if I've regained some footing. Admittedly, I felt lost after high school, unsure whether I could stay true to my values and beliefs. But over that barrier now and in a new milestone of my life, I feel as if I have found some direction. The dust that fogged my vision and battered my self-confidence seems to have settled a bit.  

Knowing this year, I'm sure it has more to show us in the last 5 days and I'm prepared to embrace whatever is thrown at us. The erraticness of our world is real. But right now, on this cold, wet Christmas Day, I'm happy. Just relaxing at home, at peace, with little on my plate for the first time in a long time.