Next Year's Words

Hi, everyone!!

Happy New Year!! I hope it will be a year filled with much happiness for all of us. But don't just sit there and wait for it to come. Go out there, and get it!!

In my last post, I mentioned that I bought my mom a copy of Corduroy. I ended up giving it to her on New Year's Eve.  She had oral surgery earlier that day and came home a bit drowsy and tired. As soon as she saw the book, she started smiling and said it was the perfect gift. It felt good to make her smile. She does so much for me so this was the least that I could do.

Richard with Corduroy

This past week, I've started to reorganize certain parts of my room. During the craziness of the semester, things inevitably get messy and during breaks, I like to rearrange my desk, my clothes, etc. If I'm in a certain kind of mood, I can clean for hours. I find it cathartic to go through my old things, get rid of what I don't need, and just make everything more organized. It's a good way to start a new year.

New Year's Eve is always fun with my family. My mom cooks a nice dinner, we eat a lot, and then we watch the ball drop. It's going to feel strange not to do this when I'm older and have my own separate life.

My attempt at making a centerpiece

Floating flower

The cake

Watching Ryan Seacrest

One of my New Year's resolutions is to work out more often (something I share with probably 98% of the American population) so the last three days I've been doing stretches and slowly getting back into doing yoga. I was first introduced to yoga in the first semester of my sophomore year in high school. From that time up till the end of my last semester in high school, I took yoga at school (except for one semester when I took dance). After I graduated and went to college, I basically stopped working out. I had a million excuses: not enough time, too much schoolwork, I was tired, I didn't need to work out, I regularly took long walks, etc. The bottom line was that I wasn't making the time for this really important thing. At various points during the last two and a half years, I've tried to get back into working out and doing yoga, but I've never been consistent with it. A few months ago, my mom made a comment about me not working out so I decided to start doing it again. But once again, I wasn't consistent. So now my goal for the new year is to do some stretching and yoga everyday no matter how stressful and/or busy my day has been. So far I've stuck to my schedule, but it's only been 3 days so we'll see how it goes. Right now, my legs feel all achy because they're not used to being stretched like this, but I honestly welcome the ache. It feels good to take care of my body, and I find that physical exercise actually helps my mind feel clearer and work quicker, which is great.

Another thing that I've decided to do for the new year is something that I actually saw on Facebook in 2012. Starting on January 1st of the new year, you write down one good thing that happened to you each day on a small piece of paper. You place these papers in a jar, and when the year is over, you can take them out and see all of the great things that happened during the year.

There was a snowstorm last night so much of the area is covered in a beautiful blanket of white snow. (Unless you go to Manhattan, where it's probably turned to gray slush by now.) I love snow, but what's bad about today is that it's super cold outside so I couldn't even go out to enjoy the fluffy snow. =( I'm one of  those people who loves to be outside so I feel suffocated when I have to stay at home for too long. Hopefully, it will get a bit warmer, and I'll be able to go out again.

If you're looking for something different to read over these cold winter months, I recently put together a list of graphic novels for an article I wrote in the Macaulay Messenger.

Good luck to all of the high school seniors who are patiently waiting to hear back from colleges. I feel your pain, but it's all worth it in the end.

Stay warm!! <3

S.

Quote of the week

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.”

~ T.S. Eliot