Well, I guess New Years' is the time to look back for a year, and look ahead to the future. So I'm going to discuss my thoughts on this past year, and my thoughts on this upcoming year.
2015
I think one of biggest things in this past year is that I finally became a pretty active anime watcher, as well as started on (and finishing) a bunch of manga, and getting merch. I'm kind of glad, as I've always wanted to be an active anime watcher, but I was kinda slow before now.
The biggest event of the year, and one of the biggest ones in the past few years, is that I started college. I met a ton of people, made a lot of friends (including a few, really close ones through anime club), rediscovered what it's like to have crushes on different people (Berry, as well as a baby one on a person I'm going to call... Alien). At the same time, I've had to face myself and ask "What do I really want out of life?", and honestly, I'm still trying to figure that one out. I think all I have figured out are my majors...
Speaking of, I picked up a few new interests this past year. I realized my love of history (and hence added it to English as a major). I also picked up language learning (having worked at least a little bit on Japanese, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, French, and Turkish, with Japanese and Swedish being my best ones). I also finally got into painting (mostly watercolor).
However, I've started to see the beginning of the decay of one of my old hobbies, that one being band. I've been an active member of concert band for 6 years and of marching band for 5 (2 years just doing parades, 3 doing parades and shows). However, I can't put that same sort of dedication during my college, so I'll have to put it on the back burner, demote it to a casual hobby instead of a major part of my life, and I've been trying to learn how to deal with that.
Overall, this past year, the best way I can describe it is... growing pains. I've grown a lot as I've graduated from high school and started college, gaining new friends, discovering new hobbies, and trying to really find myself. However, it's been hard trying to translate my high school self into a college self, and letting go of the things that made high school some of the best years of my life. But in the new year...
2016
I have the feeling that in 2016 I'll have a lot of self-discovery as most of my anime club friends graduate from college and as the rest of my high school friends leave on LDS missions, leaving me almost alone (luckily I have one really close friend in college who isn't graduating yet). I'm going to have to learn to define myself in terms of me, and not in terms of who I hang out with or who I have a crush on.
I might have to learn to be responsible, as there is a surprisingly high chance I'll be Anime Club President next school year (as there is a shortage of regulars who aren't graduating).
But, who knows, the future is a mystery after all (last year I wouldn't have guessed that I'd want to double major in History along with the English).
But I do have a few goals set for myself:
- By the end of the year, be able to say you have watched more anime than I have bones in my body (according to MyAnimeList)
- Review an anime at least once every two weeks (I really need to write more reviews)
- Don't fail any of my classes (repeating a class would suck)
- Be nicer (I kinda griped to my roommates a couple times this past semester)
- Get a passport/visa (I really need these, especially if I'm going to do a summer semester abroad)
And those are mostly my goals...
Happy New Years', and I hope your guys' 2016 is wonderful. ^^
