So This is 2008...

It’s the end of the first weekend of the New Year, and I can’t help but think of that holiday song, the one that begins “So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun.” It’s hard not too feel empty recalling those words. Taking stock of a year gone seems to force the mistakes, missteps, and failures to rise to the surface. Forget graduating college, moving to a new city, and landing a job, ringing in another new year single seemed the surest indication that 2007 had been little more successful than the last.
I know this is taking the pessimist’s way out, assuming all the other accomplishments are somehow cheapened by a perpetual avoidance and or inability to sustain a relationship, but don’t we always measure what we have in relation to what we lack? Sadly, I am not alone in this estimation. Many of my friends have seamlessly moved on from college, to grad school, careers, new cities and even new countries, but somehow we still finger love’s elusiveness as our greatest defeat. Perhaps when you surround yourself with scholarship recipients, TFA professionals, law school candidates, and Chinese language immersion students, it’s easy to feel like an underachiever. But it’s not our professional achievements that cause discord among friends. We support each relentlessly through work’s ups and downs, but seem to divide when it comes to relationships. It is more likely to be success in love rather then life that complicates friends.
What has always kept us afloat though is the promise that each year offers new opportunities for change, for growth and achievement. That hope still exists, but when our year is no longer divided by semesters, new classes, professors, internships and the regular affirmation of good grades on papers, tests, and workshop critiques, what do we cling to bolster our fragile egos?
For many of us, we try to seek out new challenges at work, causes, organizations and opportunities to expand both our social and professional networks. There are the weeks when my calendar is filled with open bar soirees, cultural events and openings, filled in with the usual nights out with the boys, mandatory birthday party appearances, and the rare movie nights with a close friend. But how are we advancing our lives with these pursuits? We no longer have an academic schedule that varies from season to season, but our lives remain uncertain nonetheless. We slip into a post-modern social stream of consciousness that allows us to temporarily forget our professional responsibilities in favor of the attending the next event where we might make a new connection, a new friend, or maybe, a new object of affection.
My father likes to gush about how he read that ‘my generation’ is the most ‘connected’ of all time, and I pretend that the analysis of our communication skills is not surprising to me, but the truth is that it never fails to astonish. We spend more energy seeking out that drunken reveler we talked to in line for the bathroom at the party of our co-worker’s best friend’s boyfriend on facebook than we do updating our resume. Stop me if you think that is a stretch, but my network of ‘friends’ seems to grow exponentially every week, and my resume may remain unchanged for the next year and a half.
So we carry on, professional accolades both material and not, stack high on our head, while our hearts remain heavy. It’s 2008, and what have I done? Well I was recently tagged in at least have a dozen photos; I added two new friends to my network, updated my profile, and wrote on a few different walls. I have no idea what my financial portfolio looks like, I’m not seeking a job change or promotion just yet, but I have a handful of parties coming up to attend. Who knows, I may meet more friends, my next boss or co-workers, or the love of my life. Like every New Year, each event can only be hedged with that song’s timeless lyrics, “Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.” If only it could feel that simple.