So it's the day before new year's eve and considering the fact that it's not just the end of the year but the end of a decade, I thought it'd be appropriate to take a time out and take a look back on where I've been. Every end of the year, I have this ritual of reading through my collection of writings and looking through my many photos as a way of somehow reliving and recapturing those extraordinary and, well, not so extraordinary moments. All too easily and all too often we forget what we did just last weekend or even yesterday and so doing this is my own little way of refreshing my memory.

...And so, I just spent the last couple of hours reflecting on key moments from the past year...and damn, there have been many! There have been surprises and challenges at almost every bend of this road and it still shocks me to realize how much I've grown and changed in this relatively short time. I've experienced my first death (a conception that is still so abstract to me), my first real heart break (a place of lost and hurt that I hope never to find myself in again), and my first solo travels (a euphoric feeling of liberation and discovery like no other). This year I lost two important people in my life, one through death and the other through a break-up. But at the same time, so many new people have entered my life and in such little time, have managed to capture my heart completely. I've made friends who have simply swept me off my feet and reconnected with the one that I've missed. I've grieved and I've laughed like I never have before. I've been to the absolute heights of ecstasy and, on the other end of that spectrum, what seemed to be the bottomless freakin' pit of despair. But even while in that awful aforementioned pit, the everyday heroes of my life emerged (as they often do) to listen, to talk, to sing, to dance, to drink, to hold my hand, and even to just sit in absolute silence. And let me tell you, there is nothing more humbling than to experience such acts of unconditional love and kindness.

2009 has been a defining year, no doubt. A tumultuous year, to say the least...and yet I wouldn't have had it any other way. So here's to 2009, my year of grief and laughter, of loss and discovery, and as for you 2010...you better watch yourself...cuz I'm gonna be bringin' it ;-)