I am not a very Holiday oriented person. I mark them passing, but they are, for me, essentially extensions of the weekend. Days with less work, and a little more peacful, with a reduction in the amount of phone calls and emails. Of course, I go through the motions for the family, as it is important to have these touchstones.
This year, though, I find myself truly happy to see the passing of the year, and the dawn of a new one.
2007 was, personally and professionally, a simply horrible year. Maybe not the worst of my life, but certainly not the best.
It began, in earnest, when on Jan 2, I found out that a friend and mentor had passed away. As January progressed, we discovered at work that making the transition to a new software platform for the business would be slightly more painfaul than the two weeks of chaos we had been promised… It was more like three or four months.
Things went that way through the summer, until late this fall, we found that my brother had a serious medical problem, that might have been cancerous as well.
As the year ended, my Brother is fine, and mending, but my friend and mentor is still gone, and his legacy is fading fast. It looks like issues at work have bottomed out, and may start to improve, though I am finding that there are other opportunities out there.
2008 will have it’s own issues and problems. It started last night, with the Fireworks “computer error” at the space needle (Y2K08), and near the end we will have another Presidential election to live through.
But, it’s another chance to try to get things right. Good luck to everyone for a better year!