Wednesday #53 - A Year of Goodbye's

So, 2014 huh? Quite the year, quite the year indeed. And as this year draws to it's inevitable close, I look back on it and I see that it's been a year of goodbyes. I've said goodbye to so many things in across the past 53 Wednesdays, but because you guys don't live my life, let me go back over them:

• I said goodbye to How I Met Your Mother, a show that could always cheer me up whenever I was down. Goodbye HIMYM, and all the laughs you brought me.
• I said goodbye to Marching Band, the backbone of my life for the past 4 years. For all of my high school life, that was the one thing that I could count on being there, but now its gone, and I'll never see it again. All of those memories and friends, the hot summer days and the freezing cold October rains, are gone. Goodbye Marching Band. Thanks to you, I've gone farther than I thought I could.
• I said goodbye to The Hobbit, the story from my childhood. The tale I would remember more than it's name, that I was read to by my father, that was the basis of who I am. This year I had my last look into Peter Jackson's view of Middle-Earth, and I felt such sadness at its passing. Goodbye Bag End, the place where my mind could rest, with the bright yellow door and the shiny brass knob in the middle. 
• I said goodbye to the seniors of last year, and felt as I took on the mantle of senior in my school. Goodbye to old friends moving on, and to days of greatly ill-conceived ideas. 
• I said goodbye to Cheers, and all the friendly faces in that bar. Goodbye 1980s topical references that I only half get. 
• I said goodbye to my first real relationship, but in the end it was going to happen. 

That's really all I'm saying goodbye to, but why focus on only the things that are going away? Why not look towards all the things that will come in the next year. Like the fact that I'll be going to college next year! Or that I've found some really awesome friends to move forward with, and the future looks bright with them! How about the fact that I've still got another indoor season of percussion and a school musical left in my high school career?

That's how life goes. We are always saying goodbye to things, but we're also looking forward to the next thing to come. This leaves us with only a few options really: either we go through life looking back at the things that have ended and never see what's happening, or we keep our heads up and move down the path we walk. Of course, you can't forget to pay heed to the things that you've done or left behind, but you can't let them tie you down.

All of that being said, let's get to my new New Year's resolutions:

• I resolve to go back over this blog and put something up for all the posts that I missed, something I aim to do before January is out (so keep checking back here for those).
• I resolve to start up a podcast where I bring in friends and we examine movies through various critical lenses (which means we watch Disney's Cinderella and determine that it's a warning story to proletariat about not becoming the bourgeois when they revolt.) With any hope, I'll be posting about one or two a month. 
• I resolve to be happier in the coming year, because there were times in this past year when I was way to unhappy.

Well, that's all I've for you guys. It's been great doing this (the times that I did), and I really can't wait till next year. Because, I dunno, I might keep doing this into the new year. probably not once a week, but who knows, maybe this place will turn into Across 53 Thursdays...
Eh, that's something I'll let you guys to figure out next Wednesday...

this poem is an award winning piece that I wrote for a local poetry competition:
Only Sorrow

Death comes not swift to those who wait for him

He waits in the shadows, he waits in the doorway

He waits in every window, and every mirror, and

In every puddle on the street, but he does not stare.

Death sits and waits without hungry eyes

There is no hate in his gaze.

Only sorrow.

But those who wait become impatient for Death.

He will not come with haste, but they wait.

Four cannot leave the Gates at a trumpet’s call,

Just as Death will not come to those who call him.

So they rush out to meet him, eager and glad

But Death looks back without joy

Only sorrow.

And then there are those who send others to Death

They ease the path to his comfortingly cold embrace

And he shepherds these lost souls, but still he waits

For the one who made the flock he saved

And when the wolf shows without the sheep’s skin

Death looks at them without hate.

Only sorrow.

No one sees Death, sadly, till the end

When he knocks, softly, on their door.

But it comes, rap rap rap, coldly welcoming

And we love Death then, but others hate him

Spitting his name with anger and rage, rage and anger

Death sees: he does not mind

Because he knows one day that

We will come with him

Finally taking the path

That leads from

Only sorrow.

…rap…

 

"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." - Theodore Roosevelt