Everything and Nothing.

Something about the New Year is supposed to stir us. We're supposed to be moved by the fact that things can change, people can change, we might stick to our resolutions, etc. These almost always become methods of cheap sentiment. There's no truth to whether or not anyone really does anything different than what they did before. Other than having sex, finding someone, getting more successful, etc., there's not much to really change in life.

I don't know where I fall in the argument of "everything changes or nothing changes", though. I think saying that the new year's full of boundless possibilities is a bit cheap and kind of pejorative all the same. People notice all the time that dates happen, but they only let it become an impact because THEY feel it is important. In actuality, New Year's Day and 2009 in general is nothing amazing. We came off of a year where nothing amazing, in theory, happened. Or it did, but everyone gives the perception that nothing amazing happened.

I might even agree more with the perception that nothing changes on New Year's Day, but I think this is also pejorative and built on weakened, cynical perception. Life changes on a day-to-day basis, so by default, people are wrong to say that nothing at all changes. Whether it be by birth or death, people come onto the earth and change things. We make feel the world is all the same, but it's really not. It's only the same because we view it that way.

As for my beliefs on the subject, I think a lot has changed and will change in my life. By proxy of being in college, life HAS changed and it's been for the better. I won't make any naive statements about the greatness of college or the greatness of meeting people that in reality, I never might truly know. Still, life's different, and it's going to be way different in 2009, just not the radical shifts (or non-shifts) that some people tend to think.