Heaven....

Friday, January 16, 2009

:: A Belated New Year Post ::

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true”
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Belated indeed. So belated that I have forgotten most of what I have wanted to put in writing...but at least still have a vague idea of the gist of it.

With the new year came a new realisation; but first, the thought that led to that realisation...as everyone sobered up post-Christmas celebration, new resolutions and promises were made and proudly published on every conceivable (online) medium available; Facebook, MSN personal messages, blogs etc. Which made me think...why has it been such a long time since I had last made my own New Year resolutions? Thinking back, I honestly can't remember the last time I made any...even if I did, it would have been the same one year after year; study more, pray more, go to church even more...then came the realisation I'm no longer a student. Just a year ago, we were all still enjoying the privileges of being a medical student; freedom to be a little irresponsible, a little lazy and best of all, a little playful. It's still so hard to believe that we've made that transition into working life so soon and the five years seem to have just slipped from our grasp (regrettably) so quickly. So what changes? New goals, new resolutions, a different focus in life. The career path is no longer looming ahead of us, we have already started our journey, like it or not. Even on the domestic front, those with stable relationships are contemplating marriage.

Personally, I do not believe in making resolutions. In the viewpoint of a procrastinator, short-term goals seem to be a more effective way of getting things done. The very thought of having a whole year to fulfill your resolutions just gives you a good excuse to keep putting things off for 'later'. Plus, the benefit of having short-term goals is that you can keep on changing them as you progress, thus achieving more in the same amount of time. It's like giving yourself a whole day to climb up a step as opposed to giving yourself a minute to climb that step and another to climb the next one. And the whole beauty of this is that you can even modify your goal to suit the situation. Thus begins another year without resolutions, long-term goals or expectations...here's to living in the here and now!

"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."
Oscar Wilde

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8:00 AM
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