Letters to 2011

sander copier

Dear 2011,

I have high expectations for you, I hope you know.

2010 was pretty darn good. I turned 21-- rather unceremoniously, but with awesomely funny gifts from my lovely roommate. I did an internship and got for-real published for the very first time, and seeing your name in print is pretty priceless, even if you have to cringe because you caught a typo. My boyfriend and I celebrated three years together by going to an art museum, coming home early, and ordering takeout from the Middle Eastern restaurant down the street. I resisted the urge to spend a lot of money. I got my first straight-A's of college. I found a professor who I truly consider a mentor. I became a vegetarian, and I can't even believe I didn't do it sooner. I discovered The Weepies and listened to them obsessively. There were low points, of course, but for the most part I was happy and healthy and had a lot of fun. Yes, indeed, you were a good year.

So, 2011, you have quite a bit to live up to. There are so many things I want this year to be. In 2011, I will turn 22-- probably unceremoniously once again-- and I will graduate from Clark University, the place I've called home for four years. I'm warning you now, I'm going to cry like a baby the last time I pack up my dorm and drive away from Worcester. I hope I find a job that I can be excited about doing what I love. I hope my boyfriend and I will be able to move out of our parents' homes and live in a cramped apartment just outside of Boston and take the T every day, him to law school and me to work, and come home feeling exhausted and content. I hope it will be a year of making dreams come true. I hope it will be a year of proving to myself and to the world that I am ready to grow up, but not too much, because I will still sometimes pretend I am a robot and dance in my underwear and play in the snow.

I hope 2011 is a year in which people begin striving harder than ever to understand themselves and each other. I hope for every day of 2011 each of us will harbor a little less ill-will, until someday, maybe a long time from now, we won't hurt each other. I hope that people will recycle more and eat even just a little bit less meat because our world is so, so beautiful and needs our help. I hope in 2011 people will love, and love, and love so hard that it hurts, so hard that they learn the meaning of it, and deeply, too. I hope that people will live for themselves, proudly.

I hope, 2011, that you will be the best year yet for everyone.

xoxo,
Vanessa


How was your 2010? What were the highs? The lows? How do you hope 2011 will compare?