Time marches on…

So it’s New Year’s Eve and now millions of people around the world are reflecting on the past year and looking forward to what the New Year may bring. As well as planning inventive ways to get drunk and have a “good” time.

I’ve been reflecting, and this year hasn’t been too bad for me. I’ve been here and there, done this and that and met a couple of people. Of course, there have been highs and lows, but overall I’d say it has been an above average year.

I think I’ve learnt a lot this year, and it’s strange, because I remember a couple of years ago talking to a friend who was then seventeen and he said you do learn a lot about other people and yourself when you turn seventeen. And it’s true; I have learnt a lot about how people work and who to trust, and social things like that.

One of the biggest things for me this year was finally being able to pretty much do as I please without my mother ringing my mobile three thousand times a day, just to check where I was. It has amused me (and her) the tales I have to tell her about my escapades the night before, and her pretending to be angry with me (and saying in her slightly African accent: “So you think you’re a big boy now?”).

But social liberation comes with its own problems. And I’m not just talking about the mundane problems of how to get from A to B without missing the last train, or where to meet up with everyone. I’m talking about problems where you have people within your group of friends that clearly don’t like each other (which causes tension), or having two or more groups of friends and feeling like you’ve chosen one over the other. It’s a difficult situation to be in, even worse if you’re squarely trapped in the middle.

Another lesson I’ve learnt is how quickly your life changes. I knew before that one minute you can be on top of the world, and the next minute you can be down in the gutter, but it struck me just have amazingly fast things change. Things really can ‘fall apart,’ which is sad, but hey, what can you do?

I guess I’m still on the massive learning curve that adolescence brings. It’s quite interesting stuff, I suppose. Much better than learning about the xylem and phloem (which is what I should be doing right now).

Oh, and by the way, I’ve also learnt that nothing good comes with getting drunk, so whatever you decide to do today, do it sober. Trust me; your liver shall thank you for it.

Peace.

P.S: For quizzes about 2008, click here. For stuff to look forward in 2009, click here.