Don't let the door hit ya' '08!

This year has been tough. Death, Robberies, Disease, Recession, Disapointment,Rejection.

It has flat out sucked.

I learned alot this year though and I decided I'd share it...

~appreciate my loved ones, and talk to them more, get to know them really.

~smile more, because life is too short to spend it frowning.

~understand the idea of earning, spending, and saving..because it's always good to do a little, as Daddy Dukes would say "cutting back" once in a while.

~don't trust so easily, because people aren't always what they show me.

~BE WHO YOU ARE. <--This is my most important one, I never was who I really am untill recently, and it feels so good to finally be me.

~Stop and appreciate the life in front of me, because so many people don't have what I have.

Those are my broad ideas, but I have learned more and more what it means to just appreciate.

Appreciate my family, my friends, my valuables, whatever it may be, just be grateful.

I lived my life very different before, always looking to get this person to like me, and look like this person, but now, I have learned, due to some key people in my life, that I can't be something that I'm not, and the faster I learn that, the better off I'll be. And I have.

The passing of my uncle, made me regret not ever talking to him, for real. It put into perspective how much of my life I spend just "going through the motions", never really stopping and paying attention. Appreciating the way the moon looks that day, laughing about something my brothers said, asking my grandparents to tell me stories of "when they were a kid."

Goodbye 2008. You've been a horrible year. I hope nothing as bad as this year ever happens to me or my family ever again. But it's over, we have a fresh start.

So yes, for the new year, I will try to loose weight, and I will try to be nicer, but my real new years resolution...

To listen, watch, understand, and appreciate the life I was given, and notice the little things that make it wonderful.