Last Christmas

It's a little insane how quickly time flies. And it's a little insane how much can happen in just one year.

Happy birthday blog. You officially turn one year old today.

So much has changed since then, and yet, so much has stayed the same.

My older sister is getting married. Married! I still can't quite wrap my head around that. And it was painfully obvious this year. Instead of forming alliances and plotting how to take down Park Place during our family Monopoly tournaments, she was off visiting her soon-to-be in-laws. She's not just my sister anymore. She has extended cousins and great-aunts to have dinner with.

I don't like sharing.

No, I lie. I don't mind sharing. I don't like change. Why bother fixing something that isn't broken? And our family is a well well well-oiled machine. Everyone plays a specific role - my little sister is the tomboy, while my older sister plays the protective, yet ridiculously girly one, and I'm the rational one. So when you've been wronged in an argument, you go to my older sister first and have her rage with you about the injustice of the world, before you come to me and realize that hey - you were a little wrong too, and then you go hang out with my little sister who somehow makes everything better with a trip to Starbucks.

Our balance was off this Christmas.

But that's life. Things change, and you change with it. Adapt to the new.

As I flipped through my old posts, trying to figure out what to write today, I came to the realization that I need to be better at adapting. I'm so used to clinging on to what's familiar, to what I know. Yet, reading my posts, I was shocked to see that those times when I was most ecstatically happy were all times when I took a chance and ventured out of my comfort zone.

My family, friends, school are all changing. And I've been stuck in the same. In the familiar. I've wanted to stay there. Where I thought I knew what to expect. But the course is changing, and I'm suddenly the only one standing still in a fast-paced city. Even as I try to hold on to the familiar, I'm realizing that everyone is changing around me. What was once familiar is now vastly different.

It's time for me to pull up my roots and learn to grow in different places. In the unfamiliar.

Bring it on, 2007. Though I'm a little apprehensive, let's see where you end up taking me.