New Year Resolutions

It's close to the end of the year. I have some resolutions for this upcoming new year, 2007. Let's see what I have in mind for my New Year resolutions:

1. Practice and Improve My English:
This may sound weird to some of you. Since I moved back to Taiwan, I feel like that my English proficiency is dropping and I start to say more 'clipped English." Luckily, I am listening to ESL Podcast quite often and it helps my English to stay the same level or improve a little bit. Fortunately, my English is not dropping too fast. I have some American friends to hang out with, hopefully, they can help me pick up more.

2. Spend More Time with Friends:
Not just spending more friends hanging out with old friends but also I want to make some new friends. Ever since I came to this new work place, I don't really know much about the people I work with, except the people who share the same office with me.

3. Spend More Time Reading Bible and Other Books:
I used to read a lot (mostly my textbooks from the school) but I want myself this year to take more time reading something else, namely, magazines, Bible, books, journal articles related to my discipline of the study, etc. (I have spent so much time reading my Bible and my favorite lingustics books.)

4. Try to Be More Open-Minded and Positive:
I guess I am positive sometimes, but not that positive. I had been depressed for a while for various reasons (family issues, relationship, friendship, school, looking for a job, yadah..yadah..) but I am looking forward to a new life, a brand new life this coming year. Hopefully, things will change a bit for me.

5. Travel Somewhere:
I always love travelling. I am thinking this coming year, I can take my family to somewhere overseas. My sister has been saying if I can take my niece to Hong Kong Disney Land, I am thinking about it. Probably I may take her to go there this summer. (I also want to go to Austrilia or New Zealand as well, probably mainland China, U.S., Canada, Europe ....)

I don't know there are any more New Year Resolutions I have, but those fives are what I have in mind so far. I am sticking to them everyday and making them workable on the daily basis.

My Old Friends.......

It's always good to see or meet your old friends, especially the ones who share a part of your life with. Today, I finally got some chances to meet my old friends, the ones who I knew when I first moved to United States for my study. I don't even remember how long we have not seen each other, probably three years or 4 years. Those friends are very important to me because they had helped go through a difficult period when I was so homesick.

Today we all met at my friend's funeral. I have a mixed feeling of this because I don't really want to meet my old friends in this kind of occasion. One of our friends passed away last week because of her cancer. We were all very sad to attend her funeral because we cannot believe that everything could happen so fast and we are not even ready to accept this fact now. We cannot really believe our friend who was 27 years old and who just started her career and life in her life path now. She just passed away without having any chances to say 'goodbye' to her beloved family and friends.

Attending my old friend's funeral makes me realize that it's never too late to do something you want and it's always important to treat yourself good. My friend passed away not only because she got cancer but also because she pretty much worked herself to death. She always wanted to be perfect (and so am I), but I know there is nothing perfect but there is something good enough than perfect.

I also realized how important it is to treasure your life and what you have. I always feel like if I can have something more, there is great because I want something more. But the more I want, the more I find myself unsatisfied and greedy. Is there anything more I really want for my life? I guess if I could make a list, I would say I wanted everything I want. Be realistic, there is no way to have all you want, but you can only choose what you really want.

I also realized that there is nothing important than the people who care and love you. I used to be thinking that there was nobody who really cared and loved me, except those who wanted to take advantage of me. (in fact, I was taken advantage of so many times because I never really said no to other people. I always wanted to please everyone.) However, throught this experience of going to that friend's funeral, I find that there are lots of people who love me and care about me, but I cannot see that when I am living in my own little world. Thank you all who love and care me and who are there for me all the time.

My friends and I were not sad to meet each other again in this kind of occasion but we are happy that we can see each other again and this experience makes us treasure more about our lives and friends and everyone who loves and cares about us.

I wanna say to the friend who passed away:
"You will be missed, Rita because you had been our sunshine who always brought us laughters and joy. You are not gone but you are just traveling in another place."

May us treasure more about our lives and everything we have already.