Reflecting on the year
– and the decade – that was
As one year ends and another begins, I prefer to look forward
rather than backward as I consider my life’s path. It is tempting
to reflect, though.
I want to focus on what I can do and do better in 2010 rather
than what I did not do or did poorly in 2009. I’m not eating as
well as I had resolved to do at the start of ’09, nor have I had my
40-year-old male health exam.
Reflecting on the year – and the decade – that was
As one year ends and another begins, I prefer to look forward rather than backward as I consider my life’s path. It is tempting to reflect, though.
I want to focus on what I can do and do better in 2010 rather than what I did not do or did poorly in 2009. I’m not eating as well as I had resolved to do at the start of ’09, nor have I had my 40-year-old male health exam.
I started working out at the gym this week (I’ve said that about 30 times), resolving to stay with it and get back in shape. I didn’t fix the broken ceiling fan in my family room as I pledged to do at the start of the year, but I did buy a replacement fan, so that resolution was successful.
I re-painted the drawer in my kitchen that I had been ignoring for a couple of years, so that was another victory (even though the paint didn’t match the rest of the drawers – hey, another resolution for this year).
As the year began, I pledged to get my truck washed more than once and I think I did – maybe it was twice, but it was a resolution met. It did get rained on a lot, so that kind of counts. And I didn’t start working on my book but I did start working on The Breen Blog online, so that’s something.
It seems the best way to meet resolutions is to set the bar really low.
Apparently, the first decade of the 21st century is also over, though it doesn’t seem right that 2009 is the end of a decade.
When the decade began, I was the editor of The Free Lance, I had recently turned 30, and my sons were ages 3 and 5 – just getting ready for elementary school. Ten years later, one of my jobs has me working in the same building (for the Free Lance’s sister paper), I recently turned 40, and my sons are 13 and 15 – just starting their high school years.
In the Free Lance’s look back at the decade that was (see freelancenews.com for the list), the sewer moratorium was rightfully called the top local story of the past 10 years. While some people hailed the halt to building as a necessary stop to the rampant and often ill-planned explosion of residential growth in our county, it negatively affected a lot of people and forced many tradesmen to commute out of town like so many others to find work.
Other stories, such as the Mike Rodrigues rape trial, upgrades to Hwy. 25 and the E. coli outbreak that garnered national attention, also made the list.
In my life, the story of the decade is that my wife and I have raised two relatively well-adjusted kids who make their parents proud. The decade went by so fast that it doesn’t seem possible that our little boys who were in preschool and kindergarten are now in junior high and high school.
Technological improvements have been highlights of the past decade, during which I went from carrying a pager to carrying a touch-screen, Web-enabled cell phone. Back in ’99, I had a VCR that recorded shows on tape. Now, I have a DVR that magically records shows and lets me fast-forward through commercials. Ten years ago, I had a few dozen channels on cable. Now, I have a few hundred channels on satellite.
Ten years ago, my beloved San Francisco 49ers were ending a decade of dominance with a measly 4-12 record. Today, the Niners are ending a decade of disappointment with the goal of finishing at .500 with a victory this Sunday. My, how expectations have changed.
I’m not sure where I’ll be in a year and I certainly can’t look ahead another decade. I can only hope my family is doing well, my truck is sort of clean and the Niners make the playoffs. A man can dream.
Check out Adam’s blog at http://thebreenblog.blogspot.com. Adam teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School and is a reporter for The Pinnacle. He is former editor of The Free Lance.
