Episode 8: New Year's Revolution

"It's time to begin, isn't it?/I get a little bit bigger, but then/I'll admit/I'm just the same as I was/now, don't you understand/that I'm never changing who I am."
                                     -Imagine Dragons, "It's Time"

Happy New Year!

   As I close out the trilogy of specials, we're heading into a new year. Full of possibilities, opportunities, and potential. We have yet to see what all will come of 2022 - all we can do is hope for the best and try to do what we can to make the world around us a better place. 2020 and 2021 got a bad rep for a lot of bad things happening in them - a pandemic, political discord, killer hornets, violence, celebrity deaths (RIP Betty White), what have you.
    I'm sure bad things will happen in 2022. But bad things happen in every year. Pick any year in history and you can find some horrible events that took place. But I'm not saying bad things will happen in 2022 because I'm sure it will be some notoriously bad year like 2020 and 2021 were. I'm saying it because it's a period of 365 days, and it's a guarantee that some bad things will happen.
    But that also means good things will happen. It's a period of 365 days, and it's a guarantee that some good things will happen. Don't believe me? Here are some good things that happened in 2020

-SpaceX launched two astronauts into space for the first time.
-WW2 veteran released from hospital, having beaten COVID just days before his 104th birthday. 
-LeVar Burton read to people in quarantine..
-The UK gave out the first doses of the COVID vaccine.
-A petition to rename Columbus, Ohio to "Flavortown" got thousands of signatures.
-A boy in Iowa sold baseball bats made from fallen trees to help storm victims.
-A woman threw a virtual Thanksgiving for anyone who was feeling lonely.

Source: https://www.fox29.com/news/it-wasnt-all-bad-here-are-20-good-things-that-happened-in-2020

And some good things that happened in 2021...

-Tons of new Marvel content, including: Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If..?, and Hawkeye.
-Widespread distribution of COVID vaccines in the US and the rest of the world.
-Depending on your political leaning, it's really good news that Trump left office and Biden took over.
-China eliminated malaria.
-The Netherlands creates "bee hotels", helping to save bee populations.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/2021-positive-news/

So, go into 2022 hoping it will be a good year, but don't be lazy. Do what you can to be good to yourself and others. Play your part in making it a good year.

For the final interviews of this trilogy, I asked my family two questions each. I asked them first what there resolutions were, and then also what they were looking forward to in 2022. Here are their responses:

Mom:
To be more intentional
Looking forward to spring trip to Co, summer trip to Flathead, my shoulder healing!

Dad:
1. I've made 2 study commitments, to be less aggravated by the aggravating, to enjoy the small things immensely, and to pay more attention to leprechauns.
2. Becoming a better father, husband and man.
2b. Baseball coming back, spending family time, leprechauns becoming effective members of society

Brianna (Sister):
1. To be more intentional with how I spend my time with those I love. I think my love language for how I like to receive love is Quality Time and I think my favorite way to give it is Acts of Service. I want to balance the two.
2. I'm looking forward to vacations and the continued pursuit of bettering and healing myself.

Thanks to them for agreeing to be a part of this blog.
See you next week for the return to normal episodes!

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