Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

While the past few years have seemed to just zoom by, 2008 really stands out in my mind as one of the most eventful ones. It saw me as an MBA student at MIT Sloan, working at FriendFeed, visiting Japan and Germany, moving back to the west coast, and get back into regular WingTsun teaching and training.

In the second week of the year I was interning at a 3-month old startup. I quickly realized that FriendFeed was a special place and that I'd love to work there full-time. Which is what I'm doing now (a little sooner than expected). After spending much of my four years living in NYC and part of my first year of business school trying to figure out what job would be right for me—something that has the potential to impact people's daily lives, that I could be passionate about and that wouldn't make me depressed to spend most of my waking hours doing—I'm happy to have finally found such a great fit.

This year will inevitably be a historic one because of Barack Obama. I found myself engaged and curious about the U.S. election process and government policies. It was inspiring to see this man who had blazed his own path make history as our first African-American Commander-in-Chief. I truly believe this to be an important step in American history because of the instant credibility it lends to the dreams of present and future generations of American children, regardless of race. Obama inspired many of us this year, and of the many inspirational speeches he gave, the one he gave in Virginia on the eve of the election stands out: Fired Up? Ready to Go!.

In personal life events, I got to watch Brett Favre play live for the first time (though they lost a game they should've won). It was particularly meaningful since I got to share the moment with my Dad, who's also a big Favre fan.

2009

My New Year's Eve was not particularly notable, but I was happy to get to spend it in New York. We watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, grocery shopped, then ate dinner (Indian food) and hung out at a buddy's apartment in Fort Greene (Brooklyn), where we played "Dig" (a speedy version of Scrabble), watched TV, and consumed snacks and beverages.

I've had enough resolution attempts to realize that my list doesn't have much variance: more music playing/writing, try to improve Chinese, play more basketball/tennis, read more, ... I used to get frustrated at the slow progress I make in each of those, and wonder whether I should just give up something. But I can't. So here's to continuing along the path in my areas of interest. Maybe one of these years they'll have their 'hockey-stick' moment. Maybe it'll be 2009.