Well, this entry marks one year of the writing of this journal. I hope it has been entertaining. *smirk*

I can’t help but thank God that this year is behind me. While filled with several wonderful experiences, it had an equal if not more than its share of not-so-wonderful experiences. And unfortunately, it is the latter that will have a profound affect on me for a long time to come. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, visit the archives.)

I do have hope for the new year. That’s one good thing that January 1st always offers: a feeling of renewal. Whether that feeling has any merit to it or not remains to be seen, but at least it’s there.

My life throughout the past year is a barage of strange things that seem to just happen to me. (I’m sure that I’m not the first person to think this.) That’s not to say that I don’t take responsibility for many of the events in my life, because I do. But this last year really makes me wonder how much of it is planned and how much is coincidence. That said, I offer the following quote to sum up my outlook on the passing of this year and the promise of a new one …

There are stories of coincidence and chance and intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows. And we generally say, “Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn’t believe it.” Someone’s so-and-so met someone else’s so-and-so and so on. And… it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, “we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.
— Magnolia (1999)