New Year’s was always a peculiar holiday for us in the Morgan household. It was hard for us kids to get excited about a holiday that to us looked like an adult holiday designed to help the parents and grandparents overcome the Christmas celebration from a week before. It was more a “whew”, we got through that holiday rather than a,”wow”, let’s get excited for the new year kind of thing.

 

New Year’s as a kid was for me nothing more than another holiday on the calendar where we didn’t have school.

 

As I got older, and I started my rebellious, early-twenties to thirties years —  New Year’s got a lot more interesting and fun. We’d gather as “buds” and go to bars and flirt with the girl folk. Believe me, there were plenty of times I partied way too much and should not have attempted to drive home.

 

Thank God I survived.

 

Now, as a mature adult, I feel New Year’s Eve is no longer that significant to me as a holiday. It’s become a reminder of the fact I’m on the other side of the hill and the speed at which I’m descending is accelerating.

 

I think the only real significant New Year’s Eve I anticipated was Y2K — where just about everyone (including me) was anticipating some sort of global meltdown due to computers not being able to figure the change from one century to the next.

 

I don’t usually set resolutions for the new year either, since I have never been able to successfully adhere to one in my entire life.

 

One year, while in my twenties, I planned to stop drinking. That lasted maybe a week.

 

Another year, I planned to save money for a nice vacation. Two weeks or so in — that resolution crumbled.

 

Another resolution decree one year had me dedicating myself to joining a gym and working out with the hope of gaining that Sylvester Stallone physique.

 

I got bored with the system and ended up paying for a year’s worth of membership at a club and using just two month’s worth.

 

Resolutions are hard to keep. And they get harder to keep as you get older.

 

Sometimes, a simple resolution such as trying to be kinder can appear to be one that can be accomplished — then by February 9th you realize you just cursed at the driver of a car next to you and that resolution gets flushed — just like all the preceeding ones.

 

How can one keep a resolution? Can it really be done?

 

Well, I’m gonna give it another shot this year. For 2016, my resolution is to create a bucket list of 12 actual, tangible quests (I’m calling adventures — one for each month of the year) with the hope of crossing each one off the list as I go.

 

The list will have some simple missions and some hard ones, but I plan to put a wholehearted effort into accomplishing them by year’s end.

 

Okay, accomplishing half by year’s end.

 

Oh, who am I kidding? If I accomplish one of these crusades, I’ll feel fulfilled.

 

How about you?