Each new year I come up with some sort of guiding notion for the following year- a mantra of sorts that somehow relates to my goals and aspirations. It’s just a way for me to ruminate a bit on the previous year, think about what I want to happen next (albeit in vague terms), and have some linguistic fun. 2000, for example, was my year to be LUDIC AND LUCID, which turned out to be somewhat prophetic in that it was the year MSG and I began our great romance (unsurprisingly, he’s done wonders for the ludic side of things).

2002 was my year for BALANCE. While it may lack the clever wordplay, I liked it because it’s something that I traditionally cannot do well, and the notion was meant to capture all aspects of balance- in work, play, mind, body, soul etc. While I didn’t really figure out how to balance the demands of graduate school, I made some serious progress in balancing work + play (so much so that I’ll need to quit the balancing a bit so that I can actually graduate). I also think this is an aspect to what my sister, Kerry, and now Anna refer to as my Turning Soft (sounds kinda dirty or/and scatological, doesn’t it?).

And so 2003 is to be the year of CONTACT, as dubbed by Anna. I like this one, and it seems to follow BALANCE rather nicely (the alternate was CONNECTION, which added way too much pressure). I've also realized, in this last week, that it will be a year for WILLPOWER as well. Here I’m thinking of my endeavors to honestly quit smoking and to write my dissertation; right now these two tasks feel like the most daunting challenges I’ve ever faced. And to add to it, I’ve decided to train for a half-marathon in April. 2003 may actually turn out of be my year for MASSIVE FAILURE.