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| Strasbourg, France |
The way people have been talking about 2016 you’d think it
was the worst year on record. Celebrities died, a demagogue was elected
president (or were there two?), wars continued to rage, there were typhoons, plane
crashes and earthquakes, and, well, more celebrities died. Given the
circumstances, it’s understandable people would think that, although I don’t
find it particularly logical to blame the year for a tragic but completely
arbitrary set of events.
As for me, as much as I’d like to jump on the good-riddance-2016
bandwagon, it hasn’t been too bad. “It is an impressively arrogant move,” Tina
Fey once said, “to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is
empirically not good.” That’s kind of how I feel about the year. Just because
most everybody’s saying it’s been crappy, doesn’t make it automatically so.
I’m not being a contrarian; 2016 has definitely had its
share of WTF moments, but I choose to be grateful for all the good things that have
happened this year. I’ve always thought of myself as a
cynic, but to look back and focus on the good is strangely pleasurable. It’s
like finding something to like about a movie that everybody else hated. Somehow,
it feels like an act of defiance.
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| Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany |
I sometimes think about the significant things that happened
during a specific year and I draw a complete blank (like what the hell did I do
in 2008?!) but 2016 will always be the year that rekindled my belief in love. I’ve
written about this twice already in the last few months, so it kind of feels
superfluous at this point. But for someone who has often rolled his eyes at lovers’
open, uninhibited expressions of affection, I’m not ashamed to say that it
feels weirdly satisfying to be on the other side. Again.
On the travel front, I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunities
to explore more of the world this year than I have ever had in the past. Return
visits to Beijing and Japan; multiple trips to Singapore; an unforgettable
jaunt through Europe; and a first-time visit to Bali; this year was what was I
dreaming about back when I thought that the farthest I could ever travel was to
the local mall by bus. If more people could get the chance to see and
experience how people from other places live and work and eat and shop and
love, I truly believe there’d be a lot less hate and division in the world. (My
naivete is all too real, but my indifference to what other people think is
catching up).
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| A Mini Cooper Cabriolet in Bali, Indonesia |
It was also this year that I got a much-needed ego-boost in
terms of my writing. People who know me best are aware of my hesitation to call
myself a writer, even though that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing as a
profession for the last 12 or so years. From 3000-word cover stories I’m
actually proud of, to an actual, honest-to-goodness writing award, this year is
probably the most “writerly” I’ve ever felt in my life. To me, it’s not enough
to string words together into coherent sentences and paragraphs; the job of a
writer is to make sense of the world around him and to communicate it in a way that
is compelling and true. Anyone with a blog or a Facebook account can call
himself a writer, but to be a writer in
the tradition of the greats—the Shakespeares, Rizals, Hemingways, Wildes,
Hitchens, et al of the world—that takes courage, tenacity and skill. One has to
earn it. I’ve never thought that I’ll ever get there, or that I’ll ever possess
the confidence to append that honorific before or after my name, but this year
was the first that made me really think that yeah, maybe I can, and I will. One
day.
Lastly, 2016 was the year in which more bonds were formed
and friendships were solidified. It’s never easy to part with people you’ve
always thought would be long-term companions in this struggle through life, but
a few loyal first mates is infinitely better than a 100-person crew of
questionable motives. Investments in friendships don’t always guarantee an ROI,
but human relationships are fickle, and you do the best you can. Past a certain
age, you quit trying so hard to please people and just focus on the ones who
treat you with the love and respect you think you deserve. No fucks given to
those who don’t. I count myself lucky I get to grow old with a small group of
people that I am proud to call my friends.
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| Me in Ryoan-ji, Kyoto, Japan |
I turn 37 today and these are the things I am most grateful
for this year. Whether these are outnumbered by the bad things that happened is
irrelevant. Natural calamities, genocide, fascist chief executives and dead
celebrities aside, 2016 wasn’t so bad. If I can say the same this time next year
about 2017, hell, that’d be fantastic. Until then, this is life as I know it
and I intend to live it the best way I know how: always open, always curious,
and, above all, always grateful.
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