The Year of Change
According to Chinese beliefs, each time your year rolls around on the Chinese zodiac there will be a major change in your life. This year, come January 22nd, will be the year of the Monkey; my year. This year I will turn 24 and this year, I’m told, I’ll experience a significant change in my life. How this change will manifest, I don’t know, but I have the rest of this year to find out.
It makes me think back twelve years, the last time it was the year of the monkey. I was twelve years old, in seventh grade, and back in Maryland. What great change happened to me in seventh grade? That was the year I started becoming successful in school. That year I went from struggling to finish our pre-algebra tests ten to fifteen minutes after class to finishing the tests within the first twenty or thirty minutes. It was when I really started setting goals in my life and looking forward into my future. Twelve years ago, that’s when I first became interested in computers and started down that path that brought me to where I am today.
Here I am now, approaching my year of change. Where will it take me? What rich experiences or tests of will are in store for me in the next twelve years? Will I look back twelve years from now satisfied with my successes or disappointed in my failures? The future continues to be both terrifying and thrilling. All I can do is continue my march forward and see where my choices take me.
