Well, well. This is the time of the year again when I traditionally will post the milestones of the year. Except that this year has been rather bereft of notables. There were challenges aplenty for sure, one of which was Carbokid 1’s surgery and missed opportunities such as the eroded family time with the kids. I made sure I did as much of the things that I love as possible in 2008 knowing that 2009 will be the opposite. Sure enough, 2009 was a year of deprivation!
The (expensive) plunge into photography provided a much needed push to regain a bit of sanity from work. I don’t know where it’s going to take me but photography gave me on-going projects that I can take pride of, increased my interaction with people outside my day job, made me embrace the New Media (though I won’t do any podcasts) more than ever. Photography was a balm to soothe the scars of stress.
Besides photography, I’ve a few more things to be thankful for. Despite the Carbokid’s surgery went well and he’s about to embark on his new life as a student in the country’s crappy education system. We continue to have our health, food on the table and roof over our heads.
My running routine was hacked to pieces this year. I stopped registering for races in the first quarter of the year. No PRs, no marathons. To me, life is about more running or nothing. I don’t like my once a week around the park. Running has to be a daily ritual. After awhile, I decided that I don’t want to feed my resentment on missing that part of my life. I just didn’t have enough energy to even be angry about it at the end of the day. I kept up the inconsistent Saturday morning runs to keep in touch with friends and community. My job can take running off me but not the runner out of me. I also thought that as an endurance athlete, I’ll have the patience to ride out and outlast this state I’m in.
I turn four-oh next year and I’ve some plans on what I want to do and achieve in terms of my running. I may or may not realize my dream of running a sub-4 marathon by October but somehow that’s not very important to me anymore. That doesn’t mean I won’t train hard when I return to active running. In fact given what I want to do in 2010, I’ll probably be running even more than ever before. And when I race I will continue to be a competitive bloke. But the sub-4 while very very nice will no longer be the primary driver.
Photographic wise, I want to continue learning the craft and gain greater expertise in it. That means shooting more and in the course of it develop a specialty or at least a personal style.
If you’ve read until this point, you’ll be absolutely correct to say that 2009 holds no special place in my heart. But let’s not dwell on the negatives shall we? I’m so looking forward to next year. And I hope you are too. So why not start afresh? How about a new look blog? How about creating downloadable monthly wallpapers for you? That’s precisely what I’ve done and I hope you like what you see. You can get the wallpapers from the Download page – just be sure to check back every month for the new ones.
Thank you for following my continuing adventures and leaving your comments. Have a great year ahead!
