This is the end, my beautiful friend

A new year is approaching increasingly rapidly, so I figured I'd post one last post this year. We could call it "2008: An Epilogue". Or we could call it nothing.

Either way, I find it fascinating that we celebrate the end of a year or the beginning of another, whichever you fancy (I guess this is one of those half-full/half-empty debates), because what have we actually done or achieved? Not died for a year. It's the same with birthdays. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of celebrating things, no matter how mundane or weird they might be, I just find the reasons for our celebrations fascinating. Maybe its got something to do with the whole 'fresh-start' aspect of an oncoming new year, people seem to have a tendency to distance themselves from their (bad) pasts with imaginary boundaries. I include myself in that category.


But so, what did 2008 bring with it? An economic crisis of huge proportions, an inspiring election, continued wars that we felt bad about but did nothing to stop, the best Batman movie so far (this was a huge deal to me), Spain winning the European Championship in football (equally awesome). And on a more personal note - going to IDFA in Amsterdam, and subsequently becoming inspired; working on my own movie that I love; making a bunch of amazing new friends; getting a job I absolutely love, and keeping it; buying a green and gorgeous typewriter named RITA.

So all in all, it's been a pretty good year. It's had its ups and its downs, definitely, but that's life and life is great. It doesn't matter if you've been sad or had a bad year, at least you've been alive and living. This is worth remembering (I have to remind myself as well from time to time).

And what should we expect of 2009? I know I feel fantastic about going to the new year, I feel inspired in many ways - to make my movie and 'Baby Steps' the project I think I've mentioned and which you'll hear more of in the future. I'm gonna start taking Dutch and Spanish lessons. So it seems like this could be a good year for me, nothing wrong with being optimistic. And what about more globally? I hope Obama can bring a change to the most powerful nation on earth, I hope the world will wake up to the deterioration of our environment, I hope people might change their consuming habits, I hope some of the wars on this planet might be brought to a peaceful end, I hope people will smile more, I hope people will hug one another more, I hope...

Carpe Diem!