Like Stuff.

It’s been a great year. I did a bunch of stuff I never thought I’d do—start my own business, navigate Quickbooks, start planning a trip to Nepal, become quasi-knowledgable on a handful random topics (re: gold mining, butter, the palm oil crisis, plant stem cells, etc.) and get an iPhone. That last one is the biggest shocker. And for all of these things, I couldn’t be more grateful. I find myself thinking a lot about how drastically this year turned from very bad to insanely good, and I feel fortunate to have lived to tell the tale.

It’s all this transformation that got me to thinking about life in a very philosophical sense, and the main thing I want to talk about is something I have determined just in the last couple of days. It’s the meaning of life. Or, what I believe to be an important part of my life. And that thing is: finding stuff you like.

This epiphany came to me after seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with my friends Lisa and Nadine on Saturday. I had tried once to read the book, had trouble getting into it and gave up after about 50 pages. But I was so enthralled by the movie that I can’t wait to read the entire series and obsess about the premiere dates for the following films. The experience got me thinking, I am totally and irrevocably into this now. I love this. I will pay money to be part of this. I will talk about this a lot. I will enjoy thinking about this and finding other people who like it too. And it made me feel very happy. Happy that I had found something new to love. Insignificant as it may seem (a book series), it’s something that I feel is a part of me now. And I feel fortunate to have found it.

With that, I came to my conclusion that finding things to love—sidebar: of course loving people and living your dreams is important—but just finding little things to embrace and collect in your own little treasure chest of interests is…just…delightful. I look forward to what the future will bring—what unforeseen joys I’ll happen upon and take in as thought orphans. Honestly, I can’t wait. And I hope everyone reading this finds many a new love this upcoming year.

2012, bring it baby.