Be it resolved (Another New Year's Post).

I love January 1; the symbolism of "starting over" and "trying again" makes me hopeful about my prospects for actually improving my life and myself over the next year. Of course, like so many people, Dec. 31 will find me trying to remember what exactly I had resolved 12 months earlier, and whether I should be setting the same goals for next year - or choosing something more achievable.

2011 was a year of babies among my friends and family in the US*, and therefore my New Year's Day greeted with singing and champagne was nothing like the New Year's Day my friends toasted with formula and fond hopes of getting some sleep again sometime soon.

I rang in 2012 with a couple of English friends, who, like me, are single, childless women on good salaries. We discussed the future: work and career trajectories, vacation plans and real estate. It hardly needs to be said that the lives of single, childless women are different from the lives of women married with kids. We certainly do as we like - go out, stay in, save, spend, etc. But still, we wonder if we are living as fully as we could; if we are taking full advantage of our freedom from responsibilities at home.

Upon reflection, I'm reducing my New Year's resolutions to two. The first is concrete and verifiable - I am going to keep my inbox free from an undue accumulation of unread messages. (I cleared off 185 unread messages during my Christmas vacation.) The second is vague but ambitious and I am the only one who will ever know if it has been kept or broken. This year, 2012, the year of the London Olympics and my UK Visa renewal, be it resolved that I will embrace singleness and childlessness and financial blessing; and I will live like I am free.

*I'm an aunt!

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