Happy New Year!

What are your plans for 2019?  I’m kinda stumped this year. I know I need to get back to daily exercise and eating my veggies.  I guess chocolate ISN’T a food group no matter how much I want it to be.

I know I need to get more organized but at 47 I think maybe this is as good as it gets. Maybe some people just aren’t meant to plan?

I would love to scrapbook and get my family pictures together. I keep saying “THIS WEEKEND I will do it”.  And the weekends turn to years and I have lots of pictures and lots of stickers – but no scrapbooks being created.

So what are you hoping for this year?  I will be dancing in Sarnia’s Dancing With the Stars coming up January 19th. My dance partner has been incredible in teaching me not only how to dance, but really how to be kinder to myself.  Dancing has been hard on my self esteem.  It’s been hard in many ways. But I’ve loved every minute of it so far. Can’t wait to see how it turns out January 19th.  (Tickets available through www.eventbrite.com.

For New Years Eve we ventured to Georgetown to see my brother and his family to spend some time together.  We got to tour our old stomping grounds – including Square One – now one of Canada’s biggest malls.  It sure has changed since I was a kid.

My brother took us through Streetsville – the town we spent our childhood in. We drove past our old house. Yes, it’s changed. New windows and a new roof. The gardens out front were different. The trees gone. 30 years you can expect some change.

It brought back so many memories.  Popping tar bubbles in the street. Collecting rocks.  The big church parking lot across the street where we would toboggan down the big hill in the winter.  The streets I used to have to walk to get to school. Old neighbours houses. Changed so much.  The small store where I used to buy those pop magazines with my babysitting money.  The little fish and chips store my parents got their fish wrapped in newspaper.

So many memories.  It’s amazing how the neighbourhood can change so much yet stay the same.

It’s interesting to think back on the person you were when you were younger.  To see how much you have changed.  I know for me, to look back at where I lived until I was about 12 was so interesting.  To think of what I have gone through since.  To know that at 12, that little girl had no idea what was coming her way.  At 12 I wouldn’t have dared to believe I could have handled it.

The shy girl who passed out in school. Who was so incredibly shy.  The girl who bowled on Saturday morning, hit the roller rink on Friday nights with her cousin, and thought maybe someday she would marry Rick Springfield or maybe the keyboardist from Duran Duran. That girl.

All of it makes us who we are. And who we are isn’t as bad as we start to believe when the calendar hits January 1st. We want to change everything about ourselves.  We look at ourselves so negatively and start making a list of all that we want to change.

I’m thankful for my childhood.  Thankful for my life and all it’s experiences.

Categorised in: Afternoons

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan