2006, how did this year treat you? [reflection topic]

[Miles E Traysandor]

Well, another year has just about bitten the dus [and for those freaky Australians, it already has], and I was kind of curious as to how 2006 treated the fellow members of the forum.

For me, overall 2006 was a much better year overall than 2005 was. Granted I still have a fair bit of [mostly monetary] problems, mostly left over from 2005's ugly mess. I now have a steady -- if sometimes chaotic -- job driving limos that I've been doing now for 10 months -- good enough for third longest job I've held all-time. Another three months and it'll be second on the list, only beaten for the job I had at a local gas station for well over 3 years.

Though 2006 brought a few issues of it's own, I can definately say, at least from an online standpoint that 2006 was a good year for me. In real life, the year was more so-so than anything, it's had its share of ups and downs, and definately a few good bumps in the road.

I'm looking forward to 2007 to be a better year than 2006 was, though 2006 for me was MUCH better than 2005 was.

[Tum0spoo]

This past year was the year I met you people and found a part of myself that was missing. I know not all of you are furries, but this goes for you too. If I hadn't come here, I would either be dead, or a depressed, sad, lonely kid with a deathwish. Some of you more than others, but I really thank you all. 2006, despite a LOT of painful things too, has made me happier than I ever thought I could be. This year I've been able to know that I am loved and cared for by others. I thank you.

As for the rest of my life, I'm still in school and looking for a job I can do between ROTC and Homework.

Thanks again.
Your friendly fox and friend, Kelix

[Arloest]

This year was good but next year might not be so good! I was invited to this real cool New Year's Eve party tonight and now I'm SICK AHHHHHH this is not a good omen.

I'm still gonna try to go though.

[Tavis]

It's pretty much the same here. The problems of 2005 are still affecting me, but it's not as bad as it used to be. Things have been looking up this year, and it leaves me feeling more optimistic about 2007. 2006 has been a time for recovery and transition, for rebuilding and starting over in many ways, whether it is moving on from college to a career, from wrecked homes to new ones, from one forum implementation to another, from one set of governing people to another, or just from our own old habits toward new ones.

I think 2007 will be the year where all these changes will be put to the test, the satisfaction of your new job, the quality of a new home, the durability of the software, the dependability of our new representation, and the general well-being of our lives. Time will tell. I look forward to seeing how it will unfold this coming year.

[_SeHT]

For me, 2006 was a year of changes and disappointments.

At the end of 2005 my contract came to an end where I had been working. I had been wondering what to do for a few weeks when I was attacked in my own home by a 16-year-old thug made brave by alcohol, cannabis and the MEHTUL baseball bat in his right hand.

That soon crystallised things in my mind. I had no alternative, nowhere to go, except back to my parents' place. Which is a pain, most particularly as I had been living on my own since 1993 and had rather come to enjoy the freedom.

It did mean, however, that I could apply for and be accepted on to a degree course at a local university, to read for a computer science degree. Although the problem remained for how to pay for it - until some freelance work fell into my lap and solved that problem, too. Now, of course, 6 months in, I find myself questioning if the degree (my third) is the right course of action, no pun intended. I look at someone here and I think... and then I try not to think.

This is now the third year in a row that I have been separated from my beloved Mate, who lived until recently in Pennsylvania but has now moved back down to the parental home in Virginia.

... oh, all right. I suppose it can hurt little here: back to his parents' home.

*hangs his head* Yes... I am gay... and I just came out to more people than I ever have done in my entire life.

... a busy year. It seems to have flown past and I have nothing to show for it.

I can only hope that 2007 will be better. After all, it couldn't be much worse.

[Tavis]

_SeHT, lift your head high; you need not feel ashamed here. This is a very tolerant, if not outright accepting community, and I would not be surprised if you just earned yourself a big congratulations from many others who had recently opened up that part of their lives with us. As for next year, I wish you luck where you need it, and the inspiration for you to chart your path and make your own luck.

[Angstwolf]

Well, I'm gonna go with yes because 2k5 was awful, and 2k6 was about a hundred thousand times better. Not the best year of my life, but definitely an improvement.

_SeHT: Don't feel bad! It takes a lot to tell the people you love the truth, and I personally congratulate you for doing it. I used to be homophobic (mostly due to religion), but I forced myself to get over it. You don't have to fear any negative feelings from me.

[Tum0spoo]

Go you _SeHT

*points to the fact that I love Fekeal and leave it at that*
:3

[_SeHT]

_SeHT: Don't feel bad! It takes a lot to tell the people you love the truth, and I personally congratulate you for doing it. I used to be homophobic (mostly due to religion), but I forced myself to get over it. You don't have to fear any negative feelings from me.

Define 'cyni --- Sorry. Define 'people you love'. My parents do not know. Perhaps they suspect, and I have missed, let slip due to cowardice and middle-class 'doing the right thing' propriety, two perfect opportunities to tell them... but I could not bring myself to do it.

I know it is bad form to quote oneself, but... here is something I wrote which explains it better:

• My belovèd
  • is the bravest man I know.
  He does not fight for his country
  He does not police his country
  He does not hunt for blood money
  
  My belovèd
  • is the bravest man I know
    because in that space that reads
    
    • Next of Kin
    there is my name
    • my address
      • my phone number
  And should anything happen to him
  • not just his family would be informed
    but me.
  I still have not told my parents:
  • there is still a blank where his name should be.
  I am a craven coward.
  
  But my belovèd is the bravest man I know.

[Rooster]

Letsee, as 2006 draws to a close, what I have acheived.

Acheived:

Got online cartoon
Can draw better than last year
Have become better at guitar
Can now make rather good cup of tea
Prooved I can have a platonic relationship with a girl other than my sister

Not Acheived:

Still unemployed
Still smoking and drinking heavily
Still no job prospects, or relationship prospects
Still broke
Still flunking Uni

It were a top year

[Angstwolf]

_SeHT: Don't feel bad! It takes a lot to tell the people you love the truth, and I personally congratulate you for doing it. I used to be homophobic (mostly due to religion), but I forced myself to get over it. You don't have to fear any negative feelings from me.

Define 'people you love'.

Oops, I misunderstood your post.

But telling anyone at all is a huge step in the right direction.

[Mr. Neign]

well.. lets see.. 2006...
on the upside this year..
1. lost this.. "phobia against anything that sounds.. strange" thing.. and I think I'm becoming a furry
2. started writing a book
3. managed to not destroy the world
4. lost my last vestiges of sanity
5. starting to learn German
on the downside..
1. turns out I have a semi-benign cyst in my left hand: occasionally it gets swollen and locks my left wrist up..painfully
3. jobless
4. I am quickly becoming even more nearsighted than I was, and I need to fork over money for new glasses that allow me to actually see things at a distance
5. Can't drive until the above mentioned crisis is fixed
6. still single

So.. my goals for 2007 are:
1. get new glasses
2. get a job
3. get the cyst removed asap
4. finish(or almost finish) my book, which currently appears will take a very long time
5. become a furry
6. become able to say the German 'ch' (not the same as english)

[Caoimhin]

Let me be the first to say... Happy New Year! And yes I posted and meant to edit it . Well 2006 was pretty good to me, school has been a little better, grades... Could be better but better than last year. Things are a bit melancholy for me (Catholic Confirmation coming up, so I've actually been thinking spiritually speaking and proud of it). I doubt that will change. Last year I had more contact with my Grandparents on my father's side (they live far away and things are a bit rough) and I'm happy about that, I'll be able to ask about family history. So 2006 was a pretty good year, but the melancholy doesn't stop at good things, sometimes I'm just not happy about the state of the world.

[Deich]

I'd say 2006 was one kick in the balls after another for me. It might have been alright by some people's standards, but going by mine it was soul-destroying. Next year has to be better.

[Tod the Lowrie]

2006 was definitly the low point in my life. (I will never take a summer class that interferes with my work schedule ever again.) On the plus side I started playing Lords of the Earth, and I discovered Ozy & Millie!

6. become able to say the German 'ch' (not the same as english)

Don't worry, you'll get it. Viel Glück!