Where is 2008?

I'm usually sentimental and nostalgic about the end of the year. I guess it's the writer in me. And so I feel badly that I let 2008 go without any reminiscing at all. Actually, my NYE would have been a perfect writing night, as for the first time in my life, I rang in the new year alone. (My parents were chaperoning the youth dance and my brother was attending said youth dance). Knowing that I'm a writer and that I have in the past used experiences from my childhood and turned them into stories or poems that depict a somewhat negative upbringing, my mom told me as they left, "Now I don't want you to turn this into some sad poem." She knows me too well.

As for 2008, the high for me came in late April as I sat in the Marriott Center in cap and gown and hood and listened to the crowd cheer for the graduates. Listened to the crowd cheer for me. I confess to being a huge fan of graduations. The sadness of leaving school along with the pride that comes from the accomplishment of graduating and getting to share it with friends and family is a very powerful combination. I enjoyed my Bachelor's graduation so much that I became somewhat distressed that nothing in my life would ever top it. And I, of course, promptly wrote a poem about said distress. Getting to have another graduation this year restored my hopes that exciting life things didn't end back in Rexburg at age 21. Instead they ended in Provo at age 26. I feel a poem coming on.