Every Day's an Inspiration: Change is inevitable - Except from a Vending Machine.

Alas.
It is that time again.
It's December 31.
Oh, yes.
You all know what that means.

It's the last day of the wonderful (or perhaps not so) year of two-thousand-and-eleven.
A lot happened this year. A tsunami in Japan, Osama Bin Laden was killed, the "Occupy" protests swept the world, a terrorist killed 93 people in Norway, Jack Layton (Canadian leader of the opposition) died, Steve Jobs died. Prince William and Kate Middleton were married. The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup, causing a riot in Vancouver. Amy Winehouse died. Gay marriages were legalized in New York.

I was going to post a bunch of these pictures but I realized that I really wanted to post ALL of them, so why do what they've already done. These pictures show the severity of many of these events.

Whether any of these events affected you, or not, what's important is that they and many, many other major events drastically affected somebody, somewhere. Something affected you, 2011 has left an impact on you. Whether you know it or not. Every year, on New Years Eve (today!) somewhere between the partying and the eating, I try and sit down and think about how 2011 affected me. Try it. You may be surprised. Think back to LAST JANUARY. It may feel like yesterday, or it may feel like a million years ago, perhaps it feels like both all at once.

It's unbelievable, to me, how much a person's life can change. In a year, in two, pretty soon, you may find yourself a completely different person. It makes me wonder, did we change? Did we just unveil a new layer of ourselves, revealing what was always there? I don't know. It's just a guess, but I bet you don't either.

Another thing I try and do every New Years (although this is a lot more recent of a tradition) is to sit down and compile a list of all the songs that made my life that year. I don't know about you guys, but I need music. I had a few months sans iPod this year, and it was torturous.

I was reading this article the other day, and number 3 (In college more than ever before, songs will attach themselves to memories. Every month or two, make a mix cd, mp3 folder, whatever - just make sure you keep copies of these songs. Ten years out, they'll be as effective as a journal in taking you back to your favorite moments.) really spoke to me. So, I encourage each and every one of you to compile your own list of songs from that year, because every person's is going to be different. If you're super skilled, you could try and do something like this awesome mash up of top 40 songs from 2011. I'm not that skilled. Maybe you are. If you are, I'd like to meet you. You're probably a cool person.

Anyways, to kick out the old year, and kick off the new year, with a bang (sorry for the way too cliché phrasing) I'm not going to give you A final song for your inspiration, I'm going to give you...

My Songs for 2011: