Alongside the streets of New York neatly lined by colorful trees that light up a dozen colors at night, most stores and restaurants have already switched to holiday-themed decorations, and kids are frolicking around with red-and-green beanies and cute reindeer on their knit sweaters. Hence, despite my cheeks (the only part of my body exposed in the air) freezing in the icy and knife-like December wind, I cannot help but feel warm and joyous inside. After all, Christmas is almost here, and the year is almost over!
Looking back, I still have a very unreal sensation about everything that has taken place this year. I mean, so much has happened in my life…
In the beginning of this year, I went to the beautiful Caribbeans for the first time, also being my first time on a cruise. Nearing the year’s middle, I graduated from college with a degree in political science, a minor in East Asian Studies, and a language citation in Japanese. In the summer, I moved from Boston – a city that I grew to appreciate very much throughout the four years I’d studied and lived – to a city that never sleeps – New York City. Despite the plethora of events that have transformed my life already, an even bigger life-changing event befell me – I became engaged to the love of my life, and married him a couple months afterwards!
To be honest, I don’t think there is any other time in my life of 22 years that can match the past year, if there is such a funny thing as the most-exciting-year-of-my life competition.
Needless to say, this year’s Christmas will be a thrilling time for me as well. For one, it’ll be my first Christmas in New York. In the past, I usually spent Christmas in Hong Kong, where the Christmas theme was dominant, but spiritually different from that in the United States. And there was never snow during Christmas there. Being a little old-fashioned, I often sighed in vain for the lack of white Christmas. This time though, I’ll be in NYC, where such a possibility is a bit higher.
Another reason to account for the special statute of this Christmas is that, it’s my first Christmas as a married woman, and also my first Christmas with my parents-in-law, as well as our first-ever meeting! Though Christmas with friends has been fun in my college days, I look forward to celebrating this holiday with my new family now. It will be a great setting for meeting my in-laws, and a perfect beginning of new family bonds. I’m also happy that I will take a chance myself to tour this bustling city with my family, introducing them to the wonders it has to offer.
After Christmas, the year will be over soon, and I will be a little nostalgic, but happily moving on, eager to welcome the New Year into my life. I can’t wait to see what breathtaking changes 2014 may bring me!