Emily Housecamp
Courier staff writer

            I hope I’m not the only one who is completely flabbergasted by the fact that we are already in the year 2007. It seems like just yesterday the whole world was freaking out about Y2K and people had their basements stocked with enough food to last a long, long while. So how is it that six full years have come and gone since then? How is it that my own 19 years have come and gone so quickly? If it’s true that “time flies when you’re having fun,” it seems that my life has been an absolute riot.

            And now, in 2007, we all have put at least 18 years behind us. We can look back on them in any number of ways, but that decision is ultimately up to us. Don’t allow yourself to reflect on the past with anger and hatred, but instead take the negative (of which there is undoubtedly an abundance) and turn it into something positive.

            Everything in life has taught us something. Everything has served a purpose, in one way or another, and it is up to us to decide what to do with it.

            Don’t start off this new year by carrying grudges from the old one. It seriously isn’t worth it. I’m sure you have all heard it before, but there are truly more important things in life than getting mad at somebody and holding on to that for a year or more. In allowing yourself to let go, however, you are more able to look back at whatever trouble has previously crossed your path and learn something from it.

            That fight over a boy that you and your best girlfriend had and still haven’t gotten over? The argument that you had with your best guy friend because he hit on your girlfriend? Don’t hold on to it. It’s not worth it! I know for sure that upon facing the decision of learning a lesson and carrying around extra hate, I’d choose the lesson.

“For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness
yet
For auld lang syne.”

            These lyrics, so beautifully mastered by Robert Burns in 1741, reflect on “auld lang syne” or, “the good old days.” Those “good old days” are behind us, but now, in 2007, we’re about to embark upon the creation of good new days. Someday, when we are all old and look back on our college years, we will hopefully have smiles on our faces.

            Good ol’ Bob is right… we should “take a cup of kindness” for those good old days. We should look back at our past years with a maturity that wasn’t there when the years were. We should stop wishing to undo whatever might have happened. On the contrary, take it for what it’s worth – life’s subtle way of teaching us something.

Farewell, 2006. And bring it on, ’07.