Welcome old or new friend. This is a first for me because this is the first time the New Year has rolled around and I’ve had an on-line journal.
Upon reflection of 2001 I could say that it was a pleasure to put such a lousy year behind me. The truth be told, with all of the events of 2001 and looking back on my life I can honestly say that there wasn’t all that much that was truly bad about the past 12 months with the exception of one thing which I won’t talk about here.
What did I get out of 2001? I got to complete a dream of being on honest to goodness real radio. Granted it was radio that was being broadcast out of rented temporary trailers residing in a warehouse, but none the less people in a few select cities across the country were able to turn on their radios early Sunday mornings and listen to me for a very brief amount of time.
It’s really a funny thing about dreams. If you had told me 20 years ago that the one thing I wanted to strive for was to be a talk radio host I probably would have called you a dummy head and went running away from you (c’mon… I was only 10 years old at the time). I can definitely tell you that the one person most directly responsible is definitely Alex Bennett. When I started to break from my teenage years I quickly became addicted to the Alex Bennett Show on Live 105, which later lead to an addiction to talk radio. Thus became the spark that to this day still drives me to find a way to get back on air.
2001 also lead to a re-evaluation of my goals in life. I am back to being an IT Manager/Network Administrator. Why? Because it is what I am good at and thankfully someone is willing to pay me to do it. I also will one day get back on radio, I know that. Talk radio is what I enjoyed doing and when I find myself back on the airwaves I’ve got a commitment already from Kevin Smith to be on air. If you know anything about me that right there is a great reason to get back on air. There are other goals as well, but once again these are things that I don’t plan on talking about here.
So, even though I found myself jobless for six months and I was in the worst financial state I have ever been in I can honestly say that 2001 wasn’t all that bad… but I’m still glad it’s over.
One More Thing…
My wife said something very poignant as the sound of fireworks and distant gun shots went off at midnight, "I don’t really get why we celebrate the New Year."
Reflecting on this I have to agree with her. 11 months out of the year time passes with little to no recognition whatsoever. No one stops me at midnight May 1st and wish me a Happy New May. Maybe it is just our tendency to celebrate the fact that we, as a society, somehow made it another 365 1/4 days. When we see everything going on in the world it would certainly seem to be something worth celebrating. Having all the pets I do I’m more then happy to stay at home and watch the rented movies with my lovely wife and turning the television to ABC at 11:55 PM to watch Dick Clark usher in another year.
I am also thoroughly convinced that Dick Clark is a cyborg. This is something I also won’t discuss here.
So, welcome to 2002. Call it Y2K2, twenty-oh-two, Two aught aught two or whatever you want… but we made it another one. Congratulations and best wishes to all.
-WW