Happy New Year!

Its 2007 already, can you believe it?! 2006 was a pretty intense year, full of fun times, sad times, confusing times...it really was a roller coaster! When I think back to 2006 I remember great trips like Dahab, Sokhna, IC in Poland, Turkey, Alex, camping in the desert, etc. Those trips were the biggest highlights of the year since I got to know loads of new people, got to experience a lot of new things, plus gained memories that I will treasure forever. A lot of these trips got me thinking about myself and who are the sorts of people I want around me...and more importantly who I wanted to be. In Poland, I did alot of thinking and also came to realize I really did have the ability to survive anywhere all by myself...in Turkey did a lot of family reconnecting...in Dahab and Sokhna bonded with my friends...in the desert realized how truly beautiful it is to have nothing but an awesome sunset and great people by your side. 2006 marked the last time in AIESEC for the people who got me to like AIESEC in the first place! It was the last time I would ever do role calls with them, and the last time we'd travel for a conference together...that was extremely sad but a lot of them are my closest friends till today so I'm happy to say I didn't lose them because of that transition. 2006 marked the year one of my best friends in the world got married! It was an awesome week! Plus marked the first baby to be born from within my uni gang! I have yet to meet this little guy! It marked the very sweet and exciting process of finding someone whom I adore to death...it's been really interesting seeing how protective, worrisome, and happy I have become because of that. I realized how much I really cherish this person and the times we spent together during this past year in particular. 2006 marked a couple of times where I truly felt frightened, which I hadn't felt in years. It marked a time where my whole life changed...the university lifestyle which I had been doing a good job of holding onto was suddenly and inevitably fading away and I finally gave in to it. It was a time where I started to panic just because my 2 best friends were suddenly not around...the 2 people I told everything to were suddenly both not there and because of that I found myself becoming clingy to anyone nearby, close or not, for comfort and advice. It marked another year of being away from my dad and realizing it would really never get easier being away from him. It marked a year where I was more sure of who I was and wanted to be, at least in terms of personality so I was less reserved when it came to showing different emotions which made it harder to be my usual "accept everything and everyone" self. It marked a year where I realized I was really lucky to have certain great souls in my life (especially Askoura, Martha, Tamer, Tarek Habib, Ga3ly, Abdo, and Maggie). It also marked another year of having Salma and Lina as close as ever even though we lived away from each other, we had practice the year I was in Canada and Salma was in Japan...happy to see that we are still managing!

That was 2006...I am expecting alot out of 2007 with IPM coming and me being really tested in that. With it being my last few months in AIESEC. With me changing jobs and being really worried about regretting any moves I make. With me having to let go of certain things that I have no control over yet keep the optimistic spirit up. What do I need to do in 2007? I need to be ready to face this really tough year both personally and professionally. I need to be more clear about what I want and where I see myself in 5-10 years because every move I make from now on will shape my future. I need to make sure the people I adore stay close or else I will lose a big part of why I have happiness in my life. I need to make sure to remind myself that I am still young and can still be adventurous!

As for how I spent new year this year...it was strangely nice! A guy, Lukas, whom I had gotten close to in Poland came to visit! So I took him all over the place, with the help of my friends, and got to spend some time with him which was awesome. It was really cool the fact that out of 700 people in IC I got to meet this really cool guy and less than 4 months later here he was seeing how I live my life everyday and who my close friends were. He actually knows alot more about me than many people in my life and I find that fascinating considering the circumstances in which we met! I'm glad to say Lukas had a good time as well as you can see in his blog. I got to meet new people from different countries in this vacation as well like Oksana, Gabi, Monika, Betty, etc. And I got to have a cozy new years in dahab which included us swimming in the freezing cold, having a laugh, and spending quality time with special people. I hope next year's new years can also have some excitement and some bonding time as well. And I hope 2007 doesn't turn out to be as frightening and as hard as I am expecting.