Taking Inventory...

Rather than wait until New Year's Day to think about the past year and the year to come, I intend (rather uncharacteristically) to avoid procrastination and getting right down to it at once.

The Year in Review:

Let me start by staying that I often find it very difficult to compose "year in review" things because for me, years don't start and end in January and December; as a student, my school year has provided the most important line of demarcation. Needless to say, this will be rather difficult. Thus, I have decided to organize it thematically rather than chronologically:

Academically: (this will be long)

This year opened with one thought on my mind: COLLEGE. The very idea was all around me. If I wasn't thinking about it, my friends were talking about it or my parents were shouting at me to think about it. Unlike a lot of my friends, however, I opened the year with a general idea of how college was going to turn out; I already was the proud owner of rejection note from Oxford and an unconditional acceptance from St. Andrews. For me, it had more or less been a choice between the two to begin with, now the choice was a bit easier. January was spent filling out applications to Wheaton, Princeton, and William and Mary. William and Mary and Wheaton both said yes, while Princeton surprised me (rather pleasantly) with a seat on the waiting list. I refused it, however, because of some news from St. Andrews... In March, Dad established that St. Andrews was willing to give me home-rate fees, which would dramatically reduce the tuition fees. Moreover, June came with the news that AT&Ts scholarship would be granted for a full four years, which made a good situation much better.
I finished school in June, graduating second in my class, which was a great shame because graduating third would have given me an extra two grand in scholarship money. Nonetheless, I was fairly happy about the whole thing. St. Andrews opened with poor grades in IR and Management, but it's still early to tell.

Socially:

Saying goodbye to my friends from high school was terribly tough. Saying goodbye to friends from church made things even worse. The Crazy-8s, Roger and Thomas, the HCC youth group, Corey Flynn, Ray Tillotson, Ryan Smith, to name but a few. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to Easter and coming back to America. St. Andrews is a friendly town, however, and I have established some worthwhile friendships with decent people both in St. Salvator's Hall and in the university as a whole.

Physically:

This time last year marked the beginning of my determination to cut out the extra weight put on while I had the leg brace on. The infamous "apple diet", while rather silly to some, may be one of the better decisions I made so far. I did manage to drop two stone as a result, and, while certainly not an adonis, I feel healthier and feel that I live healthier now, as well (although Christmas break has seen me live a bit more on the indulgent side!)

Spiritually/Philosophically:

Challenged by both the HCC youth group and the CU at St. Andrews, I feel that my faith has grown stronger as a result of seeing so many intelligent, steadfast Christians. At the same time, I have lost my belief in the infallibility of the "Bible", by which I refer to the sixty-six books commonly named by that common title, though I still retain my faith. I also have somewhat amended my political views. Now thinking of myself as a "moderate libertarian", I have changed my mind in that I now: support gun control, oppose the death penalty, and oppose the constitutional amendment against gay marriage, though I recognize that it may be necessary in the face of judicial activism. My first vote was for Michael Badnarik for president, though the rest of my ballot was a straight one for the Republican Party.

Three philosophical ponderances that started this year that continue to inform my thinking:

1. If it is, in fact, true that giving a pound or two here and there can save the life of a child, or, at the very least, prevent human misery on a large scale in the life of an individual, is it my Christian obligation to divert every spare penny, every hour of my time, to alleviating that suffering? What would I have a first world citizen do, if I lived in desperate poverty?
2. I have a limited amount of time on earth. Therefore, I should live according to my values, doing what I ought, then what I want, and not caring what others think of it.
3. I am truly blessed. God has given me so many undeserved blessings.

Wishing all a Happy New Year,
-Douglas