On New Year’s Day, my brother declared that January 1 meant nothing to him. “It’s just another day,” he said. I agreed, but as always with the new year came reflection of the one that ended—or maybe that’s just me thinking too much.

Like it or not, I achieved and failed in 2006; we all did. As with years before, I made no resolutions and I took whatever punishment the days hurled at me; I’m masochistic like that. When a day brought a joyful or positive event, I cherished it. It’s what I do every day, every year.

At the end of 2006, I thought about the year that was and came up with a list in my head. It was a list normally deemed worthy of the Words of Wisdom page on my website (shameless plug, foo’s!), but I decided to share it with the unstable viewers of the Insane Domain.

Don’t you feel special now? Well, you better.

Don’t stop learning: Wikipedia is my new best friend, I admit it. While I’m at it, I’ll declare my newfound friendship with Answers.com. I don’t claim to know everything and neither should you. If you find yourself thinking, ‘I don’t know what that means’ then look it up. The book I crack open the most on my shelf is my dictionary, for Allah’s sake. On Wiki-land, I’ve read about everything from Satanism to samurai. Your brain has plenty of space—fill ‘er up.

Practice patience: My mom likes saying, “Good things come to those who wait.” Well, whenever she said that I would have to wait a little longer to have some junk food. But, uh, in this case that’s not quite what I’m getting at. Although candy is good. Yum.

After 7 years, I accomplished a feat that most people complete in two—I received my British Columbia driver’s licence. I was but a teenager midway through high school when I began this long process. Wow. Yeah, it took me quite awhile, but there were unforeseeable setbacks, okay? Like, I had to learn how to drive again using a steering knob—which is totally fun to use when making U-turns, by the way.

What I’m saying is you need to have patience, young Jedi. You will receive the very thing you’re waiting for, but you must reach for it. It’s too easy to think that it’ll just come to you. That’ll just be trying your patience.

Face a fear: Think about what has always scared you—and take it head on. You could do this in small ways (calmly freeing a spider instead of freaking out and squishing it) or in extreme ways (skydiving, bitches!). I, myself, am notorious for saying, “I could never do that.” Then, I end up doing it anyway and wonder why I never faced that particular fear sooner.

That’s right, folks, I no longer scream and run away at the sight of a drained Slurpee machine. Riiiiight.

Meet new people: I had the pleasure of befriending quite a few new people later in 2006. Most of these people were older than me, but despite the large generation gap we got along very well. We learned a lot about each other and revealed much about ourselves which was pretty crazy to me. I guess that’s what happens when you see the same people five days a week for eight hours a day. Zoinks.

Before then, it had been quite a long while since I befriended people outside of my usual “posse”. Meeting new people can be nerve wracking to some and awkward to others, but once those stages pass it’s quite refreshing getting to know someone new.

During this time, I also learned that life can be a soap opera, but that’s an article in itself…

Embrace change: This is obviously easier said than done, but it is do-able. Nothing stays the same. If it did, life would be predictable and boring. Yes, that’s me being insightful and observant. Or just bullshitting.

Elements will enter your life and, I suppose, throw it out of whack for awhile—at least until you accept it. Saying “accept” almost seems forceful, but it doesn’t end up feeling that way. Trust me on this one. If something changes for the worse, you endure it. If something changes for the better, you savour it. The common element between the two? In the end, you accept.

Do something unexpected: Randomness makes the world go round. That’s something I like to say and I often practice the art of randomness. So, don’t sit on your rump and plan your day to a T; that’s boring. Get in your car and drive without a particular destination—you’ll end up someplace unexpected. Make sure that whatever you do is (somewhat) legal and/or involves city property. Hmm, and maybe a sock monkey. Anything goes, really.