William Chong

This year I’ve grown taller.

It’s mainly as a result of wearing shoes to work. When I take them off I am my normal height, and my normal self. In 2008 I chose to start a career, and it’s been a year of learning, phone calls, research and writing, business meetings, commuting.

This year I spent 20,000 km in traffic. And about 500 hours listening to equal parts stilted conversation, heartfelt fellowship, irate talkback, devotional nudgings, head-banging tracks.

This year I left New Zealand. But then I came back. The trans-Tasman travel I’ve done this year has been purely work-related. It’s almost like a cheap thrill – perhaps less cheap and more thrill – to fly on account of someone’s credit card. It’s almost like a free gift, grace.

This year my sister joined me in the amazing race. I’m still buzzing about it.

This year I started a countdown. Today it’s at 402. And when it counts down, there’s a cord of three waiting; my best friend will become my best friend with a different name.

She’s the love for a lifetime.

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This year was filled with new experiences. A new job. A new church. A renewal of my walk with God.

This year I ran my heart out. It was hard, but it was good. I made new friends, both online and offline. I kept old friends close, or at least tried to. Sometimes you have to accept that you’re thereabouts, but not in there.

I went tramping, and fell in love with New Zealand all over again.

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And now, for a Special Paperclip section!

Open with care: fragile! And thanks for the dinners and the everything.

As a reminder to how we’ve changed through the ‘ears:

LIST OF PREVIOUS Y/EAR IN REVIEWS

Cheryl 2007

Dennis/Ethan 2005
Ethan Waters 2006/07
Ethan Waters 2007/08
Ethan Waters 2008

Henry 2005
Henry 2006

Helen 2005-2007

Kat 2007 (kinda)

Ray 2005
Ray 2006
Ray 2007/08

Sonny 2007

William 2007

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Happy New Year everyone; thanks for reading and sharing life together!

This year I’ve found many things.

I’ve found that living at home this year has really tested and challenged me. Who I am, who I want to be. Who are important to me.

I’ve found that people make time for others only if they really mean it, and there’s no sense in routine for the sake of it. I’ve found that if you seek to satisfy yourself, your friends won’t tell you about it but you will still see that you are left behind. I’ve discovered my love for music currently exists not as a passionless career but a careerless passion.

I like it that way – there is no expectation of fitting a marketable mould and castrating your sound for the sake of selling it. I write music when I can, and I enjoy it. I can record a tune that no one but myself enjoys, and that is my prerogative. This year I’ve had more time to pursue other challenges in my music – ATCL, CCM, other acronyms that translate to metaphor and melody, a tapestry of love and care.

This year I chose to be more of a pragmatist. My dreams are not rock-star fashion, not even town hero. I want a house and a family, to lead and to serve. I tell myself my fantasies are frivolous, and that these are things worth working for, earning a salary for.

This year I learned Chinese. I may not remember my vocabulary, but I remember my heritage.

This year I enjoyed building up friends and family. This year I churned through house and life-work, trying to balance keeping a fractured family reasonably together yet holding firm to who I was and who I stood for. This was hard and sometimes I wished I had more strength and resolve to challenge those around me.  But slow and steady wins the race, and when others fall by the wayside, perhaps you accept they alone chose that path.  So this year I was sad to watch them go.

This year there was great fun in cooking. Gastronomic awareness is a life-long journey, and there are no limits save your wallet and appetite. I am happy to say that I can cook and I would have loved to have cooked my mother dinner.

If you read this, I would encourage you to make one meal. Just one. For your parents, your mother, your father, your step-parents, your bio-parents, your sister, brother. Try it. When you cook for someone else you think of who they are, what they would like. Do they like pepper? What about those tomatoes? You craft a personal serving of humility and servitude for another.

I would have love to have cooked her something today.

As others have pointed out, Jesus is the reason for the season. That’s my Christian plug.

This year I have grown to love the life ahead of me. I like my friends. My family. Writing and singing. Cooking and cleaning. Working, phasing between social circles. People love to be listened to. We all need each other.

This year I have lived.

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