The New Year (or Feed Me Hot Peppers, I Must be Dreaming)

If I've learned anything this past year, aside from equity valuation and yield curves, it's that life will amaze you.

Everyone knows that you can spend countless hours fretting and planning, tossing and turning sleepless in bed, worrying yourself sick, and life will turn around and render those hours inconsequential by resolving everything, and then some.

But what I've learned is that you can spend hours dreaming your wildest dreams, envisioning the impossible, painting these fantastic pictures in your head...and life will scoff at you. But it won't be ridiculing your dreams; instead, it'll call you an underachiever, a pessimist, and a darn fool. It will take the most ridiculous path towards achieving dreams you didn't know you had, dreams that are far wilder than anything you ever imagined. Sure, it will hurt you along the way, and teach you a thing or two. There will be dark times when you're sure it's led you astray, and darker times still when you're sure it's all but abandoned you for the wolves. But when the fog clears and your legs feel ready to give out beneath you, you'll find nothing short of a paradise, El Dorado, Shangri-La that you never knew existed.

And so, coming into this new year, I've resolved to let life do its winding and twisting through the hills and valleys as I ride along. Regardless of where I am, I'll be focused on the moment and making the most of it. Sure, I'll have hopes and fears, but I'll have them knowing that there is so much more out there, and that maybe someday, I'll find out that my fears were misguided and that my dreams were, well, understated. And because I'm roommates with a chili fetishist who enjoys torturing himself with the spiciest dishes imaginable, I'm also resolving to eat more spicy foods, to, y'know ... (forgive me) spice up my life.