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Two days ago I had this “cool” idea for this week’s article that was all fitted and written especially for NYE. But as I started writing it, it didn’t feel write. Now it’s about 5:26am, my article is due already and here I’m re-doing it. And this is why…

Most recently newspapers all over the country have been writing articles revolving around the 2010 theme. It’s only fitting that papers have been analyzing how much the country has evolved within the decade. Many have looked back at our economy, our fashion trends and the technology that’s tremendously progressed within this decade. An article in particular written by my favorite journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas titled “What Do You Define As Obsolete?” went along with the newspaper trend this week. He simply listed the technological devices we used to have in our lives and compared them to the devices we use now. For instance, he compared landlines to iPhones and the fax machine to social networking sites. He did that whole “10 years ago we had this… but now we have this…” comparison throughout his article. And for some reason it was real intriguing to me. Now being that I’m currently on this weird post-grad ‘deep philosophical’ tip right now, I was inspired to take the concept from his article and turn it into some ‘deep philosophical’ shit mixed in with some optimistic 2010 hype. In my head I wanted to somehow write some voo doo cipher piece that somehow connected the many devices (he pointed out in the article) with the devices we use today and correlate its advances with the longing individuals have with human connection… or some shit like that. I don’t know. See I never fully developed my thought which why I stopped writing it completely and thought it would probably be best for me to press the…

*RESET BUTTON*

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Mentally I pressed that savior button and wiped away all my ideas about the aforementioned topic that I thought sounded cool in my head. So here I am starting all over and thinking that pressing that mental button saved my ass. Not just at this moment, but probably throughout the year 2009. Now I’m taking this “reset button” notion from the almighty Sega Genesis we had as kids. You know that panic button “cheaters” would press when they “accidentally” pressed it when they were losing in Mortal Kombat? Or that same button we had to press right after we blew into the Mortal Kombat cartridge to heal our frozen con(soul)? That button. That same button that constantly saved us from the inevitable uncomfortable feeling we had when something went wrong or something didn’t go our way.

Call me a cheater but I only barely survived this past year cause I treated 2009 like that. When life got tough, I said “hold up,” pressed reset and tried to move on. I automatically ejected myself from the uneasiness of the situation, disconnected myself from that part of the “game” and started over and played on when I deemed ready. Fitting enough these were moments in 2009 when life seemed off pace or unbalanced. Just like in a video game when you felt like you were losing, all you wanted to do was somehow get out, start over and push your way through it to the end. But then there comes a time when you’ve reached a point in the game where cheating codes and resetting life won’t save you.

That’s when you find yourself back at it again.

In a matter of hours 2010 will come and the New Year will pave its way. Soon the hype of optimism will begin to cloud our minds as midnight approaches. The excitement of the future will overshadow the worries we’ve had in the past and our minds will feel untouchable again even if it’s just for that brief moment. But immediately after that ball drops and the countdown is over, reality will hit again and the moment to start the game over begins. Your “health bar” is again at full and the evils you left in 2009 will appear just how you left them. Bringing on a new game, a new level and a new start to a new year that will force you to use what you learned in the past years to overcome what you’ve been through in 2009 to survive 2010.

Except now you’re different. You’ve equipped yourself with this fresh strategy, this newborn mentality that will leave your reset button untouched. Thanks to 2009, you’ve become a wiser player for 2010 learning that the reset button is only there to save you temporarily. Now you’ve realized deep down inside that no cheat codes could help you to the next level or the next year. Since ultimately in the end, it is you yourself that makes this game worth playing.