“Every few days, whenever all the important matters in my life stop for a few seconds (usually while I’m waiting for a bus), I’ll realize ‘Holy crap! I’m now living in the year TWO THOUSAND!’ and then I’ll forget it again for a few days before I remember it again. It’s THAT important.”

— Kibo

I haven’t sorted out what I think about the new year yet. Or rather, I have many different feelings about it.

On the one hand, I agree that the date is essentially arbitrary and nothing is really different now. On the other hand, Kibo touches upon something I’m sure many people have experienced over the past 10 days.

My whole life, the year 2000 has been associated with the future. You know, flying cars, HAL, moon bases, aliens. And now it’s here. We don’t have flying cars, HAL is nowhere near existing, man hasn’t been to the moon since Apollo 17, and we haven’t met any aliens.

But wait: look at all of the neat stuff that is around these days: there’s a massive, decentralized, worldwide network of computer systems that lets Zen Bhuddists in Japan order obscure books from America and have them delivered within 24 hours. With advances in biomedical engineering, we will soon be able to prevent birth defects before birth. Communism has either fallen or is very discredited all over the world. The global economy is taking off. We’ve seen planets orbiting other stars. It’s the year 2000! 2000! Yow!

Remember: your future is what you make of it. And now more than ever, realize that your future is right now. Make the most of it!