Part One

When I was 17 I saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and that moment changed everything. How many times have I seen the Mona Lisa in popular culture? Thousands of times, at least. I never understood why the Mona Lisa was so important until I saw it. I’m really not sure how to describe it other than to say she is really looking at you. Experiencing the Mona Lisa in person was the first time I began to understand the difference between knowing and understanding.

Part Two

When I was home in Saskatchewan for Christmas, out at the in-law’s farm, one night I went for a walk by myself and I got away from the farm lights and I plunked down in a snow bank and just looked up at the stars. I just sat there in awe. And threw in some fear and trembling, for good measure. I don’t get to see the stars very often. Or at least not like that.

There’s really no clarity like a cold, crisp and clear night sky in Saskatchewan. I don’t want to forget how big the sky is anymore. Literally and metaphorically.

Part Three

A friend of mine spent a month in Europe last year and he told me that while in Italy he ate at one of the—I don’t know the terminology—highest rated restaurants in the world. Like if there was a top 10, then this was number 3 or something. He told me the food was so good that it made him cry.

I don’t know about you, but I want to eat whatever that was. And my life revolves around fighting the temptation to indulge in grease, fat and salt. Mmmm baconator.

Part Four

For years and years I’ve known a great deal about the internet. I’ve always had this blog (in its various incarnations), but I’ve never really tried to make it popular. When RedPoint gave me the opportunity to take on the newly (at that time) launched up! magazine website and I had to take what I knew and put it to the test.

Over the last year and a half, we’ve gone from essentially nothing to just short of 100,000 visitors/month (which is crazy ass growth). It turns out, I’m pretty good at this and without RedPoint giving me the opportunity I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to figure this out.

The Resolution

I am going to live differently and this means a lot of different things. It means testing and experiencing the things I know and love so that I can understand them. Whether that means travelling or building websites or the food that I eat or whatever. I am done imagining that there are barriers to my ideas and dreams—that the sky is only as big as it seems in the city. My whole life I’ve subverted my own goals, mostly out of fear, but every time that I try to succeed I find that I do or that I learn something invaluable about myself or the world.

I am getting off my chair (or get in it if I’m working at the computer) and produce and be creative. This isn’t just a resolution for 2011, but forever. There is no good reason to be stagnant. Immobility just doesn’t seem like an option anymore. I’m a writer. I’m a creator. I am alive.

Expect to see a lot of different things from me this year.