My peops! I have had a little tradition of writing to you on New Year's Eve for the last few years and I wanted to keep it going today. As I write this, I'm in my new home in Houston after having lived in Los Angeles for the last 4 years and San Diego 3 years before that. It's also the first day of my new exciting gig--one that I hope will be the first of MANY like this--and a few hours away from being able to hang out with my mom again like I've been able to do the last few weeks.
2011 started off SO poorly for me, and then got worse...and worse still. There were definitely some lovely little highlights and I won't complain since I'm still here to talk about it! But what I'm trying to say is that...it got better! :)
This, after all, is the year of IT GETS BETTER. We've heard it all year. I've said it to myself and to you guys all year. And now, today, I can say that its happening right before my eyes. I know that a lot of you reading this right now are not feeling well, or are down about something, or may even be downright depressed. I've heard from you all year...and I know there are several others I haven't heard from but are feeling this way.
I want you to know that I am here, all of my readers are here, and we're not going anywhere. I need you to stay with us. We lost too many beautiful people to suicide this year (and years past). It's an epidemic. And if I can help stop it from happening (oh man...this is going to sound trite, but I mean it with all of my heart!) to just ONE PERSON, then that would be the proudest moment of my life. It doesn't matter if I ever find out about it or not...if somehow something I can say to you or do or not say or not do will help just one person not go down that path this year, then that makes me the happiest/luckiest girl on earth.
And for those of you who are NOT struggling that deeply...who are having a great time in life and who plan to make 2012 YOUR year, I can not WAIT to see it all unfold! Please keep me updated and let me know how awesome things are going for you. Even if you and I have never met before, you mean more to me than I could possibly explain in 365 posts...and I wish wonderful things for you.
I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but I will say I have a new life's resolution to touch and positively affect as many lives as I can. It may just be by making someone smile with a video of a couple of outta control rouge boobs, or as life-altering as helping you find the love of your life, or some bit of advice or helping you connect with the person who can help you with something...or ya know, just that boob thing. But whatever it is, I hope to leave the world a better place than I found it, one day at a time, one person at a time. And...since it looks like I could probably break into 'We Are the World' at ANY moment now, I'm just gonna throw it over to my tried and true:
I also wanted to take a moment to speak to anyone who is struggling with their identity. Not going to make this long, cause life is short. ...and that's my point: life is short. We're only here for a short time, and you've got to LIVE. I think my new wife Jessie J says it best:
And I'll leave you with this. Let's support this film this year!! It's long overdue:
Thank you for 5.5 years...here's to MORE!
-Arlan
