On the passing of 2012, otherwise known as a brief existential crisis

Two thousand and twelve was one of those years. Since before high school, there were always two years of which I was constantly aware: 2008 and 2012. The years that I would graduate high school and college, respectively.

I could always rattle off those two dates. They were on my mind as goals to reach, but also years of which I had thought so much that these years would actually come to pass seemed at times unreal.

Then I graduated high school.

And then this past May, I graduated college.

And now, 2012, the final year that I have benchmarked in my mind has also passed. Beyond just another 365 days, January 1, 2013 was the end of all the time to which I had every looked forward when I was younger.

I never imagined much past 2012.

I have no more years to which I’m hoping I’ll finally get. The benchmarks by which I now measure actions have yet to be determined.

As with most things in life, it is both utterly exhilarating and utterly terrifying at the same time.

There were no giant balls that dropped

8h: Woke up and completed some chores (sweeping, laundry) that aren’t any different from days that it isn’t New Year’s Eve.

11h: Pounded yams break. This is not particularly important either except that pounded yams is my favorite Beninese dish. Once I ate it four days in a row. Today, the Mama that I buy it from (I am not nearly assimilated enough to be able to make it myself. That is definitely a third-year volunteer project.) had Beninese cheese, which only occasionally makes it to this part of the country.

12h05: Entertained my neighbor’s son while she scrubbed the floor and furniture of her front room for the party tomorrow.

14h30: Nap and West Wing break

15h43: Scavenged the village for ingredients to make couscous and banana cake for the party at my neighbor’s house.

15h47: Almost trampled while buying bananas by church group singing and dancing their way down the street in front of my house.

16h00: Rotated between entertaining my neighbor’s kid, reading the Hobbit and making foccacia bread for dinner.

18h03: Dinner and West Wing break. (Hey, it’s vacation and I’ve already lesson planned for when school starts Thursday.)

20h34: Made banana cake for consumption tomorrow.

21h06: Made coffee for consumption tonight. Because village has turned me into a person who is asleep by ten every night.

21h40: Should have left for mass if church here started on time.

22h00: When mass should have started.

22h27: Actually left for mass.

22h48: Mass actually started.

23h36: Lost power in the middle of the homily.

00h02: Altar server dings bell to interrupt the priest. Congregation erupted in cheers as the priest announced the new year. Singing and dancing begins immediately. Greeted the new year in a church light by the three candles on the altar and the blue glow of cellphones and filled with songs in a language I do not understand.