How is your 2022 going after a few days?
When I say “I hope i t’s better than last year,” know I say that to everyone about every year; tomorrow will be better than today, which was better than yesterday. That’s the hope.
Going into 2021, my only hopes for it were that it wouldn’t trip over the ridiculously low bar 2020 set. That’s about what we got out of it.
Sure, we could meet in person again like we used to (for now — stupid omicron), but after leaving the house as a habit again, after a while, who didn’t want to just go back home?
We lost some good people in 2021. The Jan. 28 passing of Judge Jon B. Morgan hit me pretty hard. Back when I became a news reporter, after years of doing sports, the county’s big court cases led me into his Courtroom 5F at the county courthouse — a lot. It was easier because he was a drinking buddy of one of our former assistant editors, so there was a kinship. Which means I probably got away with more than I was supposed to covering cases that often attracted a large gallery of media and lookey-loos. I could tell he was not a fan of those days, but he always handled it with judicial grace. The renaming of our courthouse in his honor was completely appropriate. Makes me want to take in another court case — but then I’ll have to learn a new judge.
Chuck Cooper stirred things up on the St. Cloud City Commission, and I think every government board needs that one person who does that. Like Morgan’s death, we were all caught off guard, and St. Cloud had to hold an election. Kolby Urban, 31, was voted to replace Cooper, 72, so that should make for one different vote out of the five. And Urban is a UCF guy, so he’s got something ready for all you Gator fans at the Jan. 13 meeting after the Knights’ Gasparilla Bowl win!
As a UCF grad too, I’ll say this then shut up about it: the bowl game win proved that … UCF beat Florida in a football game on Dec. 23. Would it have been different on Sept. 23? Maybe. Maybe not.
But back to the rest of 2021. Last year marked my return to this paper back in July. It was a tough, but fun, last half of the year. Has me thinking to how 2022 can be better. We all try to be better tomorrow than today. Means it’s time for the January buzz word …
Resolutions!
According to a survey from MedStar Health (I didn’t pick them, I get all sorts of email pitches and theirs made more sense than usual), the best three ways to make resolutions successful are to make it a full plan, not just a resolution, choose a series of smaller goals that are achievable, and write down your resolutions on paper or record them digitally.
Of their doctors’ top resolutions, MedStar said 71 percent plan to focus on mental health (My thought exactly), 68 percent say spend more time with family and friends (also my plan) and 53 percent want to lose weight (Yep, this guy! Right here!).
In 2022, I think we’ll hear (and talk) less about COVID-19 than we did in 2021, which was less than 2020. Like I’m doing, pray to the deity of your choice that it indeed is the case.
In the meantime, just watch out for anything you might trip over in 2022, and have a great year. We’ll see you in these pages.
