With 2014 rapidly coming to a close, I find myself in the company of countless others who are, no doubt, also reflecting on the past 365.25 days. Each new year seems like an eternity, yet at the end of each one the time feels like it has evaporated into thin air.

2014, much like any other year, has come with its ups and downs. Measuring the objective "goodness" of a year is a daunting task, as there are entirely too many contributing factors to take into account. But as a whole, I think I would call this year a good one indeed. In particular, this year has been marked by great strides in self-growth.

This year, I have:

• Pushed 1930 commits to GitHub
• Achieved my highest semester GPA thus far: 3.73
• Developed a love of functional programming through Lisp, ML, and Haskell
• Gained experience setting up and administrating production servers

I also listened to a lot of music in 2014. Here are my top 14 albums of '14 by play count.

I have spent the past few weeks of my professional life migrating pages upon pages of archived website material to the new company website. Over the course of this mundane activity, I have been dwelling on my propensity towards leaving things in the past. While I may not have much say in whether or not the 2006 company newsletter is carried over to the new website, I do have such control over matters in my own life. That being said, there is plenty of baggage that I intend to leave behind in the current year.

Each new year is a chance at a fresh start. A time to burn bridges and kick bad habits. A time to cut out the cancer from one's life and hone in on the desired qualities. A time for new routines, new mentors, and new ways of thinking.

Despite my commitment to perpetually improving myself, I have never been one for making New Year's resolutions. My only resolution is that one year from now, I will be a vast improvement over my current self. As of right now, I do not know what that means, just as I do not know what the next year holds in store. In the coming 8800 hours, I will explore and define what that vast self-improvement may be.

The world is a vast place, and even though I have been to both sides of the globe and back, there is still so much that I have yet to see and do. To be content with where I am is a waste of the possibilities that lie within my reach.

This coming year, I want to do more with what I have been given. I want to be more than I previously have. I want to experience life to the fullest extent possible.

Here's to 2015: Un nouveau soleil.