Wow…what a year 2012 has been. 1

Wow…what a year 2012 has been.

It seems as if it was only a few weeks ago that I was with my dad’s side of the family in PA in their basement, huddled around the television watching the ball drop hoping that 2012 was going to be a great year. I had purposefully bought red colored 2012 glasses, I was hoping Rick Santorum would be the nominee, and I was wondering what would occur in Oakland after our 2011 election shakeup. Turns out though that it wasn’t just Oakland that had a shakeup…my life had a shakeup.

As I wrote this year in our family newsletter quoting Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” and that couldn’t have summed up this year any better. It all started in the beginning of 2012, January in fact, that my family learned my mom Jill had cancer. While we were scared, we felt good that we caught the cancer early and that it was treatable. This was at the same time my dad and I were out visiting colleges and of course the same time I was doing school work and studying for mid-terms. It seemed my mom was getting better and life seemed to be on a high. I was so blessed in the spring and summer as I was inducted into my school’s National Honor Society, I was able to attend the American Legion’s Boys State program in June, and I got front row seats to a local Christie town hall in July. The good times were not to last however as my family and I found out that the cancer had spread to my mom’s liver. We were told then that this too was curable, but it would be another hard couple of months on all of us.

There was a shimmer of hope after this negative news in August, as I received word that my 4 year quest to get a dog park in our town had a chance of becoming reality. I spent the first half of August working on collecting information, putting a plan together, and researching various bits of information to give to Oakland’s Recreation Chairman, Mike Guadagnino, who was starting to spearhead a project to make the Pleasureland property a working park again. But my mom, who was the original inspiration for me to start pushing for a dog park, would not live to see it for herself. After only a few new chemo treatments, she was not bouncing back and doctors were not optimistic. As the month of August continued, her health started to decline and sadly, she passed away on August 13th. It was devastating, shocking, and the major sticking point of this year for me and most people in my family. I’d like to thank the editors of the Journal for also writing a touching article about my mom.

But my life continued to chug along bringing more good and bad news. I continued work with my polling project, Public Opinion Polls for Oakland, NJ, and I was honored to introduce the town council candidates at their debate in late October. I was then saddened a few weeks later at the general election results but as David wrote in Psalms 118:8, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” That quote has sure come in handy this year…

But the more recent events in my life and events affecting my life since November, appear to be pointing towards a much more positive and optimistic 2013.

In 2013, I will be in the hayday of my Senior Year of high school…I will be choosing and starting to attend a college…public meetings will be held about the new White Oak Park and hopefully the dog park will finally be approved after then 5 years of work and persistence…politically, I am personally hoping 2013 will be a good year here in this state…and of course, I am praying for health and happiness for my entire family.

After what happened last year at this time predicting what would happen in 2012, I’ve learned from my mistakes that predicting the future is not an art…it is just pure luck. (Just ask a weatherman!) So 2013, bring it on…it can only get better than this year!

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays this month and I would like to wish you all as well as happy, healthy, 2013
Ryan Schwertfeger