New Year’s Eve is special for me. It was on this night, now 10 years ago, my wife and I started dating.

As a result, the holiday is also a day of hope. Tomorrow I’ll hit the ground running with a renewed sense of optimism in just about every aspect of life. Sometimes, that optimism putters out and I renew it a year later. For instance, I’ve resolved to lose weight every year since I was a sophomore in high school. Some years, I’ve lost weight. The problem is that in all of those years, I’ve gained weight too.