2020: Call It What You Want

Time has played a role the last two years and it will continue to play a role this year. You know how I am with trilogies. But I must say, this will be the final one. 2020 will be my final themed year. Foretelling your own fate for so long gets tiring, especially with all the hardships coming non-stop the past three years. Vulnerability is a nice thing to learn. That is all I’ll say of 2019. There are new lessons for me to fulfill now. 

In the summer of 2013, I began working on a concept for a new story. A fantasy setting staged in a Middle-Earth sort of land. I never wrote anything down, but it’s a story I’ve kept in my head and it has continued to grow over the years. In short, the people of this world are living in the middle ground between a dark age and a glorified time of peace and prosperity. They base their cycles of time on those ebbs and flows of dark times and ages of peace. But this next age is foretold to be the final one, the greatest one. 

The main characters give their very all to break through this last barrier before finding true serenity, only to fall into another dark age, unforeseen. I greatly doubt that I’ll ever write any of this down, so I’m not too cautious of spoilers. In a way, that’s what makes this story special to me. It’s of my own creation, and it’s all within my head. And as much as I’d love to share it with the world, sometimes we must create for ourselves, just as we must do other things for our own sakes. 

There is an irony to the age of time these people of this lost story seek. The question of whether such an age will come at all. I’m aware of the irony of incorporating such a concept into my own year’s title; the last year I’m giving a title to. Though if I should live long enough perhaps history shall repeat. And yet, I see no more a perfect idea to cap off a decade of themes and start a new decade than by using one from my own story. 

While this year encapsulates my own private and personal journey, I offer you an inclusion, and extend a chance for you to make what you want out of the time you have. As far as you can be concerned, 2020’s title is Call It What You Want. We all get a say in what we want and how we want to pursue that. I pass the torch if any be willing to take it. 

It is now seven years since I came up with an idea for such a story. Another irony. Or was it always planned? This story has a name. And this year has a title. And time shall decide how it all plays out. Day has already set. Night has already fallen. A dark age has already brewed. If the trees could sing, they would call me King. 

2010: The Year of Matt Johnson

2011: The Year of Awesome (and Awkward)

2012: Anything Goes

2013: A Turn of the Tide

2014: SAIL

2015: By the Pirate’s Code 

2016: Non-Stop

2017: Act II

2018: At Sunset

2019: A New York Minute

2020: The Seventh Dawn