As I count down the final seconds of the year past, I am attempting to recall all of the moments of 2012 that made me smile, made me cry, made me laugh and made me lie. There’s an undulating feeling beneath my feet and a serene breeze on my face like memories wafting by. 

As the night drifts on, I talk with friends about the hopes for the incoming year, and they echo the same; echo from last year; echo from next; hollow echoes like the hull of a boat. 

The music plays louder; we are rocking and sirens wale. The breeze, here again sans serenity, is a stiff wind now. It’s intoxicating anticipation and there is no escape. We heave in laughter at our hilarious captivity. There’s a spin of successes the last year has gifted and tales of yet more the new year will bring. Everyone pitches. All are bleary-eyed, some weepy now, sentimentally and otherwise. 

All aboard, stern, aft, starboard and port are ready to get off this New Year’s cruise. Great idea at first, but the undulating currents become rocking waves; serene breezes turn to stiff winds, sirens’ song to shrieking, laughter to weeping, as the boat heaves and pitches again. Such is New Year’s on a boat; such may be the New Year; such was the last year. The hollow echo of the boat hull on New Year’s Eve. 

— David Coker, advertising manager