I mean, it's 24 hours away as I type this and it still seems so far away.

Whenever one of these new years rolls around, I'm taken back to Claremont where I was a skinny, awkward teenager.

I remember sitting in my hideout in the garage, looking out over the piles of urban detritus, thinking about the future. I did that a lot as a kid.

The thing I still can't get over is how all this seemed so far away back then. Back then my major concern was talking to a girl without my voice cracking and 1999 was only something Prince sang about. (And that was when we could call him Prince.)

Now, here I am. Ninteen Ninety-Nine. And I don't quite know what to make of it.

So I did what I always do when I can't quite wrap my head around something. I asked for stories. And 11 of fray's friends and contributors responded.

Here you'll find their stories, their hopes, and their resolutions for 1999. Take a look. And, of course, you can add your thoughts, too. Perhaps we can make sense of this new year together.

In 1996, I resolved to "hold onto my dreams in a world of people who've stopped." That resolution prompted an email from a new friend to remind me that not everybody out there had stopped dreaming just yet. Three years later that new friend is my lover – and she reminds me of those dreams every day.

This year I think I'll resolve to hang on to the dream, no matter how hard it bucks.

Happy new year everybody,

– Derek

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What's your New Year's resolution?