First and foremost, I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and I hope everyone’s gearing up to make 2001 the best year of their life yet. I feel like that’s the way you’ve got to look at it. The only way for your life to get better is for you to make it better.
It was nice getting to see everyone over the holidays. On Christmas Day, the Hardy Boyz, all three of us, myself, Jeff, and pops, went to our family gathering and got to see some aunts, uncles, and cousins that we haven’t seen in years. We also saw our last Grandparent, our grandma who is doing great at age 90! Amazing. I often hope I’ll be able to make it 90 more days in life, much less years.
On New Year’s Eve, I continued my four year tradition of spending it in the Carolina’s own Myrtle Beach. It was a long day to get the final destination, but well worth it. I had flown in to Raleigh from San Antonio, Texas, picked up Lita, met with Joey Matthews and Christian York, and drove three hours to the beach. It’s always good to see Joey and Christian, I’ve known them since they started in the wrestling business. Joey and Christian were a part of our circle of friends that we call the Omegapowers (along with myself, Jeff, Shane Helms, Shannon Moore, the Dupps, Cham Pain, and Joey Abs). We used to have best times doing independents because we all shared the same desire for making it and all gelled in the ring as well as out of it. Two of my best friends from high school, David Johnson and Aaron Decker made it down, which was awesome because I never get to see them. We had a great all night party with 16 people which was a fun way to bring in 2001. Joey Matthews won the award for staying up the latest–he went to bed at 9:30 a.m. I had to give in at 7:30 a.m. because I had only slept two hours the night before in San An.
The New Year also brings around another tradition for Matt Hardy. Some of our fans who have followed us closely have probably heard of “The Cleansing.” Six years ago, myself, Jeff, and five other close friends sat around a campfire on New Year’s Day and talked about all the regrets we had from the previous year and what our goals were for the coming year. We all took turns speaking that night. One at a time, we confessed, complimented, critiqued, wished, and shared all our thoughts about ourselves and the other six. When you were done speaking, you would place a log on the fire–the log represented everything from the previous year. Once you put your log on the fire, you had a clean slate for the upcoming year. Jan. 3 was the sixth “Cleansing.” Sadly, not all of the seven members made it to the fire this year. It’s amazing that every year I feel rejuvenated after spilling my guts. We all do. It’s good to have people you can be open and honest and true with. For the last six years, I’ve been lucky enough to continually have better years. The year 2000 will definitely be hard to top. I’m going to give 2001 everything I have to make it my best year yet– why don’t you do the same?
