I&8217;m far braver than most of you poor souls could ever dream of being.

That&8217;s right, I said it.

This past year, I voyaged into territory most of you would never begin to explore.

I waded through the depths, withstood the hard times, felt alone.

The majority of the Natchez fire fighters and police officers &8212; our town&8217;s bravest &8212; haven&8217;t even done what I did this year.

But alas, with a little help from Santa Claus, I&8217;ve faltered.

The new TV is plugged in already. I pulled the video games out Tuesday night. And the plan is to get the cable hooked up again by the end of the week.

I&8217;m one of you again.

But I&8217;ve never been one to dwell on my own inadequacies, and I&8217;m more than ready to shed the TV-less title of 2006.

Last January, when the TV that got me through college died, when work was becoming very busy and when I thought I&8217;d like to read more in my spare time, I called CableOne and pulled the plug.

I missed Sasha Cohen&8217;s fall in the Winter Olympics, Kellie Pickler&8217;s country cracks on &8220;American Idol,&8221; an entire season of college baseball (not to mention football) and a whole world of stuff you can tell me about later.

Over 100 times at least, friends and co-workers turned to me and said &8220;did you see&8230;?&8221; to which I could only reply, &8220;I don&8217;t have TV.&8221;

Even the people who talk to me most often couldn&8217;t seem to remember the fact that I was going without a staple in the American culture.

But no more.

I&8217;ll be hooked up and running for a new season of &8220;Idol,&8221; perhaps I&8217;ll like &8220;Deal or No Deal&8221; and I might even get to watch the Saints win the Super Bowl.

I&8217;m also open for suggestions on what primetime shows and reality specials I should watch. The TV world moves on with or without us, and I feel quite out of the loop.

Has VH1 done &8220;I love the 2000s&8221; yet? And is that British nanny still whipping America&8217;s terrible twos into shape?

Going TV-less isn&8217;t easy, especially when you live alone. You get bored. It leaves a lot of time for thinking, sometimes too much. And being without TV severs your tie to the world.

I haven&8217;t watched the news in a year. I&8217;ve only seen Geico commercials when visiting my parents&8217; house. And I&8217;ve missed countless Natchez events on channel 4.

But most importantly, it&8217;s been hard to communicate. The average TV-watcher doesn&8217;t realize just how much of their conversation revolves around what they watched that week. It&8217;s more than just the water cooler talk, too.

A guest preacher at church a few weeks ago referred to some mountain hiking reality show I didn&8217;t know existed.

Christmas shoppers purchased gifts based on the most popular TV show.

Children I interview for stories always refer to their favorite thing on television.

People in the office draw analogies based on things they saw on TV.

Good or bad, our society revolves around television. And if you don&8217;t have TV, you don&8217;t revolve at the same pace as society. At times I felt I was revolving in an entirely different direction altogether.

I didn&8217;t get much reading done this year. And without TV, I was only willing to stay at work longer, making me busier.

My bank account did reap the benefits; though, the extra cash wasn&8217;t enough to keep me brave for 2007.

It was worth a try.

Now, where are those TV listings?

Julie Finley

is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com

.