For the most part, New Year’s Eve is about looking forward.

Counting down the remaining seconds until the clock strikes midnight, we anticipate the things to come — maybe spend some time hoping the coming year will be better than the passing one.

As the ball drops and the fireworks flash from the backyards of those neighbors who always seem to have a celebratory stash of firecrackers and Roman candles they can dig into, most of the maudlin drunks and old people will have wandered away from the party, leaving it to the young and eager to welcome another change of the calendar with open, expectant arms.

I won’t be drunk, and I’ve already done the maudlin thing once or twice — enough to know it stinks to start the New Year off in a funk — but by the time you read this, I will have spent a few of the final minutes of 2013 and, probably, some of the first minutes of 2014 pondering the people and events that made a difference in my life during the past 12 months.

At the top of my list — professionally, at least — will be the many wonderful people who support what we do here at the Suffolk News-Herald. Regular readers, sources, Facebook fans, online commenters, Twitter followers, anonymous tipsters, man-on-the-street interviewees, proud moms and dads, city spokespersons, coaches and players, volunteer photographers, unpaid columnists and many more all contribute their time, tips and talents toward helping us to produce a daily newspaper and a bi-monthly magazine that are both about and for the people of Suffolk.

We could not do this without the help and support of the community we serve, and I want each of you to know how much we appreciate the partnership we have with the fine folks of Suffolk.

During an unusual weekday spent apart from them, I will also be thinking about my fellow employees at the Suffolk News-Herald. In my many years of newspapering, I have never worked with a more talented, conscientious crew, and I can promise you that this newspaper would suffer from the loss of any of them. I am proud to call them my co-workers and my friends, and I hope they all enjoy this rare, brief break from the rigors of life at a daily newspaper.

Happy New Year!