New Year’s Revelations

The most reassuring and joyful thought that I can bring with me into the new year is this:

I am still the same person I was yesterday. When the clock struck midnight, I did not magically transform into a new and improved version of myself—one who has thoroughly learned from the past year of both accomplishments and fumbles. I did not run out of time to reflect on the past year when New Year’s Eve ended, and there is no reason at all that I should feel compelled to dive into a mass meditation on each moment of 2023. I am reassured by the fact that the commercial pressure to transform holds no weight, because transformation happens minute by minute, day by day. And, personally, I’d rather take things as they come. I am not a new me, not yet. And why should I be? Another day has passed, the start of another year marked. For once it brings such joy to breathe out and say, “so what?”

So, as amidst the magazine articles and slogans pushing the words “new year, new you”, remember that it doesn’t have to be. Slice up your year however you please. Acknowledge your personal new beginnings, no matter where they fall on the calendar. Change, when forced, is often short-lived. Dig deep into your roots, and move in your own time. I promise that no matter what the world is telling you, when and how you shift is up to you.