New Year… Does That Mean a New Me

The steady passage of time and the human optimism

Time is relative. A social construct invented to put humankind in batches and label periods as deemed, it is also an immensely useful tool for counting our days and numbering our years. And because humans are nothing if not sentimental creatures, it seems almost natural that we have come to attach some heavy meaning to what is in its simplest form, just a passage of time.

So when the clock struck twelve at midnight, and the ball dropped in Times Square, it was easy enough to get caught up in all the revelry and celebration, easy to believe that when the sun shone the very next morning, just as it did every other day, this one would somehow be different, a new start, a fresh beginning…a clean slate.

In reality though, the only thing that's probably changed is the date on the calendar. Reality often proves to be vastly disappointing. It's been years since I last felt that skin deep buzz for a new year, that excitement that when the clock struck twelve, somehow everything would be brand.

New.

New Year, New me. New Year's resolution, New Year sales. New. New. New.

Except it's not.

The celebration is over and I'll go back to my apartment, I'll watch the same boring shows, I'll eat the same boring food, stare at those same four walls and try to ignore that impending sense of doom that each ticking second is time I'm wasting.

New Year is a pressure. To be better. Do better. Humans like to hold on to the things that give hope. Something to look forward to in this bleak haze we all live in. So I understand the

desperate urge to want to drastically change your life at the beginning of each new calendar year. You feel like you have to, like if you don't, then what's the point of anything? 

But the fact is, the sun will rise, just as it does every other day. You and I will be back in traffic before noon.

My New Year’s resolution is simple—avoid pressure. It can be tempting to fall into the idea that a certain calendar year is somehow the one where your luck finally changes, and perhaps I’ve become jaded by the whole thing, but I simply don’t think that’s true.

I believe that I have the power to change my own life. And sometimes, no matter how hard I try, things might still not go my way. It’s an understanding I’ve come to accept, that our lives are determined by so many factors, many of which we cannot control. So if you’ve decided that this year is your year, and somehow it’s not the magical transformation you thought it would be, I have just one simple piece of advice.

Take each day as they come. Rather than a New Year, New Me. I like to believe it’s a New Day, New Me. And if tomorrow, I wake up in the same apartment, make the same coffee, and put on the same playlist, then that’s…fine. The pressure to transform overnight is exhausting.

Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is just… continue.

Written by, Iyunade Adeniji