I just got an email from Amazon.com that is titled, “Amazon Student: New Year, New You”.
It doesn’t really send a special message. In all honesty, it’s about as basic as can be, not to mention tacky and cliche, but at the same time, it was kind of perfect.
Why, you ask?
Great question (and if you didn’t ask it, please continue reading anyway. No seriously, please, keep reading. I keep checking Google Analytics to see how many people come to my page, and how long an average visit lasts. Consider this an experiment of how long I can keep your interest in a single parenthetical. Okay, I’m done).
It was special because right before I got that email, I started this blog. I kept writing different introductions. I kept trying to find the words that I wanted to say, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get anything right. The words came out wrong. Everything sounded off, or impersonal. I just couldn’t find the words to express what I wanted to say. The only thing that I knew was that I wanted to write a blog about the changes that a new year brings. I wanted to find a way to write about New Years Resolutions, and how they fit into our society. I know, it’s cliche. It’s overdone. Not to mention, it’s late. I mean seriously, it’s the third already, but that’s not the point.
The point is I have never made a serious attempt at a New Years Resolution. Personally, I think they are a bit silly and an overall commercial attempt at getting you to fall into the pits that society creates. By that, I mostly mean that they want you to join a gym. Well, not always, but it seems like they embed that as a message in every ounce of the media. It’s like, overweight? Get to the gym. Underweight? Get to the gym. Eat an Oreo? Get to the gym (but only so that you can burn off the calories that you consume while eating Oreos, so that you can buy more Oreos, so that you can get to the gym and burn off those calories, so that you can consume more Oreos. Yes, they are delicious. I know. I can’t help myself either, but their deliciousness alone is not why they want you to buy them. They want you to buy them because they make money off of both the Oreos and the gym memberships. It’s a cruel, cruel world. Delicious, but cruel).
However, this year, I kind of want to fall into that pit. A part of me wants to allow myself to embrace the change that a new year brings, which sounds kind of silly. (No, I’m not getting a gym membership. I had one prior to the new year, but I’m probably going to avoid it for a while to avoid the Oreo eaters, at least until February when they stop using the gym and return to their full time Oreo consumption). I mean, why do we wait until a new year to change something about ourselves? Does writing 2011, and then scratching it out/erasing it/backspacing a lot of times before rewriting 2012 really make a difference? The only real difference is that halfway through the year, we will finally start writing the year out correctly, and then half a year later, we’re going to do the same thing all over again. Doesn’t that mimic our lifestyles in so many ways? I mean, is January 1st really any different than December 31st?
The only real difference between the the two days are the differences that we, as a society, associate with it.
But you know what? I think that that’s okay.
I think that we could all use a little bit of change in our lives. I think that we could all be a little bit happier, or healthier. I think that in some ways, we could all use the change that a new year brings, because a new year brings a new us and sometimes we all need that little push to get there.
And that is what the end of one year and the beginning of the next brings. It brings us an opportunity to reflect upon ourselves. It gives us the chance to look back at the person we were for the past year, and it gives us a chance to change that person. Consider the end of each year a check point. Consider it an opportunity to start over. If you’re not happy, get happy. If you’re not healthy, get healthy. If you’re not eating enough Oreos, eat more Oreos.
I know this sounds preachy, but you only live once, and we deserve what we want out of life, but don’t expect it to be handed to you. You have to be the change that you want to see you in yourself.
This year, my resolution is to write more. Sure, that means that I’m going to write useless anecdotes about my hockey team that no one cares about. It means that I’m going to write about television shows and movies that I love (or hate). It means that I’m going to write about the mistakes that I have made in the past. It means that I’m going to write about a little bit of everything. It means that maybe, just maybe, I might actually finish something that I start.
And who knows, maybe that means I might be happy.
What about you? What are your New Years Resolutions? What are you doing to be the change that you want to see in yourself?
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