How new is the New Year?

Whizzing whistles…Bang! Bang! An explosion of coloured lights into the night sky.

Lights shaped like sunflowers, illuminating the dark sky with its luminous petals of dotted yellow lights.

Beside the sunflowers are lights shaped like jellyfish. Swimming the night sky gracefully like primer ballerinas. Leaving in its wake long streaks of orange-blue lights.

The jellyfish lights glide in the dark sky, showing off the flexibility of its translucent umbrella-shaped bodies. Bodies dotted with pink-purple lights.

You watched this display of colours and lights joyfully. The fireworks signaled to you a new beginning.

In the midst of your colour induced euphoria, you ask yourself, is this really a new beginning? How new is the New Year?

The mind tells you, the only ‘new’ in the New Year is your age. All things being equal, you may add a new age to your Driver’s License.

You disagree with the mind. The new year is what you, the internal and external factors that influence your daily existence make of it.

You understand that your life doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are sociocultural and socioeconomic factors that may make or mar your goals and aspirations.

All hope is not lost, nonetheless.

You believe in the power of self over the mind. You have prepared a foolproof guide to achieve your goals. You plan to stick to it.

In addition, you have also prepared a contingency plan. Your foolproof plan may fall apart. You don’t want to be caught living in a fool’s paradise.

You are smart, you learn from past mistakes.