New Year, New Life

Yes, we know that it's just another day. There's no massive epiphany, no golden revelation, no opening of the wardrobe to find a whole new world out there. 2015 will, for many of us, be the same mouldy old box, covered in posters taped to the door and filled with the same clothes, most unwashed and some never worn.

Yet, it's a new year, NEW YEAR, something that's never been experienced on this earth before and never will be. We humans are very good at branding - we can give anything a fresh name, a fresh identity, and put a spin on an old story to make it sound like we're listening to it for the first time, even if the characters are the same, the plot familiar and the turn of events eerily similar to something we feel like we've experienced before. Déjà vu, ladies and gentlemen. We create it.

It's when one reads Facebook statuses like, 'This year sucked. Hope the next one's better', that a gasp of a guffaw escapes the throat. No, friends, this year will not be better. You will have the same worries, the same inescapable sorrow, the insecurities which are but fraternal twins of those in the past.  Déjà vu, again. You re-create it in different packaging.

So I say, if we're so skilled at deluding ourselves, why not use that superpower for good? See what I did there - putting a Marvel/DC spin on things, the whole 'greater power, greater responsibility' spiel.  You see, we make the product, and we design modern packaging as well. So why not use up that unlimited employment discount - make something for yourself?

Do a good deed everyday to feel that warmth inside - which is just you patting yourself on the back. Read all kinds of books - especially the ones that reflect on every seam stitched in life's fabric, just so you can have those 'intellectual' conversations you've always wanted to be part of. Travel to get away. Learn to cook to avoid making instant noodles the only delicious thing in your life because you're broke. Make friends to get invited to parties so you can surround yourself with people, anything two-legged with half a brain and a heart and a human face so you never have to feel lonely. Plus, there's always Snapchat.

In short, do what you have to do to be happy. Make life the way you want it to be, so that every time you leap into the sea, you can pretend that each wave is a chance to emerge as something original. That you're not just standing like a fool as you become soaked to the skin. 2015, truly, can be a better year.

There's a Scott F. Fitzgerald quote that is especially significant at this point - “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The storm will be ever present, the current forever unyielding, the boats tiresomely weak against the power of the waves. And yet, they continue to tread that treacherous water body.

Be not resistant against the flow of time, friends. Life will go on, each moment exactly like the previous. We're fighting a losing battle, but we're still fighting. Choose to live your lives the way you wish to live them. Choose to let go, to start afresh, to witness, what is actually, a new year.

Happy new year!