I don’t know about you, but every New Year’s Eve, I go through this mental exercise where I evaluate my life from the previous 365 days. Every year, like clockwork, as we approach midnight, I’m inundated with emotions, sadness being the most prominent. I go through the evaluation process, and reflect on my actions throughout the year, to soon realize that my 365 days do not equally match the 365 good deeds I promised the year before.
The year 2019 has been an interesting one. I would like to lie and say that my year was full of positive thoughts, good wishes and deeds, but in reality, it wasn’t. I have to admit that my year was inundated with negative thoughts, mostly related to my own inability to change the reality of so many who are facing oppression and hatred, for the simple reason of being born poor and in the “wrong” country.
The knowledge of children being kept in cages at the border, the increase in school shootings and racially motivated crimes, the dismantling of what, to me, are basic liberties, such as the right to choose who to love or to govern your body, and the knowledge that so many are completely OK with denying all these things to people, is not only disappointing, but truly infuriating.
I don’t want you to think that my year has been consumed with disappointment. I also have plenty of things to be grateful for, my health being the most important of them. My family, witnessing my son become a man and start college, all of the professional development opportunities that I’ve participated in, and, of course, not losing the motivation to continue to support my community despite the collective challenges that we face.
This year, as the clock strikes midnight, and I embrace my son, say Happy New Year and bless him, I will be making the same promise that I haven’t been able to keep for as long as I can remember. I will promise to have 365 days that will be matched by 365 good deeds that make an impact in someone’s life.
I hope that next year I can bring not only smiles and comfort, but aspire to convey critical thinking and strategies to everyone I have the pleasure of encountering, and that my presence, in some way, makes an impact.
And as I hear the last stroke of the clock, I will be once again optimistic and eager to get out there and do my best.
Happy New Year. I hope.
