Chin Up and Cheers
Well, 2017, you were a year of punching in the dark, of treading water, of maintaining a steady sprint all in the name of keeping breath in my lungs. And somehow I made it. We made it. I don’t recognize the woman you’ve shaped me into, but I like her. I guess that’s a start.
It feels simultaneously meditative and self-indulgent to write a New Years Wish in this format — but Gaiman does it and I’ve tried it and it feels like a tradition I should keep with, so here goes.
For 2018, I hope that the things you’re tired of are the things you work to conquer. Make those dark circles under your eyes mean something and refuse to hide them from the world.
I hope when you find what sparks you, you chase and then keep it in whatever capacity you can — write novels on your phone, compose music in your living room, dance on the BART, send postcards to friends across the globe from houses meant to confuse ghosts. Breathe life into the things you love until that spark becomes a glow becomes a flame becomes a fire.
I hope you realize that while time and circumstance play their part, they were never meant to be waited for. Do what you can while you can with what you can — the rest will follow because of what you’ve already started.
I hope you’re all of yourself all of the time, unapologetically. Loud, wondrous, sharp, kind, curious, demanding — all of it.
I hope you keep your shoulders back, your chin up, your eyes forward. I hope you learn to move through this world like you are a part of it, like you belong in it, and like it has not hurt you. Not because it hasn’t, but because it has and you survived.
Remember and return warmth in the places you’ve found it. Know that there are still good people in this world and do what you can to be good yourself — whatever that may mean to you.
Above all else, if today or even tomorrow isn’t working, remember that the best is yet to come — hold on.
Cheers.
