{"id":20431,"date":"2021-01-04T09:17:53","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T17:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20431"},"modified":"2021-01-05T09:11:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T17:11:04","slug":"open-space-new-year-same-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/01\/04\/open-space-new-year-same-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: New year, same me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goodbye 2020, and hello 2021! The past 12 months really threw a lot at us. There were bushfires in Australia, murder hornets in BC, Black Lives Matter protests across North America, and a worldwide pandemic. With such a whirlwind year finally behind us, I think many people are breathing out a huge sigh of relief. This year will be different\u2014it will be better.<\/p>\n

Or will it?<\/p>\n

I’ve always found it interesting how people say that \u201cthis year will be so different from last year.\u201d Or how they think that they’ll be a completely new person on January 1, just because they made some resolution that they\u2019re most likely going to give up after a few weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
It’s a new year, but it’s the same you (photo by Joanna Malinowska).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Time is a theoretical concept. It\u2019s completely irrelevant when looking at the universe as a whole. Us humans only adopted our calendar year of 12 months because it helped us balance out the seasons. And the seasons in these 12 months only occur because of the way random space rocks orbit each other. It\u2019s hard to get more irrelevant than that.<\/p>\n

So why are people so convinced next year will be better? Why do people say \u201cnew year, new me!\u201d and think it to be true?<\/p>\n

There are a few possibilities to consider. Perhaps people are in denial, and they really think that the next year will be different. Maybe they like the idea of change, but not the reality of it. Maybe they hear other people say it and repeat it out of habit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say for sure, but I think that humans as a species have difficulty regulating the time we spend on Earth. We\u2019re so quick to dismiss days, weeks, months, and, apparently, even years. We spend our days waiting for \u201cthe day I\u2019m able to legally drink,\u201d \u201cthe day I finally have enough money to put a down payment on a house,\u201d or \u201cthe day when I\u2019m content with where I am in life.\u201d No matter how we view our time here on earth, one thing\u2019s for sure\u2014that theoretical clock never stops ticking.<\/p>\n

Even though the way we keep track of time is as irrelevant as can be, there\u2019s always going to be an end to our time being alive. Maybe that\u2019s why the phrase \u201cnew year, new me\u201d irks me so much. Lots of people will wait an abstract amount of time to get started with a new project or make a change in their lives. Our days are limited\u2014shouldn\u2019t we be doing these things sooner rather than later?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say the world ends tomorrow, and we can\u2019t stop it. Would you be satisfied? Or would you be wishing you had spent more time with your loved ones? What about that bathroom reno that had always been in the back of your mind? Would you be okay knowing that wish will never be fulfilled? Would you have taken on a second language earlier in life had you known your days were limited?<\/p>\n

I propose these questions not as a criticism (I myself am as guilty as anyone else for procrastination) but as a suggestion. Moving into 2021, the issues from 2020 aren\u2019t going to disappear. We need to take action for a better world, for a better version of ourselves, and for humanity, while we still have time left on earth.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t need to wait for the new year to make a change. We can start at any time we like. Maybe that means we\u2019ll finally stop saying \u201cnew year, new me.\u201d Or maybe we won\u2019t. But the choice is ours to make.<\/p>\n

Time may be irrelevant, but our choices aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goodbye 2020, and hello 2021! The past 12 months really threw a lot at us. There were bushfires in Australia, murder hornets in BC, Black Lives Matter protests across North America, and a worldwide pandemic. With such a whirlwind year finally behind us, I think many people are breathing out a huge sigh of relief. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20433,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20431\/revisions\/20433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}