I can almost remember 2019 in its entirety. The year occurred in stages. First it was bad, then good, then great, then very bad, then normal for a long while, then good and bad continued to take turns. It sort of ended in a good way, figuratively. Or let’s just say 2019 ended hopefully. Now 2020 is here and it looks like everyone is on their marks.

What’s so special about a new year anyway?
I think the singular thing that makes a new year new is that everyone regards it as such. At every level of human life and institution, the turn of the year is a reference point. Businesses round up their accounts and close for the year, governments finalize budgetary decisions, and schools organize parties to mark the conclusion of academic activities. Though, a few institutions cannot afford to round up activities completely. They are usually the ones that try to keep us alive (e.g. hospitals, security agencies) or the ones that keep life going (e.g. restaurants, transportation, news media); others like retailers, travel agencies, etc., have more work on their hands due to higher demands for their services.

Then the real question is “how do you regard the new year or the turn of the year?”
Personally, I tried to have a solemn reflective December, but peer pressure and FOMO (fear of missing out) made sure I attended my fair share of hangouts to commemorate the end of the year. At least I tried — returning home around 11pm to reflect on life and where the world is headed for a few minutes before sleeping. I can’t deny that it was memorable tho. I went to the beach for the first time in twenty years, took a few hundred pictures and fought the urge to dive inside the ocean because I lack swimming skills (common sense at work there). That was my greatest attempt at dirtying December. The 31st came and the switch to solemn reflection came naturally. Now it’s the third day of the year and for some the new year is already old and resolutions have been postponed. But there’s still another 363 days to go…

It makes me wonder what life would be like if there was no time reference — no days, no nights, no months, no years, no seasons. There would equally be no striving, no goals, and no achievements. Time gives us a feeling of limitation; we count time upwards but we feel and relate to it like it counts down. This is because time is a measure of life — time is like life’s punctuation marks. So, we can always feel the commas, hyphens and colons, in days, weeks and months, but we never know when a period is coming. Of course, we celebrate the end of a paragraph with our self-imposed period, but we don’t know whether there would be a next paragraph. We are also not sure whether we write the script or the script has been written, but there is nothing left for us to do than to live life by striving, setting goals and celebrating achievements.

Therefore, what we really need is not more time, but more life within the time we seem to have. More life does not necessarily mean more money, cars and wives. Those things happen as a result of life. Life has a definition for everybody because we are all unique and individual. Just like everyone regards the turn of the year differently, everyone should also regard the new year, and the life that happens within it, in their own unique way. Goals should be set and each goal should be layered with action plans and punctuated with timelines. There should also be space for enjoyment and not taking life so seriously because the essence of time is that each period is unique and is a mixture of all things. So, there is a time for everything.

Finally (this is the part where I give you advice on how to live a year that I have not lived before), I’d leave you with these three lines:

1. In all things give time for introspection.

2. Keep good company.

3. Exercise, eat well and sleep. [in that order]

Have a fruitful 2020.

Follow me on Medium @Southpaw Glove