WASFAA - Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators

December 2001/January 2002

Online Publication

Maybe the best New Year's resolution we can make is to live each day. To assess what we want and need from each day and what we hope to contribute to the world each day.

Editorial Reflections ...
New Beginnings

I once set New Year's Resolutions that included not smoking and drinking more. It was a year that, when December 31 arrived, I proudly celebrated the fulfillment of those resolutions I'd set 364 days before. Granted, I set fairly attainable goals. I don't smoke, so to say at the end of the year that I still didn't smoke was pretty easy. Drinking more was a bit more challenging. I believe I was about 23 at the time and I didn't feel very well versed in "bar" drinks. I'd had beer and wine, but wanted the maturity and true mixology knowledge required to step up to the bar, order a Whisky Sour, and know what you're getting. On this one I don't believe I got much past a Gin & Tonic, Cosmopolitan, and a sophisticated version of a Margarita. Nonetheless, I counted it a successful year.

Since that time I haven't made many resolutions - it creates too much fear, anxiety and pressure during an already hectic season. I've switched my annual reflections and goal setting to my birthday. New Year's, then, can be left alone for the fabulous celebrations that I partake in each year. Ah, those of you that know me are saying, "When have you ever partaken in a fabulous celebration on New Year's, Becky???" True, last year I spent New Year's Eve cutting out a paper doll house from a Victorian book my mother had given me for Christmas, The Mary Francis Housekeeper. (Please note, I'm not a particular fan of Victorian era things, I'm definitely not a devoted "housekeeper", and although I do on occasion have fun with paper dolls when I'm taking care of someone's kids, it's certainly not a regular hobby.) My question is, what type of desperation is inspired by such a holiday that it results in a 30 year-old woman being reduced to this sort of humiliating experience? I think it is safe to say I may well have been (and we can only hope this is so) the only person spending her New Year's Eve in quite this way.

Truly though, our lives are awfully cyclical. Each year we intend to plan ahead, we intend to get organized, we intend to loose weight, we intend to get in shape, we intend to stay in better contact with our friends, we intend to spend less, work less, and play more. What happens in those 365 days that makes all of these things so rarely occur?

It's obviously what doesn't happen. Our focus gets lost. Perhaps we become disillusioned when we are reminded that life is not necessarily a holiday every day. We get worn down by the "dailyness" of everything and forget that the breath of life is in that very "dailyness." Maybe the best New Year's resolution we can make is to live each day. To assess what we want and need from each day and what we hope to contribute to the world each day. I sometimes describe myself as a reverse Ichabod Crane - a bodiless head. I get so caught up in the should's and would's and could's of each day that I forget I've got a heart and soul to tend to. A heart and soul that has wisdom and joy to share. Let's all make a commitment to let go of the should's, would's, and could's of the past; to release the "if only's" and the "what if's" and to move forward, into a new beginning. A new beginning full of the "what will be."

Blessings to all of you during the holiday season and throughout the 2002 year.

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