A New Year
It’s probably a sign of advanced age, but once again, where in the world did 2025 go? Seems like it just started…and now the calendar reads 2026.
One thing I liked when I was a college student, and later as a college professor, was the fact that no matter what, the semester would end…and if any projects were left undone, it was too late once the final grade was posted. That was by definition a twice-yearly fresh start.
But in the real world, just because the calendar now says 2026 doesn’t mean those things left undone at the end of 2025 went away.
That’s certainly the case in world affairs and politics. War still rages in Ukraine and the Middle East…just as it did one year ago on this date…and one year before that. We still don’t have a federal budget for the fiscal year, which today began month 4 of only 12…just as it did one year ago on this date…and one year before that.
As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. New year, same problems.
2025’s unfinished home projects have now become 2026’s continuing sore spot. And those big new work projects that were sure to be underway by now…aren’t yet again.
But yet it is a fresh start, if you want to look at it that way. No, not with making broad and therefore meaningless resolutions that you will break before the Christmas decorations are put away. But the concept of a fresh start and fresh attitude is appealing.
I talked to you in the past about my apparent obsession with calendars. I literally have four different ones in my office…yes, one on each wall, so no matter where I look, I see one. And I am getting used to marking in a quartet of new project-based calendar planners sitting on my desk with pencil—and they already have plenty of erasure marks.
And in a bit of optimism, I again have an extra one of those dollar-store calendar planners in my desk drawer…just in case this year is the year for those big new work projects I have in mind. Hope this new year is full of everything you want it to be.
