writing || dear ioana, here’s how your 2019 is going to go: a letter to myself from june
dear ioana,
this is ioana.
I’m sitting in the library and I just got a radical idea. Radical, dude. It’s related to the post I made a couple days ago. But for you, who’s old and wrinkled and none the wiser, it’s a post I wrote six months ago. Haha, sucker!
Each year, as December approaches, the year winds down to the point where January begins on a giant mountain of excitement and goals. It’s a dedicated time of reflection to try and figure out things you want to change about yourself.
This year, I challenge you to change nothing. To not give into the grand superstition of a “fresh new year”.
Rather than try to start the year off perfectly, treat it as another day in the life. Another one where your only job is to live, and if possible, be happy too. Don’t set up your January 1st as a symbolic representation of the year ahead. Don’t reflect on the year previous to determine what was good and bad. Take it as it goes and just keep moving forward.
I’m saying this because I know what it feels like to have endless expectations for yourself and to want to keep getting better and better. The New Year is the perfect time to do this. Supposedly. Well, screw that. Writing your goals down doesn’t magically make you better at achieving them, so just ignore the trope of seeing the new year as a symbolic moment of rebirth.
Can you do it?
love,
your past self (who is apparently wiser, because she feels entitled to give you advice)
