Thoughts On the Eve Of 2025

I write this in the final hours of 2024. Ready or not, 2025 is on its way. Germany, Italy, Spain, and France just cheered in the new year. The UK is currently on deck to do the same.

I am not excited about this new year. I am going into it mentally and emotionally kicking and screaming about the unknown and uncertainty that lies ahead for those of us who live in the US. This is the first time I am not excited for the new year and it’s unsettling. I think of the new year as the closing of one chapter and the beginning of another. I typically reflect on the previous year and prepare for the new one by setting goals, finding a One Word, and cleaning my house. My apprehension about 2025 leaves me floundering and unmotivated. The path that will be 2025 is not something I get to avoid unless I leave this plain of existence in the next 6 hours, and I have no plan to do that.

In the New Year’s Eves of my 20s, I would party with friends, cheer in the new year with libations and a kiss, and go to bed around 2 or 3 am. Tonight, I will hang out at home with my cats and a roaring fire on the TV, read while enjoying a good glass of whiskey, and soak in a hot bubble bath before I sleep into 2025. I feel no need to stay up and ensure the new year arrives. A part of me wishes it would just remain 2024. This way, January 20, 2025, never comes.

As Tracy Lawrence intones, “Time Marches On,” and it does so regardless if we are ready for the march. Today, I find the rhythm of those boots deafening.

Despite the complicated feelings I have about 2025, I also have a mustard seed of hope. I hope that I look back on this blog on some future New Year’s Eve and laugh as I realize my anxiety and concerns were never actualized. I hope this future Catherine is filled with excitement for the new year again. I hope her future world strongly values education, diversity, and inclusion. I hope this future is full of people of character who stand up for what is right, is void of hungry children and families who go bankrupt from medical debt, and swelling with leaders who are driven to take actions that are best for the country and not their ego or bank account.

May this hope for a better future sustain us all in the new year.