Starting 2025 with a Bang (literally)

Yesterday’s events were intense: midnight – turn of the year, beginning of a square year (a mathematical wonder); 3 am (local time) a pickup truck with supposed ties to the Islamic state rams into crowds of people in New Orleans; 9 am (local time) another truck explodes in front of the Trump Hotel in Nevada. Is this the precedent for what is going to happen this year?

Events are superseded by our reactions towards them. What happened in 2020? A respiratory illness was reported to be spreading throughout China. A few days later, the WHO declared a global health emergency. We now call it the pandemic. This past year, Donald Trump became the president-elect for a second term after a loss to Biden in the past presidential term. Some people cried. Some people celebrated. We lessen the literal sense of the event in lieu of the implications of it or how we react to it.

How are we going to define this year? I repeat this statement again and again: our actions have the power to define our world around us. What are we going to do because of the events that shaped the first day of 2025? How are we going to react to it? We must acknowledge what happened and live through them. Here’s what I wish to do.

1. Read the news: Being aware of what is happening is crucial to living in society. Without it, we are more prone to being misled by false sources.
2. Live acknowledging our current context: We cannot be ignorant to current events. Being briefed on the news builds our understanding of the world that we live in, and how we need to navigate it. Being ignorant of our world does not help anybody.
3. Engage in conversation about it: My opinion alone does not matter. Another person’s opinions by itself do not matter. This is not an argument against moral relativism (although I do have many). It is the multitude of perspectives that matter. If there is a truth, and my opinion of the truth, it’s not going to do anything. Someone else has to either agree or disagree with me for anything to be done.

Create your own list of things you want to work on this year; it’s a tradition spanning longer than lifetimes. A New Year’s resolution doesn’t need to be personal, like “eating healthier” or “going to the gym”. It can be building lifelong habits like journaling or being more aware of current events. One of mine is to care less—that is, to be less obsessive over little things of course.