Happy New Year!

I’ve been meaning to talk about the phrase above. I don’t get it sometimes.

As a Nigerian, I grew up spending my time in a church praying into the new year. We would ensure the 31st of December (in fact, the entire last week of December) was solemn, so we do not ruin the plans God has in store for us in the new year. By 10/11 pm, we are all in the church praying as we step into a ‘new dispensation’, a dispensation that maybe 20 other countries had gotten into hours earlier. I would see people come into the church at 11:45 pm to bury their heads somewhere before the crossover. Entering the new year was like a comet travelling into the world to destroy the previous year.

Before the new year begins, everyone is already composing messages about how this new year is going to be more memorable than the last. The same year that would be a minute ago when the messages are sent. People will post recaps and reviews about the previous year in the coming days. They will say that this one will be bigger than the last. This one is ‘The Year’. Every year is always ‘The Year’.

It is fascinating because I do not believe any year is better than the last. I think every year is special because you make it so. I think every day should be made unique. That is the only way you can have a ‘special year’. It is in the intentionality of your daily living. The relationships you make, the chances you take, the choices you make and the new things you try makes the year special.

We cannot predict tomorrow (we cannot even predict the next one hour). We only have control of now. What you do every minute will amount to the results you want to see later on.

No, 2021 is not behind us. It never was, and it never will be. The opportunities you lost, the relationships you lost, they did not vanish into thin air as you stepped into the new year. If anything, you are simply continuing the journey that is your life. But you can make lessons out of them and promise yourself that every day will be more intentional than the last.