New Year, New You?

Do New Year’s resolutions have rules? I hope not. I’ve never been any good at following rules for these sorts of things. But once I set a goal, I don’t look back. If I have something in mind, unless my mind changes, I get it done. But that’s the other problem. If I decide I don’t want to complete the goal any more, I start to feel like it was all for nothing. Is it wasted time if the path you no longer want to go down brought you to an even better path, though?

At the dawn of the New Year, I’m contemplating one of the biggest decisions of my life. And suddenly, everything I stand for and everything I am is being called to question. I feel like I’m on trial, only I’m both the defendant and the questioner.

Life has changed a bit since I wrote “Some Nights (What Do I Stand For?)”, but some of the lines hold truer than ever. My head is in a completely different place but so is my heart. Maybe at 17 I don’t know who I’ll be at 25. And maybe I don’t know what it’s like to be out on my own just trying to figure out where I fit in the world. But maybe I know what I’m thinking and feeling, and I just don’t want to come to terms with it.

I want 2013 to be about being me and not being afraid of what I think or feel or want.  

I resolve to:

Write more
Read more
Take more risks
Learn a song on the guitar, finally
Write a song
Go outside of my bubble more (go outside more ;))
Try something new
Make a decision

If you’re struggling to come up with New Year’s Resolutions, look no further. Turns out, they have an entire web page dedicated to helping you have a happy 2013.

CLICKHERE for a year of whatever you want it to be.

Take it from someone who’s so clearly amazing at making decisions, and stop thinking about it so much. In 2013, you will have ups and you will have downs. It’s a given; that happens every year. There are some things that you simply don’t have control over. But I’ve found the more energy I put into trying to make the right decision, the further I get from what I really want.

In time everything becomes clear. The best way to kick off a new year is to reflect on what went right with what you did the previous year.

 

 

Middle School Teacher Suspended for Playing Macklemore in School

If you had the chance to read my post "'No freedom 'til we're equal. Damn right I support it"-Macklemore'", I talked about the song "Same Love" by  Macklemore. He speaks out on social issues as well as being open and honest about his struggles with drug addiction. Yesterday on Twitter I saw that he tweeted about a middle school teacher in Michigan suspended for playing this song in school. Macklemore shared the article about the suspension, a letter from one of her students, and he even wrote a blog post about it.

"South Lyon teacher supsended for playing a song about being gay"
Read the full story HERE.

"I believe that Ms. Johnson getting suspended is completely out of line and unjust. However, I think it’s important for moments like these to be exposed and for us to pay attention and respond." (Excerpt from his post.)
Continue reading his blog post HERE.

Macklemore goes on to say "It ["Same Love"] was written with the hope that it would facilitate dialogue and through those conversations understanding and empathy would emerge." Through music we can find a common understanding that can't be found in any other form of communication. Maybe we can't completely cure homophobia or create that kind of equality in the U.S. right now, but if just one person can see a different perspective because of something like this song, it might all be worth it.