Friday 30 December 2011

One more

Only one more day left of 2011. It seems that at the end of every year, every one reflects on the past 365 days and says how quickly it has passed. We live year for year, with each 1st of January providing an excuse to reassess our lives and our choices, making resolutions to change and to better ourselves in newer years.

I am not one for resolutions because I don't know what I want. Silly things like losing weight or finding a husband or studying harder are not life changes. If a resolution is to be made, it should be one that you carry with you for the rest of your life. Something that not only benefits yourself, something that makes the world a better place.

Here are a few suggestions:

Be kind to everyone. Cashiers in SA seem to have signed a contract that prohibits them from being efficient workers and friendly to customers. But whatever. Kill them with kindness.

Don't be scared to meet new people. When I started at university, I had my friends from school and was not open to engaging with any of the other students because after all, I had just come back from EUROPE and was infinitely superior and I had my crew of BFFs, so I did not need anyone new in my life. Big mistake. One year later, all my old friends had migrated overseas or friendships had changed and I was a rather lonely and less arrogant person. It takes time to make friends, but after this year, I am so glad to have gotten to know many of my fellow students better. Also, friendship is a reciprocal thing and needs to be nurtured in order to grow. I like to think that my friends like me as much as I like them.

Don't judge. Joh ja, this is one of my character flaws. I judge people from the second I see them. But I remember one incident from working at Disneyland : a group of us was sweeping the area and cleaning out the dustbins when a Dutch lady with her daughter walked past, pointed at us (we were hard to miss thanks to an abominable costume of camel-toe inducing turquoise pants with a yellow strip down the side and chequered yellow-turquoise shirts) and told her daughter that she would become like us if she did not do her homework. Because of my Afrikaans I understood what she was saying, and it became clear to me that often we think wrongly of people who do menial jobs. All of the workers there were college students. I think we often judge people on appearances and on their jobs before even knowing their story. I sure am guilty of it.

Volunteer.  This is a bit hypocritical because I don't volunteer. I am always saying how I would like to and making up all of these excuses. Bottom line is, if you can and have the time, rather help out somewhere than to watch another episode of House M.D. You know, my people skills aren't so great, but reading to the elderly I could do. Or helping someone with learning a language. I don't know. This is kind of a resolution I would want to make and keep without labelling it.

To be honest, I am not sure about this post. I wanted to be all inspirational and start a movement to flippen SAVE THE WORLD and make everyone happy. But the truth is we are all caught up in our little lives and I don't think there is a collective will to have a world of peace and unity. I mean, most of the time I am thinking about what I could eat for pudding and what book to read next and what to do for New Year's Eve, and not about how we are all equal and should save our planet.




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