Fall semester is about to end. Snow is falling. My inability to focus is at an all-time high. Facebook has never been so interesting, and for that matter, I have discovered that I like to bake.
Do I like to bake, or do I like to procrastinate? The cups have long been red, Hanukkah is in its final hours and Christmas song marathons are about to commence. This only means one thing — or two, if you count that Dominick the Donkey is well on his way.
A new year is coming, it’s time for me to make resolutions.
Every year I swear I’m going to make resolutions, but I have to admit, I am not very good at following through. In part, I think it is because I never really have the incentive to change, other than the idea of a ‘‘clean slate.” But a new year, to me, always feels rather uneventful.
The ball dropped and I expected the genie from Aladdin to come out in full cartoon form and serenade me about my three wishes. I have no wishes. And I’m not in Aladdin. Damn.
But now that I know that come May is time to don that green cap and gown (by the way, Binghamton University, I appreciate that your color is one that makes my hazel eyes look quite nice), I know that I have to change. We all have to change. And I am proposing a resolution not only for the class of 2011, but for anyone in college.
Make tons of mistakes. Now. Before you have to graduate and be a real person, because then you will have no excuse.
I mean it. Screw up, make people scream “epic fail” as you fall on your ass because you wore too-high heels (or because it just wasn’t your day in sneakers, either), drunkenly confess your emotions for someone you probably shouldn’t, skip the gym, eat too many cupcakes, do everything wrong — without putting your safety at risk, I suppose — and wake up the next morning and learn from it, move forward and then make the proper resolution to not ever drink too much, to take care of your health, to be less clumsy, to be neater, to be more organized, to not accidentally hurt people’s feelings, to never wear pants that don’t fit again.
New Year’s resolutions are meaningless unless you pinpoint the fault that needs to be corrected. So I suggest resolving to make mistakes so you can bravely correct them. Say, “Yes, I was wrong, I screwed up, and now I am going to be a bigger, better person. And one day, one fateful day, I will be responsible.”
On a side note, it’s critical that we also celebrate what we have accomplished in the past year — apart from our pratfalls or near-concussive falls. 2011 marks a new year but, just as no magical blue cartoon voiced by Robin Williams will appear, not one of us is going to wake up on New Year’s Day a fresh, transformed human being.
And as much as we still have our mistakes to learn from, we have accomplishments to wear proudly.
So show off. Mess up. As long as you wake up the next morning, clean up the mess you made, resolve to never make that same mess again and keep in mind that one mess doesn’t mean you’re a complete mess. Maybe a hot mess, though.
There’s nothing wrong with being a hot mess. Cobra Starship has a song about hot messes, and it’s frequently stuck in my head. But I do resolve that the Cobra Starship song will not be my anthem for 2011.