So, Now What?

I always hated the month of January. Everyone thinks that as soon as the ball drops at midnight they’re going to magically be a new person. Maybe that’s the negative young adult side of me talking, but for the 31 days of January people are told that “this year is your year.” Social media seems to poke at you to look better this year than last year. Each year is a new year and each year is filled with higher and unrealistic goals for humans, like you and I, to try and become the most perfect version of ourselves.

Society seems to fill my ears with statements like “this year you need to be the perfect daughter or son, friend, parent, sibling, boss, employee.” And I know I'm not the only one that feels the pressure to look perfect in order to fit into society's ever so changing mold of beauty. The pressure to be perfect in today’s world seems to never sleep no matter what year it is.

 Be more beautiful, society says. Be more at your job, you’ll get a raise then. Be more at school, you’ll get better grades. Be more of a friend and your circle will get bigger. I have one large question since when did more become better? When did doing more and being more become the new standard?

 If there is one positive thing that will come out of this pandemic it is the ability to be less. We learned that taking sick days are vital to our physical and mental health, even if that meant less time in the office. We learned that less time in the office meant family meals and walks for the family pet. By doing less we were able to pick up books, hobbies, and concentrate our energy on worthy endeavors. In these cases, well, less was actually more.

 As strange as this might sound, I want to be less this year. That's my New Years Resolution, and maybe it could be yours too. I want to be less available for others and more available for myself. Even if that means not saying “yes” to an extra work shift or an extra credit opportunity. I want to be less afraid to try new things. I want to be less curious about people's opinions of me. I want to spend less time staring at a screen. I want to spend less time pretending to do things that I in fact don’t like but don’t have the courage to actually stop. I want to be less hurtful with my words.  I want to spend less time on bad habits. I want to spend less time being angry at the world for its wrongdoings. I want to spend less time thinking of past mistakes. I simply want to be less. Because what if we can change “be more” into “be less;” is that the key to happiness? Well, I’m not sure but I don’t think it’s a bad place to start.

 Simplicity may be the key,

Maggie Paulus