Just a week after Christmas, after all the decorations are down, all the unwrapped gifts have been put away into cupboards and onto shelves, and all the frequent parties have come to an end, we find ourselves in a New Year. A whole 365 days to fill until we do it all over again. We’re forced to pause, granted very little time to settle in, with even less time to plan the resolutions we set ourselves before the bells.
There is a strange expectation around New Year. An expectation that says “This year things will be different!” that “We will accomplish things this year!” We set ourselves a personal pressure that no one would set for us. Whether that be mindfulness, traveling the world or learning a language, we put in place goals that are absolutely achievable but ones that simultaneously refuse to acknowledge anything we have accomplished in the preceding year.
It takes a lot to reflect on what we have achieved because, more often than not, we mistake our successes with things that have happened to us rather than things that we ourselves have accomplished.
In this New Year, in the first week back in 2024, we want this blog post to remind everyone to celebrate the triumphs and victories of last year. It is important to be proud of ourselves especially when the culture surrounding New Year requires us to determinedly look forward with our brows furrowed rather than smiling and looking back.
The nature of this blog post has come from how incredibly proud we are of our young people. Our panto performance brought with it a sense of catharsis; the pride we felt watching our brilliant performers on stage made us feel like we were up there with them. Watching our young people shine and give their all to the performance created a pride that forced us to look inward and be grateful of the community and creative hub that ACTS is.
This year, if we have anything in the pipeline it is to ensure that the young people in ACTS always feel proud of themselves. Whether that be turning up for their first day, successfully portraying a frog in an improvised scene, or singing a solo ballad on stage, everything is to be celebrated.
It can be hard to look back and congratulate yourself on accomplishments from the year before, but if there is ever a struggle in this endeavor, we believe it helps to think back and remember the smiles, laughs and cheers joyfully emitted by our young people because that will always be worth celebrating.