January's Letter
Welcome back!
Who had an amazing New Year? Can you believe that already we are at the beginning of another year? – and not just a new year, but a new decade?
Reflect for a moment on how wildly different your life was at the start of the last decade compared to now. Think about how vastly different you look, how your opinions and values have changed, how your family structure may have shifted, how your thoughts and intelligence have evolved, and how your relationships have cycled. Could you have ever believed back in 2010 how your world is now in 2020 – and how utterly far away and distant that date once felt? Yet here we are, within a blink of an eye we are bigger, older, uglier, more experienced, wiser, smarter, and more discerning.
Take a second and think about how far technology has come – back in 2010, touch screen mobile phones were only just starting to become a mainstream item to own. Facebook had just become the main go-to social media site after the death of ‘Bebo’ and ‘MySpace’. Relatively unknown, now massively famous YouTubers were starting to grow slowly into the cultural icons they are today (I’m looking at you Shane Dawson!). How about fashion? Put your hand up if you had one of those giant swept-over fringes, a huge random belt that went around your entire waist yet literally held nothing up? What about those that lived in leggings and Ugg boots? I see you, c’mon, put your hand up. Or those who swore they were cool like Kesha and Gaga or bad ass like Jwoww from ‘Jersey Shore’?
Yep, 2010 was a weird time.
Nevertheless, it was a gift, just like each year over the last decade. Despite any lows or challenges we may have faced, we also got to experience a ton of ups and magnificent opportunities. Look back for a minute on some of the amazing things you have been lucky enough to experience, achieve, own, see, and feel. Time can go slowly and the day-to-day monotony can seem boring and mundane at times. Everything can look and feel the same for a good long while until one day, when you look back, everything is suddenly wildly different.
Not just personally either. Humankind has made some monumental breakthroughs during the last ten years - pivotal moments such as:
The ability to reprogram stem cells
We created a computer chip that mimics the work of the human brain
We saw a significant reduction in babies born with birth defects
Veganism became mainstream
Feminism had a positive makeover and we saw the re-explosion of woman’s rights (e.g ‘The Women’s March’)
‘Instagram’ was born
We got the first-ever photo of a black hole
We stood up to climate change with the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and with Greta Thunberg
‘Game of Thrones’ existed (and let’s not forget about Jason Mamoa…)
London hosted the Olympics!
Body positivity swept the landscape
The power of social media made us unite so to enforce social justice and to even track down criminals! (hooray for the power of the people!)
We saw increased education and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community including the amazing moment when same-sex marriage became legal in the U.S
Activists popped up left right and centre so to inspire and demand a whole host of positive changes
The most diverse class of lawmakers in history were sworn into Congress
The first iPad came out
“Kony 2012” went viral
Ireland repealed the eighth amendment, legalising abortion
‘The Room –Psy’ was born!
This list is tiny when compared to everything we have done, witnessed and achieved cross-culturally over the past decade – and it doesn’t stop there. Considering what and how much has happened and changed over the last ten years, can you even begin to imagine how far we will come over the next ten? I certainly can’t.
Therefore, with this in mind I urge you to clean your metaphorical house, tinker with your psyche and reboot your whole inner workings right now so to get ready for the future today. Get ready and prepare yourself to receive everything you have been working towards and have already been doing the ground work for. You cannot receive what is meant to be yours if there is clutter in the way. So get rid of it. Plan strategically, concentrate your energy, free your mind “Matrix-style” and pour your soul into the direction it is destined to go in. Believe in yourself and your journey down to the bones of you. Harness the power of change and enjoy the ride. You have worked so hard to be here.
You didn’t come this far, to only come this far, fam. You really truly have got this.
Happy New Year. Let’s make it great.
