It’s the end of 2018, and You’re Still Here. Make Some Noise!Pin

It’s the end of 2018, and You’re Still Here. Make Some Noise!

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

I’m sure by now you’ve read enough articles, blog posts and social media messages about making your resolutions for 2019. This is not one of those.

It’s not that I’m against it. The end of one year and the beginning of another is a good opportunity to pause and reflect on where we have been, where we are, and where we want to go. I highly encourage it.

I also realize that there were years in my life when that ideas was just silly. I also realize that probably more than a few people are in the same situation this year, where the end of 2018, and the beginning of 2019 is nothing more than that. It’s a marker along to road of our day to day struggle. Making resolutions, setting future goals and planning out how you’re going to spend the next year is an overwhelming impossibility when the biggest thing you did today was eat, or shower. When you struggle to do the bare minimum for yourself, setting a goal for that new job or to write a book in the next year is laughable, let’s be honest.

So, instead of putting the pressure on to think about your new year’s resolutions, let me just say this.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”The best thing about the end of 2018 today, is the fact that you are here to see it. Celebrate that. Pick up a noisemaker and blow the ‘f#$% out of that thing because you are still here. ” quote=”The best thing about the end of 2018 today, is the fact that you are here to see it. Celebrate that. Pick up a noisemaker and blow the ‘f#$% out of that thing because you are still here. “]

The best thing about the end of 2018 today, is the fact that you are here to see it. Celebrate that. Pick up a noisemaker and blow the “f#$% out of that thing because you are still here. You are still capable of making noise, you are here to go into 2019. Whatever 2019 brings, there is hope for you. Eventually, you can get to the point where you might want to set goals, and make plans for the entire year, but that doesn’t need to be today. Today is just the day we flip the calendar. You can set goals on Jan 2, or May 17, Sept 22, or any other day of any other year. You can reach that point, but first you have to stay, and I am grateful beyond measure that you are doing just that.

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Friendships Matter Much More than the Value We Place on Them

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 5 minutes

    It’s worth considering your friends and recognizing that we need all kinds of friends. We need loose connections, and we need tight connections. We need long-term friends, and we need friends for a season of our lives.

    In short, we need each other. I’m afraid this has gotten lost in our culture and priorities, and I consider myself as guilty as anyone.

    I also know that being guilty of not prioritizing friendships has hurt me. It’s likely hurting you. It is hurting all of society. It’s time we started valuing close friendships again.

  • Quick Thought Number 2 – Prison is No Place To Deal with Mental Health

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I’ve shared some articles recently about this problem, but nothing hits home like, well, home. And seeing the issue right where you live. During a recent hearing about putting a tax on the ballot for the Baton Rouge area to fund a mental health treatment facility, the reporter who was covering the hearing posted this…

  • Linkage

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

    Thanks to a pointer from Leah, I’ve discovered a brand new blogger who is trying to write about her experiences with surviving incest. I hope she continues and I wish her much sucess!

  • |

    When it Comes to Abuse, Trafficking, and Violence, Do We Have a Race and Gender Problem?

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    What I want to address, however, is how our society defines victims and how it leaves far too many people behind. The article above is a great example. How many people, if asked about sex trafficking, picture little white girls or women abducted from Target? Probably a lot. For many, the only information they’ve ever gotten about trafficking are warnings about Target or shopping mall parking lots from their Facebook friends. They don’t know how many teenage boys from broken homes, living in poverty, are pulled into being trafficked. How many gay youths, rejected by their families, fall victim to it? How many immigrant children here, with no parental supervision, are sold off by the people who should be protecting them from sexual slavery? 

    Those stories, even if they’re told, are not going to grab national headlines. They are not going to evoke world-wide outrage and sympathy. Those are things that happen to “other people”. We might even be tempted to start looking for reason why it’s their own fault, or at least the parents fault, right? 

    From a media perspective, we also have to keep this in mind. An abduction of a young white girl from her home, is a rare event. It’s actually newsworthy because it happens so rarely. When it happens, it’s shocking. A trans, minority, teen being coerced into selling themselves, with no one to turn to for protection, isn’t any of those things. A gay male teen being kicked out of their parents house and trying to make it through homelessness, is also not something that happens so rarely that there would be major news coverage of it. These things happen all of the time. So often, that they aren’t really news. 

    So, which group should we have support and services for? I’d like to vote for ALL OF THEM. But that will take educating people about the reality of who gets abused, who gets trafficked, and for us all to accept that it happens everywhere. Until we get there, and are willing to see all different types of people as victims, we will continue to fail one group or another. That’s not acceptable. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)