Every year our television screens are flooded with countless gym membership deals and sketchy diet pills to help us lose a few pounds. As the gluttonous behavior of the holiday season draws to a close, it seems everyone focuses on that “spring break bod.”
Not only is the “new year, new me” mentality toxic to those that do not or cannot conform to society’s physical expectations, it also encourages us to wipe clean any wrongdoing done to us or any we have done to others. Instead of using those past experiences to better our new year, we are propelled to change ourselves completely.
The result? Very few of us successfully emerge a shiny new person. I have personally struggled with creating and following through on any resolution I have set forth. Why? Because life gets in the way. I cannot always eat a perfectly balanced meal when I must cram for an exam and I stress crave pizza. I cannot always make it to the gym. I do not want to expose my body to unregulated diet pills to fit a narrow window of physical beauty. But, most importantly, there are more important things to worry about than meal prep or gym memberships.
Donald Trump becomes our president on January 20th and we need to be observant and critically aware of every step he makes. Climate Change will be put on the back burner, if not scrapped all together, under his administration. Neo-Nazi groups are reemerging and threatening the existence of certain people on qualities they cannot control. Our friends in the Middle East are being annihilated by war with little hope for refuge in other countries, including the United States. Police are still killing/abusing innocent people of color and getting away with it. Millions may lose their healthcare. Vice President- Elect Pence believes in electrocuting gay people to “make them straight again.” Roe v. Wade could easily be repealed under a bleeding red executive, legislative, and potentially judicial branch. The list goes on and on, y'all.
We are slowly killing our planet and losing touch with our humanity and society wants us to focus on a gym membership.
Take time out of 2017 to care for yourself. Go to the gym. Meal prep on Sunday afternoons. But, do not get distracted by the shiny newness of the new year. Our world needs help and diverting our attention now will only cause more strife.
