For me, the new year brings new hope, more courage and excitement of what lies ahead for my life and of who I want to become. Moving forward is not starting over, it’s a new chapter, a new adventure, a new chance to fulfill that part deep inside you calling to you, for learning, improving, daring and growing. I say, while you are feeling the new year’s courage and excitement, GO FOR IT.
There is a certain kind of energy that buzzes around taking a step into the unknown, when you are about to leap out of your comfort zone. It’s thrilling, terrifying, exciting, uncertain and brand new. You don’t know what waits for you on the other side, you are not 100% sure if you are making a mistake or taking a brave first step to all your heart’s desires, you just follow your gut, and that is wild and scary. But one thing is certain: You will become a newer, better version of yourself. And even if that is all – bravo to you!
Briefly looking back at all my new beginnings over my 42 years, it’s been quite a journey. Starting school was like entering a wonderland of new creatures and stories I had never encountered. My mind was blown. One girl, my age, was already an aunt. WHAT? HOW WAS THAT POSSIBLE? One boy said I looked just like his cousin – DID I HAVE A TWIN? DO WE ALL HAVE TWINS SOMEWHERE OUT THERE? WHAT IS THIS SOURCERY CALLED SCHOOL. Exhilarating! But school was not all fantasy and wonder. It was also where I learned the pain of falling in love, falling out of friendship and fending for myself in a world that didn’t always want me to be all I dared to be. After graduating high school, I moved to a small coastal town with my friend where we worked in her dad’s restaurant. A short but much needed new beginning dealing with the sudden death of my high school sweetheart the year before.
After one year, a new beginning came knocking and I knew it was time to go back, before I could move forward. I went home for three years of partying and studying my ass off getting my Drama and Theater Arts degree, painting, reading and writing every minute in between drama class, rehearsals and drinking to ace the minors as well. These three years remain thus far, the wildest and best time of my life.
But as they say, all good things come to an end, and it was time to make my acting dreams come true. So off to Johannesburg I went. But as I waited for my big break, my heart was already in Cape Town with my soon to be husband. One year of Jozi and no big break, this thespian was ready for a new beginning in Cape Town. Same dream and my +1. Two rapid new beginnings followed as marriage and divorce thoroughly schooled and nearly destroyed me. But it gave me the desire to experience a whole new world. 100% worth it.
The whole new world began here in South Korea on the hardest and most rewarding new beginning of my life so far. To be lost and found in a foreign country all by yourself is truly a gift like no other. Looking back, the new beginnings just kept getting bigger and bigger as I dared to take the leaps out of my comfort zones and follow my truth, my gut and dared to fall in love with my own story.
I’m no wise old sage, but with a few new beginnings under my belt I can assure you of this: it won’t always be easy, you will lose yourself somewhere along the way, to make space for the new, improved you and that is not comfortable but it is probably the most powerful thing that can happen to you. You will be lonely and lost at times and that is how this little sketch was born. Then again, you will also find your tribe for life somewhere in there. The people that are the family you get to choose. A blessing beyond blessings.
Sometimes you have to go back to move forward and other times you must leap forward before you can journey back to where you were meant to be. There is no right or wrong way when it comes to new beginnings. They hold the mystery and magic that can reveal to you all you are meant to be. I say this to you as I remind myself, to be brave and begin.
There is an Irish saying that I love and use every year, so here goes:
May the best of 2023 be the worst of 2024.
Happy New Year
Live, Laugh, Love, Let go and Light up the world in your own unique way.
Love, always
Ané
