Happy New Year!

by Michele Boy | January 2, 2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s 2025!
Well it’s New Years Eve as I write this lol.
It is the 140th year of The Syracuse Journal and my fifth year as editor. 
  For someone who was always on the road, the only roots as a vagabond, I think it’s cool that I landed and became a part of something bigger than myself. 
  I love some of the memories we have shared together. 
In my interpersonal communications class   
in college we studied public spaces - coffee houses, pubs, parks. I feel like this newspaper is part of that. It is a place where life and death are chronicled. It is often fodder for discussion of what we have done well and what we could do better. 
Many newspapers have folded when larger companies take over. There is no substitute for local news and boots on the ground journalism.
Do we miss things? Absolutely. Could we do better? Yep.  But we continue on  and can look back and say we did some things well. 
  One of my favorite moments may surprise you. In 2020, during the COVID -19 lockdown, we had the opportunity to find stories that brought hope to many. 
In the past five years, I have enjoyed getting to know some of you better, learning  more about the history of Syracuse, and of some of the many accomplishments Syracusans have made.
  Personally in 2024, I continued my daily Spanish lessons with a 785 day streak, I read 27 books for the year and even stepped into the publishing world by finally getting my first book published. 
   As you look back on 2024, how do you see it? 
For me there was a lot of change, a lot of acceptance, and a lot of growth.  
 I am grateful for this school break.  
Being home during this time felt incredible. It was rest for my mind, soul, body.
  Ecclesiastes 3 comes to mind.  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance...He has made everything beautiful in its time. 
  As I write this, someone is getting married, someone is giving birth, someone is dying. 
  A friend ‘s daughter is getting married, a friend is grieving a parent’s death, and we are lambing. 
 The circle of life has gone on before me, while I have been alive, and will continue after I am gone. 
But right now it is prominent in my world. 
   I saw someone wrote, “There will be a lot of people sharing how much they achieved in 2024. But in case someone needs to hear this, it’s okay if the only thing you did this year was just get through it.”
    So what does 2025 look like? For me, I want to add a bit more discipline. But somehow discipline is synonymous with rigidity to me. And I don’t want to be so disciplined I miss important moments. My all or nothing attitude is coming through. 
So maybe 2025 is the year of being more discipliney lol! 
How about you? Got any goals set? .   
 Maybe there is a path you are on and you are ready to take some steps towards it. Or maybe it is finally time to let go. 
As I was cleaning out some things I found an old sweater. It was a beautiful navy wool sweater I bought when I was in my twenties. I remember the exact moment I purchased it. It was at the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store down by the South Street Seaport in Manhattan, NY. It was a sunny, beautiful day with friends. I loved the sweater. It was a time in my life when whatever I tried on fit so good that it was a matter of what I liked, not what didn’t make me look huge. 
I cherished it and hoped someday to fit in it again. 
Well it has a few holes in it and that sweater won’t return me to my twenties, and I don’t want it to 
The memories I have are special. But it is time for the sweater to go. 
Maybe it is time for other things to go too. 
  As I slowly decide how to move forward, I want God in the center of it. I want to ask Him what to keep what to let go of. What works? What doesn’t? 
 Sometimes God calls us into change. Sometimes we are called to rest and sometimes we are called to get messy and dirty!
 Wherever you are I hope you can celebrate something today. You are here. You matter. And if you are still breathing you have life left in you. 
 I read something that said it’s not the days in your life but the life in your days. 
May 2025 be filled with life. 
  When I look back on my life, yes I remember the accomplishments. But it is the regrets of missed opportunities that eat at me the most. 
 While I can’t change that, I hopefully can change today. 
Go forward, feel the cold, the sun, the rain. Reach out to someone to say you matter. 
 And thank you. Thanks for reading, subscribing, and advertising here. 
Thanks for letting us be a part of this public space. 
Happy New Year!