Among all the glorified end-of-year wrap-ups that filled my social media channels at the end of December, I saw two posts that changed how I will approach this year. The first one listed, with great humour, all the things that had gone wrong in the year, and the second had no list at all. It simply said, “I lived.” 

This new year, I aspire to take that humour and realness to my end-of-year wrap-up, New Year’s resolutions and every day of 2022. 

2021 was a difficult year for many, me included. 

For one, the COVID-19 pandemic continued causing immense pain and suffering worldwide, and there were constant changes to the structure of work and school that proved difficult to handle for everyone. I know as a student the transition from online to in person learning was challenging.

For another, the devastating impact of climate change was felt acutely in Saskatchewan. There were record heat waves in our province during the summer, along with record breaking temperatures and a serious drought with below-normal levels of precipitation. 

Further, the discovery of an estimated 751 unmarked graves found at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School was another difficult moment for our province and country that required deep thought and reflection. 

There are many more challenges that we individually and collectively faced in 2021, but very few of the end-of-year wrap-ups that I found acknowledged this pain and suffering. While it is wonderful to be able to look at the positive side of things — some would argue that it is essential in today’s world  — we can’t stop there. 

Whether you create a 30-second Instagram reel with photos and videos from the year, write a Twitter thread or journal a few pages, end-of-year wrap-ups are a time to reflect. 

And the purpose of reflection, in whatever mode you do it, is to think about something deeply. While it might be painful, if we do not include the challenges of the year in our end-of-year reflections, we are not allowing ourselves to see the full picture of the past 365 days. 

Remembering the challenges that we’ve faced in the past year provides context to all the decisions we made. And reflecting on the challenges we’ve faced gives us the chance to celebrate our strength in fighting them. 

In the same breath, I think we also need to revisit the idea of New Year’s resolutions. 

While there has always been a pressure to create life-changing goals for Dec. 31 and start implementing them at the stroke of the new year, social media seems to magnify this pressure. 

Everywhere on social media for the first week of January, there were posts about New Year’s resolutions. They ranged from promises to lose weight, read mass amounts of books, get that dream job, to anything else humans could possibly desire. 

While setting goals is a good thing — as they say, a goal without a plan is just a wish — it’s ridiculous to think that these goals can only be set once a year. Rather, I believe this puts unnecessary pressure on people to set New Year’s resolutions without fully taking the time to reflect meaningfully on both the year that has passed and the year ahead. 

So if you didn’t set goals for yourself on Jan 1, there is no need to feel bad. Every day of 2022 is an opportunity to set new goals and revise old ones. 

I also believe that we must remove the pressure for our New Year’s resolutions to change our lives. While big goals and dreams are wonderful, we should also make space for smaller ones. After all, it’s the small things like aiming to drink more water, getting adequate sleep, and reading a few pages of our textbooks that build up to the larger, multi-step goals. 

All this is to say is that perhaps, this new year, what we really need is a consistent serving of humour and a boatload of realness.

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This op-ed was written by a University of Saskatchewan undergraduate student and reflects the views and opinions of the writer. If you would like to write a reply, please email opinions@thesheaf.com. Vaidehee Lanke is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying bioinformatics and is the Opinions Editor at The Sheaf Publishing Society. 

Graphic: Jaymie Stachyruk | Graphics Editor