One More Day
2025 begins tomorrow, and I will enter 23 years old and leave 24 years old. Young, yes, yet still older than I was last year, the year before that, and so on.
The New Year acts as a time of reflection for many of us - however, if you're like me, you live in a constant state of reflection. Regardless, the start of the year is riddled with juxtaposition. Sure, we are happy to enter a new year, start afresh from 1, try to maintain our bullshit New Year's Resolutions (no hate, I too indulge), and try to be all-round better. Yet, we also think of years past, people we miss, past versions of ourselves, and events.
So, in the name of nostalgia...
What I would give for one more day.
What I would give for one more day waking up at crazy AM, sneaking down the stairs to watch re-runs of Scooby Doo until I am too scared to leave the cosiness of the dimly lit sitting room and enter the dark abyss of the rest of the house. All in the name of a piss. Nah, I'll just hold it.
What I would give for one more day, one more Christmas, waking up through the night with my sister to check our stockings, had Santa been yet? No, no, no. Until, yes, he has. Eagerly waking up our brother and bombarding our mum (running on 5 seconds of sleep) to hurry up and see what Santa's delivered.
What I would give for one more day brutally fighting with my sister (imagine two young girls who heavily indulged in the Kardashians and Dance Moms), only to make up and gossip endlessly into the night. Debriefing our hectic personal lives in the safe confine of those four walls of our bedroom, this is a place where our secrets are safe - there is no friend drama here.
What I would give for one more day reading to my younger brother, hoping to pass on my love of literature. Alas, Xbox (particularly Call of Duty and Minecraft) was his passion.
What I would give for one more day wandering aimlessly in whatever was the town of choice for myself and my mates that day.
What I would give for one more day having spins after school, driving to fuck knows where using SnapMaps as our personal GPS (so Gen Z).
What I would give for one more day walking into sixth form and finding solace in the familiar faces of my friends - this place can be hellish, but we endure it together. Here, we are a family.
What I would give for one more day getting pissed in the back garden, dancing to a mixture of Amy Winehouse, musical theatre, and Eastern European post-punk synth/raps about being a sexoholik. Different artists, guys, don't worry.
What I would give for one more day when I hadn't yet left the place I am from, before everything changed, we all left, evolved, moved on, one more day in that time capsule. One more day, when the site of the flags didn't make me squirm out of uncomfortableness, one more day of living in a sort of selfish oblivion.
Yet, at the end of all the nostalgia, I am happy where I am. There is nowhere I would rather be. Tonight, I will be entering '25 with my partner and our friends. Tomorrow, I will be strictly adhering to my bullshit resolutions (likely hungover), and I will take 2025 in my stride. I can only hope the same for you.
In the words of the great David Byrne, I will be:
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
Because, at the end of it all, it's the same as it ever was, and time isn't after us.
