“Happy New Year!” I said to you,

“My how it has come so fast!

But now is a time to rejoice and celebrate

Our future despite the past.”

 

“Join with me friend! Say, why are you down?

Aren’t you excited for the new day?”

Yet nothing could ever quite prepare me

For the answer you’d begin to relay

 

“January 1^st, two thousand and fifteen” you said

“Man it sure has been a hard time to see.

But here’s a question I have for you, oh friend:

Why is today any different for me?”

 

“Weren’t there many days like this before

So redundant and practically fake?

If today is just like them all

Then tell me, what difference does it make?”

 

“Why should it matter that it’s 2015

If today last year was the same?

I see no difference between 2005 and 2050

It’s all just life’s losing game.”

 

“Please explain my error, I beg of you,

For if not, then what’s the point anyway?

Why keep living, moving, breathing,

Why ever celebrate another day?”

 

“To me, it’s all just pointless

Monotonous shenanigans to pass on by

Unless you can prove to me, dear friend,

That what I say is all a lie.”

 

Dumbfounded and shocked, I stared at him

Preparing to fear what I could not comprehend

How could such questions, deep and profound,

Come out of one whom I called friend?

 

 

And indeed he was a friend to me

Though I wasn’t prepared for the inquiry at hand

Yet he needed to know that his comments were flawed

It was imperative that he understand,

 

“Dear one,” I said, “I hear you-really I do.

But the future is something to adore!

When have you ever experienced a day

When it was exactly like the one before?”

 

“Today” he countered, “I expected this.

The celebration for a new year I can’t stand

Last year was no different, nor the previous one,

Believe me, I’ve done this over and over again.”

 

“But you’re wrong,” I replied, now determined

“No day is ever the same, and neither are you!

To say anything less is stealing from yourself,

It’s compromising worth, blinding your view.”

 

“Though you think you’ve been here before,

And your surroundings seem unchanged.

Every moment is an opportunity to live

And the choice to keep going always remains”

 

And there it was, the evident answer,

The response he needed to hear,

“Dear friend,” I continued, “I understand,

But I implore you to be of good cheer.”

 

“When we lose hope in what could be

Based off what we’ve seen from our past

We choose to leave growth out of the question

With that, of course change could never last!”

 

“But when we realize today is a free gift-

Dare ourselves to transform who we claim to be

We take another step, celebrate people and today

We become the difference we desire to see.”