Perfect 10

Well, well, well – 2019.
New year, new you and all that guff.

It’s horribly predictable and not a little nauseating to see just how many newspaper features/online articles/advertising campaigns/shop fronts have the ‘new you’ mantra as their theme.

As if we’re all so utterly, unforgivably rubbish that we have to dramatically sweep away the person we were (low-key, overly sentimental, full of chocolate and gin) to suddenly become a shiny bright (and by inference, better) version of ourselves with leotards! And trainers! And fabulous hair!*

Of course it’s all just manufactured to make us a) feel rubbish about ourselves so we b) spend lots of cash on moisturiser/quinoa/gym membership then end up c) feeling briefly and insufferably smug about it all.

But by mid-January, this combination actually only equates to feeling a) shit + b) skint + c) sick - which is not the way I want to start a new year.

Because what if we quite like the old us actually? What if they’re familiar, slightly geeky and increasingly damaged but QUITE LOVELY THANK YOU?

What if we deal with a remarkable amount of testing times - MS or otherwise - and still manage to function like a normal human being?

What if we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and realised that in the end, we’re not that bad and are, in fact, quietly great?

And we don’t really want to make a new start because we’ve come quite a long way and somehow the start seems like something of a backward step?

Or am I reading too much into this?

There are of course, excellent examples of new year, new yous – amazing healthy lifestyle transformations, people quitting jobs to follow their dreams, great new projects that help and benefit people.

But I’d just like to put in a little plea for people to remember that maybe they don’t really need a totally new them.

Perhaps all we might need is to just find the bits of the existing us that are fabulous - the kindness, the humour, the strength, the thoughtfulness - and simply share them a bit more throughout the year.

Brand new year, great old you; could become a thing.

:: Perfect 10 by The Beautiful South

* Never gonna happen