By 8th-Grade Blogger Soleil Antle
It’s the start of 2026, but to me it still feels like 2025. When I think of the saying new year, new you, I wonder if that’s really true. I believe that people can change but not because of the tick of a clock. I think that no matter how hard one tries, the same things they hold onto get carried into the next year–that could be romance, a feeling, a memory, an item. I don’t think that a new year really defines a new personality for someone. This is an original poem based on my experiences with the passing of time.
A New Chapter?
I count down the minutes as the clock ticks.
I watch the uneven hands move slowly,
Wondering what this new year has for me.
I hear loud chanting as the fireworks rip
Across the dark night sky,
The smell of tacos in the air.
The clocks finally change.
It’s now a new year.
I see others’ smiles big and content,
But the same thoughts still circle my head.
A new year has come,
Though I still hold on to the past
Where memories arose, and emotions lapsed.
Days go by quickly,
yet I still write with a five at the end.
I turn to my resolutions,
Which I have yet to begin.
People act differently but are entirely the same.
New year, new you – is that really true?
For some reason I believe that a change of a clock
Doesn’t define who you are, or who you want to be.
People seem as if everything is okay,
As if nothing bothers them.
But I bet they are just trying to fit in.
We shield what’s on our face, all for what?
Our true feelings and thoughts are the ones that matter.
I still carry things from the past:
How is that so bad? New year, new you?
It isn’t true for me.
This got me thinking about if people need an incentive to change something in their lives, and a new year gives them that. I also feel that our culture pushes us towards putting plans in place for change, even when we are doing pretty good just as we are. And, like you, I think change is not something that we turn on because a clock strikes midnight.