Early Christmas Reflections
2024 — a year of surprises
The drinking. The festivities. The red fat suits. The reindeers on the roof. The stockings on the wall. But enough about my weekend in Bali. Let’s talk about Christmas for a moment. A holiday very special to my heart.
It’s such a cliche to say that the year has passed by so quickly, but it has, hasn’t it? One moment, you’re starry-eyed, scribbling down your New Year’s resolutions; the next, you’re knee-deep in regrets listening to Bieber’s All I Want For Christmas Is You blasting throughout the whole city.
The month of December brings with it a nuanced brew of joys and regrets. As you look forward to the start of a new year, you think to yourself— “What if?” And as you look back at all that you’ve done and failed to do this past year, you think to yourself — “What if?”
We humans are creatures of the future and past. Wondering, wanting, wishing, remembering, reminiscing, ruminating, all the while ignoring the presents of the present.
If there is anything at all that I have learned this year, it is on the value of letting things go and letting things be. To realize that most things in life are outside of my control, and to be friendly with that fact. “Not my will, but Yours will be done” — is this December’s mantra of the month.
All of the crazy things that happened in 2024 have one thing in common: none of them could have been predicted in 2023.
Trump became the first former US president to get convicted as a felon. Then he got shot. Then he gets re-elected after he got shot. In the middle of all this commotion, a fat, rabbit-eared monster called Labubu started to pop-up everywhere, like a monstrous virus mushrooming throughout the country.
And wait — Taylor Swift is now a billionaire (with a “b”)? And who the hell is Jensen Huang — and why is he richer than Bill Gates all of a sudden? And why is Prabowo dancing on stage? What world am I living in?
Ah, yes. 2024 has been a masterclass in volatility. Where virality is the new norm. TikTok is the new porn. Trump will once again be sworn. OpenAI becomes the new centi-unicorn. Jensen Huang becomes the new Elon. And Labubu has taken over the world by storm.
Not bad for a single year. And yet, the year isn’t over. There is still three weeks left in 2024, still time for things to get even kookier. And by the manner in which things have been unfolding — nothing that can happen in these three weeks should surprise any of us much more.
So here’s to even more surprises in the coming year. To the delightfully unpredictable and the hilariously insane. To the pleasantly unexpected and the entertainingly spontaneous. To the random events that surprise us, right to the very core. If none of the events this year could have been predicted the year before — then God only knows what 2025 has in store.