When Late Night Thoughts are Bourne

WHEN LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS ARE BOURNE with Freddie Bourne

NEW YEAR, NEW ME = NEW YEAR, NEW HYPOCRISY

When I was a youth growing up in the wonderful land of New Jersey, well known to be home of the exceptional personalities of non-Garden State residents of MTV’s Jersey Shore, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day became quite a tradition of nonstop screaming and making heartfelt promises in the moment - only to fall flat within hour 11 of January 1.

One year, I recall a friend of mine saying the following to a group of us 14-year-olds: ”Bro, let’s just do anything we would regret in the next four hours. When it hits midnight, we start fresh.”

Joke’s on him - he passed out well before the ball dropped and the crowds cheered due to the “insane” amount of three vodka shots he took. Pretty sure he did the same thing the following year and broke his resolution of not underage drinking. But, he’s married now with a house - so he’s figured out the game called life. For now.

But, I personally cannot remember the last time that I actually made a resolution and really stuck to it. I don’t think that setting one is a bad thing, but rather I prefer not to invest in an idea that I made during the excitement of the end of the year. And keep in mind, just because it’s a blank slate for the calendar doesn’t mean the things I dealt with on December 31 all of the sudden disappear. In 2019, U.S. News & World Report noted that the failure rate for New Year's resolutions is said to be about 80%, with most losing sight of their resolutions by mid-February. Most of us are the majority. And not in a good way. I don’t think we should be setting something up so grand and then fall flat on our faces before completely giving up and admitting defeat all together.

Rather, let’s try not to be specific. Sometimes being broad is more ideal. And let’s get the term “resolution” out of our vocabulary and trade it in for something tangible and realistic. For me, my hope for the year is to achieve happiness in any way shape or form, big or small. I like to pride myself on being a happy person but I definitely give myself a hard time with things that are beyond my control and I tend to let it fester and seep into parts of my life that I could honestly avoid.

I know some folks have come to this column for self-help or some type of guidance, which I thank you for. But, I’m no expert. I deal with the same internal monologues that you all have. And yes - I have been incredibly guilty of letting the nothingness of mediocrity stand in my way of seeing what’s really true.

My life is good. And yours, regardless of circumstances and history, can be too if we realize that the light in the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square symbolizes hope.

We just need to try.