Remona Aly
Wednesday 02 January 2019 Pause for Thought, BBC Radio 2

It’s Going to be Your Year..?!

It’s going to be your year…
Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2, Zoe Ball Breakfast Show

Script:

The first bloom of 2019 is here, but I’m worried it’s lost on me because the new year is feeling a lot like Groundhog Day. Too many times, friends have declared with total conviction on my behalf, “This is it, Remona, I can feel it – it’s going to be your year!” – but after about fifteen of these not being my year, you start to get a bit fed up.

It’s hard to feel renewed and positive when things feel pretty stagnant – like my work goals, my bucket list and, tragic as ever, my love life. But I am trying to snap myself out of it. Since we are in the first flush of a new year, I’m looking back to all the firsts of my life so far as potential moan-busters.

Like the day I saw my first crush, when a gorgeous lanky lad woke my adolescent heart to new sensations. Or the summer I went to my first gig when I was bubbling over with excitement to see Bryan Adams live at Wembley. I remember cherishing my first real friend, being psyched at having my first article published, and knowing what it felt like to be truly loved.

Recalling the freshness of those past firsts, fills me with anticipation about the ones yet to come. Things can happen, and things will change. But it starts with me. I need to walk my path knowing it’s filled with promise, knowing that each step brings a new possibility.

Like a mentor across time, Shams Tabrizi, the 12th century-born Persian Muslim poet, gives me purpose when he says, “It is never late to ask yourself, ‘Am I ready to change my life, am I ready to change myself?’ However old we are, whatever we went through, it is always possible to be born again. If each day is a copy of the last one, what a pity! Every breath is a chance to be reborn.”

The wise Shams Tabrizi is right. I believe life can be fresh, new, and beautiful as each year, each hour, and each day rises. Instead of grumbling about Groundhog Day, I’ll take the new year as a wake-up call, and say with renewed conviction: every year is going to be my year.