A past tense, future perfect moment
Published Jan 5, 2018 12:05 am
By Kerry Tinga
As most of the world was either following the Gregorian calendar or, if not, was down for any excuse to throw and have a party, New Year’s Eve was as loud and bright as ever from every corner of the globe, starting off in the Pacific Ocean and making its way through the rest of the world. My family was celebrating the 2018 New Year in Hong Kong, so a couple of minutes before midnight we stared out the window of our hotel room in anticipation for fireworks over Victoria Harbor. My little brother was barely able to keep his eyes open hours past his usual bedtime, but he was still trying his hardest to stay awake through his heavy eyelids and frequent yawns. There was a mental countdown in each of our heads as we watched the night sky, waiting to see when the lights would start flashing in the air, signifying the coming of a new year, with all of the good and bad that entailed.
“3… 2… 1…!”
Right at the stroke of midnight, wherever you were in the world, between the time you heard the sound of fireworks shooting up into the sky and the time you saw the explosion of colorful lights and designs filling up the blackness of the night, there was an opportunity lasting only a moment for you to decide on what your goals and resolutions for 2018 was going to be. It was like there was an alarm going off in your head asking you what type of person you would be and bring into 2018. For most, that answer would usually be to become the good, better, and best version of themselves, whatever that might be, depending on the individual.
Some people might have resolved to start a diet this year (again), or try to be more extroverted and make more friends, or even try and shake off some people from the past year. Regardless, it is always a lovely, positive note to start the year off on, with an excess of hope and optimism for the next year to come. You could say that the exact second Dec. 31 turns into Jan. 1 puts one into, to use the words of Zadie Smith in her novel White Teeth, a “past tense, future perfect kind of mood.” It is about being completely present in the moment most likely surrounded by friends and family, amid deafening fireworks, party horns, and noisemakers. There you are, in a state of euphoria, drunk on bubbly champagne and the excited chatter of the people around you, forgetting about the troubles the past year might have brought, and looking forward to how perfect the future year is going to be...
It is no exaggeration to say the past year was filled with its fair share of troubles and tense moments, of ridiculous news headlines that we hoped were “fake news” but sadly were all too true, or even of actual “fake news.” Some people may even say it was a year of one step forward but many, many steps back in some respects. What makes the harsh news of 2017 even harsher is my believing in the fact, or rather knowing deep down in my heart, that people are inherently good, that the news is not reflecting who we are as a society.
I am sure all the personal goals you have set for yourself are great, and you have the will and might to complete them. It is also important, however, to ask what type of year we want 2018 to be for all of us, what are the headlines we want to start seeing when we read the morning paper, and how are we going to make those headlines a reality.
I did not have a new year’s resolution ready when the clock struck midnight and the fireworks started to explode in the sky. There were many things I wanted to do, many things I wanted to stop doing, but nothing stood out as something I wanted to have as a goal to start my year off with. So when the time came and the fireworks started to fill the sky, and my little brother gave up and finally went to bed, I just thought quietly to myself about the type of 2018 I wanted the world to have and resolved to make it so in whatever way I could. A second at midnight was not enough time to think out the details, but there are 365 days in the new year to figure it out by helping out a friend, or even helping out a stranger, by extending our hand to those who are in need or even just by having proper manners and common sense sometimes.
It should be all of our resolve as a collective society to make our future “perfect,” or however close we can get to perfect (let us all be at least decent this year). Just a few days in, it is still very much a blank canvas for people to paint with colorful and uplifting stories. It is fine not to have made a concrete five-step plan on how we are going to make 2018 the best year, as we watched the fireworks erupt in the dead of night, but that does not mean we still cannot try to figure out the best way to do so, one (out of 365) day at a time.
As most of the world was either following the Gregorian calendar or, if not, was down for any excuse to throw and have a party, New Year’s Eve was as loud and bright as ever from every corner of the globe, starting off in the Pacific Ocean and making its way through the rest of the world. My family was celebrating the 2018 New Year in Hong Kong, so a couple of minutes before midnight we stared out the window of our hotel room in anticipation for fireworks over Victoria Harbor. My little brother was barely able to keep his eyes open hours past his usual bedtime, but he was still trying his hardest to stay awake through his heavy eyelids and frequent yawns. There was a mental countdown in each of our heads as we watched the night sky, waiting to see when the lights would start flashing in the air, signifying the coming of a new year, with all of the good and bad that entailed.
“3… 2… 1…!”
Right at the stroke of midnight, wherever you were in the world, between the time you heard the sound of fireworks shooting up into the sky and the time you saw the explosion of colorful lights and designs filling up the blackness of the night, there was an opportunity lasting only a moment for you to decide on what your goals and resolutions for 2018 was going to be. It was like there was an alarm going off in your head asking you what type of person you would be and bring into 2018. For most, that answer would usually be to become the good, better, and best version of themselves, whatever that might be, depending on the individual.
Some people might have resolved to start a diet this year (again), or try to be more extroverted and make more friends, or even try and shake off some people from the past year. Regardless, it is always a lovely, positive note to start the year off on, with an excess of hope and optimism for the next year to come. You could say that the exact second Dec. 31 turns into Jan. 1 puts one into, to use the words of Zadie Smith in her novel White Teeth, a “past tense, future perfect kind of mood.” It is about being completely present in the moment most likely surrounded by friends and family, amid deafening fireworks, party horns, and noisemakers. There you are, in a state of euphoria, drunk on bubbly champagne and the excited chatter of the people around you, forgetting about the troubles the past year might have brought, and looking forward to how perfect the future year is going to be...
It is no exaggeration to say the past year was filled with its fair share of troubles and tense moments, of ridiculous news headlines that we hoped were “fake news” but sadly were all too true, or even of actual “fake news.” Some people may even say it was a year of one step forward but many, many steps back in some respects. What makes the harsh news of 2017 even harsher is my believing in the fact, or rather knowing deep down in my heart, that people are inherently good, that the news is not reflecting who we are as a society.
I am sure all the personal goals you have set for yourself are great, and you have the will and might to complete them. It is also important, however, to ask what type of year we want 2018 to be for all of us, what are the headlines we want to start seeing when we read the morning paper, and how are we going to make those headlines a reality.
I did not have a new year’s resolution ready when the clock struck midnight and the fireworks started to explode in the sky. There were many things I wanted to do, many things I wanted to stop doing, but nothing stood out as something I wanted to have as a goal to start my year off with. So when the time came and the fireworks started to fill the sky, and my little brother gave up and finally went to bed, I just thought quietly to myself about the type of 2018 I wanted the world to have and resolved to make it so in whatever way I could. A second at midnight was not enough time to think out the details, but there are 365 days in the new year to figure it out by helping out a friend, or even helping out a stranger, by extending our hand to those who are in need or even just by having proper manners and common sense sometimes.
It should be all of our resolve as a collective society to make our future “perfect,” or however close we can get to perfect (let us all be at least decent this year). Just a few days in, it is still very much a blank canvas for people to paint with colorful and uplifting stories. It is fine not to have made a concrete five-step plan on how we are going to make 2018 the best year, as we watched the fireworks erupt in the dead of night, but that does not mean we still cannot try to figure out the best way to do so, one (out of 365) day at a time.