I subscribe to Poetry Minute, a website curated by former Poet Laureate Ken Nesbitt. A recent post featured Kalli Dakos’ poem, There’s a New Me This Year, which inspired me to reflect on all of the ways I try to reinvent myself. I wrote the call and response piece below in an attempt to sort through my conflicted feelings and thoughts about becoming a NEW ME.
There’s a New ME This Year
An organized ME.
I’m already pretty organized. At least that’s what everyone tells me even though I don’t see myself that way. So, can I become a new and improved, organized ME that can see me for what I am and says: that’s good enough?
A find-everything-when-I-need-it ME.
That would certainly be a good thing! I may be organized but when I need something, I can’t find it. What good is being organized if I can’t find the things I need when I need them?
A focused-on-my-important-goals ME.
Oh, this is so hard! I always have so many goals I want to focus on. Which ones are the truly important ones? The ones that will leave a mark? Will be my legacy?
A start-to-finish-I-can-do-it ME.
A not-afraid-of-everything ME. A worst-scenario-is-the-last-scenario-I-will-consider ME.
Working on both of those for sure!
A not-everything-is-about-me-someone’s-out-to-get-me ME. I’m-not-a-victim-anymore Me.
This has been my defence mechanism for so long that I don’t know if I would be able to tell the difference if I’m being targeted by someone of if I’m being targeted by myself!
The problem is that parts of the NEW ME
are not like ME
at all.
Is that so bad? Can I reinvent and sustain a NEW ME even if it will feel strange at first? Even if it will feel like I’m pretending to be a ME I don’t recognize? Or will all of these intentions just flitter away at the end of January?
Cross posted to the Two Writing Teachers Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge.
Elisa Waingort 
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