Firstly HAPPY NEW YEAR! And secondly go check out our School Blog, there are a lot of interesting posts there! Now!
JANUARY (REACT)
"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. And almost half a decade ago I said, ...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind. And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple. And it's this. I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something. So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever."
- Neil Gaiman
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Everyone said that 2016 was so bad, and that 2017 is going to be awesome, so we need to make it awesome. I’m not saying that every single one of us has to make a new year’s resolution and achieve, it’s only one month into the year and I have failed, so need to try another way. We need to fill it ‘with magic and dreams and good madness.’ I know you can’t always control how things turn out, but you can keep in mind your previous decisions to make new ones. To make 2017 awesome keep in mind 2016. For this New Year, I am going to take these lines by Neil Gaiman into consideration especially the part where he encourages us to ‘make mistakes, next year and forever. I also like that he encouraged us to dream, to be creative, and to overcome fears. This line ‘you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return,’ basically sums up life for me. Creating new things, making mistakes, being with your loved ones and not forgetting to dream, this basic makes a perfect life.
‘...Make mistakes nobody's ever made before,’ this quote can just be an excuse to make mistakes, you can simply just say, “Well, that quote did tell me to make mistakes this year,” but think about it another way, think about it as learning from you mistakes and improving every single time. Making mistakes will only make you normal. ‘...don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect...’ because no one is perfect. At the start of every Year I will say to myself, “This year is going to be perfect!” but I forget that it’s the mistake that make it perfect. The new, glorious, and amazing mistakes. We are going to make this year perfect by doing whatever it is we are afraid of, because that gives us experience, it gives us room to make mistakes, it gives us room to make this year awesome and perfect. I totally agree with Mr. Gaiman when he says ‘if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world.’ I am really into art and when I make a mistake in it, I just make it look like abstract art and even if it was a mistake, now it is a pretty mistake that I am not regretful of. Mistakes give me opportunities to create something of my own, something unique and new, something that didn’t exist before I made it.
‘somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.’ I think I always surprise myself, recently I got a 102 on my math test, and just 2 days before that, my dad and I were talking, and he said, “we have already seen that we aren’t perfect you always miss the mark by 2-3 points so you have to make it up by doing things that include extra effort.” After that I thought I couldn’t get a perfect score, but, hey there, I surprised myself! One time I surprised myself when I tried to burp purposely, I actually did it, but only that one time. Surprising yourself gives you a special feeling, I usually get a sense of accomplishment and happiness, unless of course, I have surprised myself by doing something wrong. Then I get a sense of regret, guilt, sadness and anger all at the same time. I have high expectations from myself and then I forget that it was just a mistake, I get mad at myself.
But leaving all the regret behind, I hope that you surprise yourself and that you make mistakes, but also learn from them. I hope that you never stop dreaming, never stop learning or trying new things. I hope that I never stop learning or trying new things, I hope that I create new things. I hope the we make this year, 2017 awesome, and we keep room for improvement so together we can make 2018 even better.