Hiya, Sunshine

For most of junior high and high school, I was in a competitive choir.

Yes, I was am a nerd. 

We competed at regular sing-offs, dressed to kill with our black knee-length skirts (for girls) or pants (for boys), white button down shirt, and a silky royal-blue – I guess you would call it a pouf – PINNED on to our shirt at the collar.

Think: bowtie adjacent.

Yes, sugar, we came for the music and stayed for the style.

Pouf notwithstanding, I actually have so many good memories from my choral experience:

Ryan Robinet knocking on our hotel door and giving me a kiss goddnight.

Trying to make out with Phil Bonner at choir camp.

Holding hands with Aaron Woolner under a blanket at the back of the bus.

Sure, I remember singing a few songs – not just trying to get it on with the bad boys of harmony – especially when I got to do a solo at a National Competition one year out west. 

Overall, choir was a low key lovely experience in my adolescence.

Something else about that choir that will never leave me was Harry Chu, one of my fellow nerds choir mates. Harry (incidentally not one of the guys I tried to get with) showed up to rehearsal one Monday night in the gym, in January, just after Christmas break, wearing brand new shoes.

They were so cool, some kind of New Balance sneakers that were almost too good to be true.

When I told hime how much I loved them, he told me that his dad always got him new kicks in the new year, so he could start the year off on the right foot.

I. Love. That.

I really love the feeling of New Year, this seemingly universal fresh start to leave behind what wasn’t working, wipe the slate clean, and try again. It feels so…human.

I don’t love the pressure we put on ourselves to totally reinvent, or to dramatically change everything about our lives, because as I’m sure you already know, behaviour change is really, really hard.

So this is me, checking in on you Darlin’. How have the first couple weeks of the new year treated you?

Has it been the fresh start you were looking for, or has it kept you in the clutches of second-verse-same-as-the-first-little-bit-louder-and-a-little-bit-worse?

How does the New Year affect you, specifically?

I’d love to hear. Hit reply and let me know.

Warmly and with thanks,

xx Leisse