New Year, New Me?

To mark the start of 2023, our SUN (Service User Network) Group Facilitator with Lived Experience, Freyja, shares the beautiful poem she wrote about the pressure we feel to change ourselves as part of the new year resolutions tradition.

She writes:

I scroll through social media

Archive another 30 emails

Shouldn’t this be easier?

Day one, already fails

I resolve to lose weight

I resolve to get fit

I resolve to find my mate

To complete a new craft kit

I think I’ll go vegan

Yes I’ll stop eating meat

New year is the reason

But it seems such a feat

Wait, that 30km run!

It is for charity

For me, exercise isn’t fun

And brings no clarity

So I could start a new hobby

Dedicate the time

But the paints gone all blobby

Who even wants a picture of a lime?

Maybe I will quit smoking?

Quit alcoholic drink?

Stop negative thinking

And saying what I think

I’ll say positive affirmations

Have perfect self care

Turn all ideas to creations

What others think? Don’t care

I’ll be rid of depression

Be happy and active

Be the best at my job

A personality so attractive

I’ll never get things wrong

I’ll always try my best

People will see I belong

The old me laid to rest

But then I stopped

Stopped this huge overthink

Stopped trying to change

In the time taken to blink

Of all the things I could be

All the changes to make

Why can’t I stay me?

Not some imposter or fake

Maybe I could just agree

That starting today

I will be this version of me

Not the ideal they portray

I am a mess of scars

Of trauma and pain

But burning fire makes stars

Even rainbows need rain

I got where I am now

By just living each day

I learnt from the how

And the bumps on the way

Perhaps just being me

This year is okay

There is nothing I need to be

So as me I will stay.

Want to blog for us?

Did this inspire you to share your story? If you would like to contribute to this blog series, please email Connie, our Communications Lead, at connie@maryfrancestrust.org.uk. The blogs can be poems, song or videos – whatever format you feel most comfortable with!

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