If my past holds sway on my present, then I am doomed to put the wrong year on correspondence and deposit slips for the better part of the next three weeks, as I have done for most of my adult life. I cannot be the only one who struggles with the change over? After all, it was just 2014 less than a fortnight ago.
The passing of the year is a ceremonial thing. My iPhone paid no notice. The sun rises and sets without pause. After time off, we go back to our work, to our routine. I may weather, but I am more than the sum of my years and their many seasons. It would seem a year is no more than a marker of time, and yet it is something more.
Around the world we celebrate the coming of the New Year. In the United States, the New Year is greeted with champagne, fireworks, and the sounding of paper horns. In England, they hope a handsome stranger will be the first across the threshold, bearing coal, salt, bread, and whiskey--the "first footing". In Denmark, people jump from their chairs at the stroke of midnight, and throw plates at their doors for new friends in the New Year. In Spain, twelve grapes are consumed; one for each of the twelve chimes of midnight.
Of course, not everybody celebrates the New Year on the same date or for the same reasons. The Jewish New Year falls in either September or October, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur. Jews blow a Shofar, rams horn, as a symbol of repentance. The Muslim New Year changes from year to year because of an adherence to a lunar calendar. For them, New Years is a time of reflection and prayer. The Chinese celebrate the New Year in January or February, depending on the year. Lanterns are lit, flags are waived, and firecrackers are exploded, all to ward away evil spirits and ensure a safe and prosperous new year.
No matter how, when, or why you celebrate the New Year, I wish you a happy and prosperous one, full of love and opportunity. If you have made your New Year's resolution, I wish you good luck and Godspeed. For Puerto Rico, I hope for a renewed economy and peace for all her people.
In our new year at Baldwin, we prepare for an elementary extension that will begin sometime within the next month or so. We continue to implement the International Baccalaureate campus-wide, and I am pleased with the growth I see all around campus. Even this week, our MUS teachers are training with IB specialists, working on unit plans and assessment practices. We are, on all fronts, a work in progress. We are committed to excellence in all we do. I am so proud to call Baldwin home, to represent our school, and to call so many amazing people my colleagues and friends.
So welcome back! De mi familia a la suya, les deseo muchas bendiciones en el Nuevo Año.
See you around campus.