WHAT IS YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?
Dr. Tesfa G. Gebremedhin, 28 Dec 2004
West Virginia University 

Each time the New Year rolls around many of us sit down to think and make our annual resolutions. The New Year is a time to make resolutions that hopefully will put us in a better situation than last year. Most of the usual New Year's resolutions are to go to the gym to lose weight, quit smoking, drinking and gambling, to have healthy lifestyles, or to go back to school and make a difference in life. Among some Eritreans, their New Year’s resolution is to go to Eritrea and visit family members and relatives, or to build a house in Asmara for retirement. Among the very few others it is to make the commitment to actively participate in the Eritrean Communities, or to provide financial and material support to families of fallen heroes. Every year after the holidays, many of us vow 'this will be the year!' we resolve to maintain a positive attitude and a good relationship among ourselves and stick to our own crowd for our own survival and solidarity. But often these vows are cast aside like unwanted holiday gifts. Many of us even make ambitious goals in our New Year's resolution and within a short time period we find all type of excuses for not preceding with the promises. Typically, most of our New Year’s resolutions are not kept because we do not have the will power to stick to our self-sacrificing commitment.

A New Year's resolution is setting a person up for mental, spiritual and behavioral change. The start of a new year is a time when we Eritreans should be inclined to stop and evaluate ourselves and think about ways to make improvements in our behaviors and actions for the future. We need to be concerned and strengthen our relationship with our children and fellow Eritreans. Establishing viable communities to raise our children is a great place to start the New Year’s resolution. Communities can create an environment that will allow families to know how best to communicate with one another and help each other in raising their children with love and care. It is obvious that each of us have our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots and knuckleheads with odd personalities. However, it is the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. We have just got to accept each person for whom they are, and look for the good in them because we have a lot of similar backgrounds with different and wonderful attributes that can bring us all together as Eritreans.

At the end of each year, it is even traditional at home to make a New Year's resolution because we use to hear our parents wish and prepare to have a blessed year with good health, peace, prosperity and to have a good rainy season and harvest. It is commonly observed that most of us who make New Year's resolutions start out with really good intentions. We want to make positive change in our lives, and we find resolutions are a way to get started. But real change in someone's lifestyle requires more than good intentions. We commit ourselves to resolving personal issues, yet more often than not, fail to keep these commitments. The concept in itself is a good one: to make an assessment of our lives, to contemplate what we wish to modify during the following twelve months, and then making a promise to that change. The concept is still great; it gives people a fresh start and a new outlook for the year, but a really good follow-through should always be there in place. We need to aspire, focus and be determined to follow our intentions. We need realistic goals, and we need a realistic time frame for the changes. It takes a series of small steps -- without time limits -- to accomplish that change. Once we understand change as a process, it becomes much more valuable and attainable. That is why, once an Eritrean community is established, it needs a follow up by continuing to actively participate and make it grow to be solid and strong.

Year 2004 was a productive and rewarding year for me. I was able to reach out and conduct seminars to the Eritrean Communities in Seattle, Oakland, Berkley, Flint, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Dallas, Atlanta, Raleigh, Washington, D.C., Silver Spring, and Ottawa, Canada. My New Year’s resolution for year 2005 is also to conduct as many seminars as I can to the Eritrean Communities in the United States, Canada and Europe on “Building Communities and Raising Eritrean Children in Diaspora” and “Youth and Parents Relationships in the our Communities.” It is a pleasure for me to share my own perspective with my people and also learn from them their wit and wisdom. I pride myself on the ability to work relentlessly toward these seminars and apply the work ethics and discipline I had inherited from my parents. We all need to have a New Year’s resolution that we can proudly accomplish and provide service to our Eritrean Communities where our children can exercise and reflect their ethnic identity.

WHAT IS YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION? Hope that it will be positive, friendly and meaningful. It is important to have a dream, but it is more important to make the dream a reality. We need to remember that things will always go right if we do the right thing. Let us all have a good New Year’s resolution for year 2005. If I can be of any assistance in setting up your New Year’s resolution with regard to community participation and building a good relationship with your children, my email is tgebrem@wvu.edu. Wish you all to have a wonderful Holiday Season. God bless us!