big season for This Year In America
we're just getting started in what might be one of our wildest years of the 2020s yet
Hello and Welcome to 2024!
In many ways, 2024 is starting the same as previous years. As the new de facto New Year content, the floods of Ins & Outs lists have made their way through Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among other mediums. Predictions from funds and thought leaders have been shared and published for business sectors. Many individuals have been professing new goals or focuses for lifestyle changes. The cliche "new year, new me" mantra continues to be trolled, with "new year, same me" or "I'm not changing, I'm perfect" energy. Vision boarding lingers, though it's popularity is at a low. The newest topics of conversation around New Year intentions is the debate of making goals vs. having themes and why you shouldn't wait for a new year to start working towards something, emphasized by this uptick in interest of the 12-week year. (For the record, I think this is dumb, a year is 52 weeks, just advertise you are helping with quarterly planning). Yet, despite the inevitable return of our New Year's rituals, there is a buzz I sense of renewed interest in living again.
Part of it could be attributed to increased demand for activities, exploration, and events as we continue to distance ourselves from the pandemic. In 2020, many would be unable to forecast the impact of going from hustle and bustle to complete stop or comprehend the difficulty of restarting our lives once we turned the lights back on. Newton's first law explains this phenomenon, "an object in motion stays in motion; an object at rest stays at rest." Life was the object at rest. As we adjusted to life in quarantine, not only did we learn to contract our schedules, but we then justified and became comfortable in this slower living. Maybe it was due to society finding something it didn't know it had lost: time.
But once the curtains went up and we received the cue it was time to return to the world, we were caught with our pants down. For starters, no one wanted to leave their home. There was a reprioritization of values and work-life balance ranked high. People relocated en masse to cities their job was nowhere near, significant investments were made in technology to support remote work, quitting unfulfilling roles became a resignation movement, we pursued hobbies from childhood in waves, spent an ungodly amount of time online becoming creators, and saw the demise of long existing 3rd space communities.
So, despite the go-ahead to pick up where we left off, what was once considered our normal functioning society was impossible to return to because it no longer existed for many of us. The long standing social fabric had been completely undone and now is being resown.
This is not necessarily a bad thing by the way; change can be good. As someone who has started her life over three times now, there have been things I've learned to put into practice to make a living in a new environment more rewarding each time. Regardless of being seasoned in starting over, rebuilding takes time; my theory is, now in 2024, we're finally building momentum.
There's an incredible amount of unknown left to be written this year as we're just getting started in what might be one of our wildest years of the 2020s yet. And I'm not here to make any wild predictions—forecasts are hard to nail. Take most of our cultural and technological shifts for example, they usually are in response to significant moments we never saw coming. Who would expect in week one Katt Williams would be leaving shockwaves of conversation and truths to be discovered about Black Hollywood and comedy after his appearance on Club Shay Shay, or Carta being accused of listing private equity for sale without consent???
HOWEVER, if I were to identify a few of the storylines I'm excited to watch play out on the sitcom "America" this year, it would be these…
The growing distrust of news outlets
Focus on weight loss, longevity, and health monitoring trickling down to general America.
Fashion catering to the demands of functionality, sustainability, and higher quality
2024's Presidential election
Wars abroad: WTF is going on in Russia and Ukraine? How will Gaza resolve, and what does this mean for the Jewish state?
Recession fears in a booming economy
Growing indifference to traditional academia and higher ed from elites and the right
Public transit finding its footing in the states
Concerns about affordable housing and repurposed uses of real estate
A potential return of Crypto (based on funding cycles, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some headlines)
Transition of AI into more consumer applications
… and this is my short list. What I do know is, we're only on Day 7; and things are shaping up to make a big season for This Year In America.
With every year, I get excited for a new slate and being refreshed to take on what life may bring. But even if the buzz is all in my head and this growing cold Americano, it’s nice to feel something.
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Thanks for reading my second article of TOL. As always, I'm open to feedback, comments, love, and hate.
If you like my writing (or me!), consider contributing for my weekly flowers fund. Every week, I buy myself flowers and share a fact about them.
This week, I got pink tulips; if you pierce the necks of them they don’t droop. The top of their stems hold air bubbles and make the heads heavy when not released.
Tulips pair perfectly with a warm cup of Black Tea and Ahmad Jamal's Poinciana playing in the background.
Shall we meet back here next time?