This is my first opinion article for the year 2018, so let me greet everyone a happy new year.

About 10 days before the New Year, I decided to deactivate my Facebook account. It is good for the brain, and it also keeps away the blues because seeing posts on the celebration of the holidays back home makes you remember what you are missing on. The holidays here and there are really different. What they say about Christmas being celebrated for nearly three months in the Philippines is totally true. Here, I spent Christmas and New Year ’s Day in bed, you can almost say I slept through Christmas and New Year. But I also did a lot of thinking.

The year 2017 proved to me that a lot can really happen in a span of 12 months. I remember around December of 2016, I have set goals for myself.

First, I decided to read more. I’ve always loved reading but I also had a bad habit of hoarding books. So I told myself I am going to read at least one book each month. And in a year, I managed to read all the books I have hoarded.

Second, I decided to care a bit more about the way I looked. So I brushed my hair more frequently, ironed my clothes and wore lipstick to work (at least a few times a week). A boss once told me that a lady doesn’t need to choose between being smart and looking good. She can always be both. Caring about the way you look isn’t exactly vanity, it a showcase of discipline and self-respect.

Third, my weight, I was between 47-48 kilos when I came here in Dubai. Based on my research, the ideal and healthy weight for my height is 43 kilos. So I ran, did some exercising, and ate right. Just after the New Year, I weighed 44.7 kilos. Didn’t exactly meet my goal weight but, I am almost there.

Fourth, go to church, pray more, and come to know this God again. Being fourth among my goals doesn’t mean it is not very important. I just came to re-acknowledge the existence of God in the latter part of the year and I don’t know where to begin to explain just how much things have changed since that day I admitted that God is real, that I do need saving, and that Jesus is my Savior.

Fifth, make progress at work.

Sixth, throw some cash into the savings account each month to have something for the rainy days.

Seventh, get another stamp for the passport.

As I crossed each goal out, I realized that I have somehow achieved all my goals and I should feel grateful that these goals are within my reach and that this life I live has so many possibilities.

Around 3:30am last New Year, I found myself nursing a glass of wine while listening to Auld Lang Syne on repeat. As I randomly sipped from my glass, I thanked the Universe for my life and for all its beautiful possibilities.

While being intoxicated leaves other people’s thoughts hazy and their manners rash, I just sat there with my legs up on a stool, lost in deep thought.

I realized that while I and so many others out there have all these possibilities laid out in front of us, there are countless others out there whose dream is only as big as being able to eat once a day. I scolded myself for taking this trail of thought again but I couldn’t help it. I thought, the new year is supposed to bring new chances, but these new chances are always just available to those who can afford them.

Education, and other basic needs such as food and clothing, maybe a job to afford all those things….. Those are not readily available for everyone.

This is something that has been going on year after year, it has become a norm, a fact of life. People are no longer bothered, and this I think is a problem.

However, I write this without feeling the need to present a concrete solution to the problem. I have none. I write this simply to point everyone’s gaze to that one blot of dirt on our so-called blank canvas. These “chances” must be available to all, not just a few. Maybe you who are reading this do see it, maybe you don’t. Either way, I am just saying that that blot of dirt has been there for so long./WDJ