New Year, Same Me

In college my friends and I couldn't get enough of makeover shows. Whether it was about cleaning out a hoarder's house, neighbors re-doing one another's living rooms, or the re-styling of a newly divorced working mother of three, there was something inspiring about the reinvention, not to mention addictive. Once my afternoons were spoken for and the days of TLC marathons behind me, reinvention was reserved for the new year.
There is something that gets under my skin about January 1st. Everything is the same; health, job, apartment, family and yet the fact that it's a new year seems to be the ultimate motivation. Maybe it's all those magazines with NEW YEAR, NEW YOU articles covering everything from getting organized to a new diet and exercise regime to, no, I'm not exaggerating, plastic surgery. Perhaps it's just guilt over all the chocolate covered carbs that somehow found their way on my plate. Whatever the reason, as I watched Ryan Seacrest try to measure up to Dick Clark, my life came under the rather unforgiving microscope of introspection. As the snow fell, an early spring cleaning was underway.
While in the middle of throwing out tape cassettes from the late eighties (so many pre-playlist mixed tapes that still make me proud,) and sorting through magazines for a new hair cut, a choice needed to be made: Is this going to be a reinvention or rediscovery? Should I throw everything away like the hoarder's house? Reinvent myself with an outside perspective? Or simply work with what I have; a clean up and polishing off? In the end I went with all three.
Seven trash bags, two bags of clothes to donate, hair dyed to a more sophisticated brunette,and split ends trimmed off; it wasn't exactly reality show level but it was a makeover. I wasn't made teary by the result, but I was able to breathe a bit easier... I have no doubt that my hair will become a bit ragged in a few months time and that I will only fill up the available space with more stuff. The important thing isn't so much that I changed but that I prepared and made room for what's to come. Because, you really can't change for the new year, you can only be ready for it to change you.