Greetings to our Beat Within community, and to 2024! With each new year that passes, we’re met with new opportunities to learn, grow, and to challenge ourselves to become the people we want to be. Each new year is also an opportunity to honor our journeys — however difficult they may have been — and look back on our past with compassion. We’re thrilled to be on this journey with you, and are excited about the potential this year holds for all of us.
We’re turning it over now to our good friend and longtime colleague Omar, to share some wisdom about putting our plans into action. It’s never easy to commit to our goals days in and day out, but by centering our focus and embracing the power of positive thinking, we get closer to succeeding in the things we set out for.
We welcome you readers back to another double dose edition of the one and only The Beat Within. This is the only publication putting out two double issues every single month. It’s OT reporting live to y’all from the dusty streets, and the land of volcanic hot rocks and grand lakes of Managua, Nicaragua.
I say “dusty” because even as hot as it gets in my country, for the most part of the year, we have a cool windy breeze and with lots of dirt, construction everywhere due to a developing country, so dust and dirt filling up the air is the norm.
First off y’all, Happy New Year’s! I’m not really big for the festivities, just because in a sense, I feel like the holidays — starting around November with Thanksgiving being the prelude to Christmas, and Christmas being the prelude to the New Year — are technically another day.
I hate to sound like the Grinch, but I hate how everyone wishes you well, a great holiday, a “happy New Year,” but they don’t even know your birthday. But how hypocritical am I, when I don’t even like celebrating my birthday, usually because I spend it by myself, and not with my family nor my loved ones that I grew up with in the San Fran Bay Area.
The holidays feel kind of false in the sense that it is commercialized. It’s all about buying people presents and receiving a present. Material world, right? I read many pieces in our last issue and many of you get excited when receiving presents, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I like receiving presents too. It’s a natural feeling we all like to experience.
But I hate how I turn on NBC News and they spend segments on where to save on shopping for Christmas presents, and then they spend another segment saying how millions of Americans will start the new year in debt with their credit cards for spending on Christmas presents they can’t really afford. Many will be short on the day they have to pay the rent, car-note, insurance, internet, put food on the table (which by the way is hella expensive), electricity, and the list is continuous.
I personally know a few of my homies that broke the piggy bank to buy gifts for the wifey, all the kids, have a party, blow up fireworks, and wake up the next day with half a tank of gas for the next week or two. Time to swipe that credit card. Time to get a loan, just to pay the bills. Me personally this year, I didn’t get that many gifts for people. Matter of fact, I only got a handful of gifts and they weren’t expensive.
I didn’t want to get in debt, and not only that, I made it a purpose to let people know that this time of the year is about spreading love and joy, and you don’t have to spend money to do that. Stopping by at a friend’s house, checking in on the family, throwing the football around with the kids, or even just watching a basketball or football game, are things that people remember for a very long time. Gifts come and go, and it’s the memories that count, that have us all not only recording the moments in our phones but also in our hearts and in our brains.
For the beginning of this new year many of us didn’t probably plan for it to start like this. Maybe you’re behind on your work, your bills, or your freedom is in limbo. Maybe you just broke up with your significant other. Everyone is looking for a fresh start, not realizing that you don’t have to wait for the new year to get started on your goals.
Me, I personally felt like I waited too long. It’s not even my New Year resolution, but for this year I’m gone kick it off with at least six months of sobriety. 2023 was a challenging year for me personally, as I know it was for many of you.
In my country, there is a ritual. When the clock strikes twelve and it’s officially the new year, every block, and on every street, the neighbors get together and burn a piñata, but it’s not just any regular piñata. The piñata is filled with fireworks, and it’s usually dressed up like an old man, or an old lady, and I mean really dressed up. If it’s an old man, they dress him in overalls, a plaid shirt, comb his hair, and even sports some kicks that remind me of the old Bob Barker juvenile hall Chucks that they used to give us back in my day.
Once the celebration kicks in the old man is lit and the fireworks start going off inside his body, mutilating the piñata into pieces and burning it till there’s nothing left. I used to think it was dumb, but it’s tradition here. But this year it caught my attention because the piñata we burned looked exactly like a dear friend of mine named Michael Kroll. Shout out Mike! I will email you the picture and tell me it doesn’t look like you.
Coincidently, I am reading a book written by Michael Kroll named Soul of the Matter, and thinking about the book, and thinking about the title, and where the book is going, and thinking about the New Year, made me realize that this dumb tradition I thought was really stupid, is actually kind of neat.
The old man is supposed to symbolize your past struggles, obstacles, and problems of the past year, and by burning and destroying the old man (sorry Mike, just kidding), you are supposedly leaving all those problems in the past and starting on fresh clean slate. You’re supposed to open your mind to new ways of thinking.
For example, if you’re always thinking negative and you haven’t gotten the results you’ve wanted, why not start thinking positive? What do you have to lose? If you are always complaining about what you don’t have, why not start being grateful for what you do have? If you want to graduate high school or start college, well then get to it, and stop talking about it.
It’s supposed to symbolize action, not just words, hence the burning of the old man. We all like to talk about the things that we want to do, the things that we wish to accomplish, but never forge a plan and then never put it into action. Some of you wrote that you wanted to repair relationships with loved ones. Well, why wait? Why not give them a phone call, or if an apology is owed, why not write a letter of apology?
See being a new “you” in this New Year, first starts with the thought, then the plan, and then putting it into action. Talk the talk, walk the walk. Y’all know what I mean. So as we start this New Year, I know what my goals are, and I’m already putting it into action. Cutting ties with people who only bring negative energy, and I’m gone focus on me. I’m gone focus on keep trying to elevate our Beat Within program, and focus on my music, and my writing, which all three of those things are my passion.
Focus on you in this new year. Don’t worry about what everyone else doing, better yet, don’t even worry about whatever people are saying. Tune it out. Let the hatas hate, because the ones that really love you will appreciate the new, bright and beautiful new you. I know I will. I appreciate every single one of you that share your stories and truths, and some of you give me that extra drive and motivation that we all need from time to time, to not just be successful, but to keep bettering myself (ourselves) as a better brother, father, son, cousin, neighbor, and most importantly a better person. So happy new year to you all. Don’t be afraid to dream, but don’t be afraid to start putting into action your plan to achieve your dreams. I leave you with this.
If you change the way you think, you change the way you live. One love to everybody reading this. I now humbly exit with a warm embrace to all of you. And The Beat goes on! OT signing out!
Thank you, Omar, for keeping it real about what the holidays mean to you. The hype of the holidays isn’t always the happiest time of year for folks, especially with the pressure to spend large amounts of money. We appreciate your reminder that gifts don’t always have to be expensive — the best gift we can give and receive is the love and support of our friends and family.
As we set our sights on the year ahead, The Beat Within remains so grateful for your trust and your voice, and we can’t wait to see all of the amazing things our young readers and writers will accomplish. We look forward to another full year of fantastic writing, community building, and personal growth. May we all find our “old man” to burn, and open ourselves up to new ways of being and thinking. Cheers to 2024!