New Year New You - A New AFRORETRO?
Lilly's applique Ugandan Fairy
Wowsers 2013 was a sure-fire rollercoaster of a year for us at AFRORETRO. Ups, downs, upside downs, exhilaration to near vomit-induced fear. Hence I sought to see in the New Year calmly in the rolling fields of Suffolk. Long walks, good friends, country pubs and oh yeah my lap top with a 6th of January proposal deadline…a project to refine, write and describe, a budget to formulate, complete with marketing and funding strategy…well this is me we’re talking about. We’ve applied to Yinka Shonibare ‘s Guest Projects Africa…but more about that later.
Back to new years…New Years…just because we’ve decided it is a new year and it was nothing more than a decision someone made (The Ethiopians decided that September 11th was more fitting a date and also that the year 0001 started 8 years later than westerners thought, it's now 2006 there). But that doesn’t mean anything will magically change…shouts of “tell me something I don’t know!”. I mention it because as it turned out I didn’t know. I have been swept up in all this new year marketing “A New Year A New You”. I envisaged waking up on the 1st of January and the slate would be wiped clean. No outstanding deadlines, all the Christmas chub gone and my bank balance topped up! New Year New You my arse! 2014 looks much the same as 2013.
Which at first was a little disappointing, but a few weeks in and I’m finding it reassuring. I ’ve not changed, my to do list is still here, however I know where I stand and who I am. If it was a new me, would I have all the experiences and knowledge from the lessons I’ve learned? All the memories of my achievements that spur me on would be gone.I wouldn’t even have the fab Miss Sixty dress I snuck into my wardrobe just before I was due to go Xmas shopping! Or more worryingly for humanity I wouldn’t have the opportunity to start this crafty fashion adventure in the first place!! Okay I do realise humanity has bigger fish to fry.
So I am embracing the New Year with the Old Me. Hopefully I’ll change and grow over the year but by the time 2015 comes round it will be Old News!
