January feels raw. It is the one month of the year that one cannot escape from one’s self. Also the unnaturalness of man-made time is most prominent and feels unsympathetic. The calendar seems robotic and therefore heartless. For it appears to lack an understanding of humanity (or perhaps just me)! That one cannot just say goodbye to a whole year within a couple of hours or days. That a good time is required for reflection and the sort of thing needs genuine effort––things subdued in the subconscious cannot just stream into the consciousness in a blink of an eye. 

For years now the first month of the year often brought me to a state of melancholia and I was uncertain why. Now I believe this crazy rush from December is a bigger part of the trigger. Everything happens too quickly and one really needs to say goodbye and hello independent of the other. So I am going to make future efforts to make the first month of the year something akin to limbo. To suck my teeth and throw a healthy tantrum about everything and nothing and to celebrate the blessing of another opportunity to try to figure out what I am and what I want to do with the time here.

—
J. A. Odartey