Happy New Year!  I hope everyone is enjoying a day full of relaxing, family, football…or whatever it is that you love.

Today is a day for hope, for new beginnings.  It’s a day for evaluating our lives and determining what we can do to improve things for ourselves.  While I do have a list of resolutions (that may or may not happen, ha!), I have one wish that I hope everyone will consider adding to their lists:

Just.  Be.  Nice.

That’s it.  Easy, right?  Apparently, not so much.  All too often I see little acts of pettiness, anger, even hatred toward other people that are just completely unnecessary.  I see these things in my community, online, in the news.  I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of it.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we all dance barefoot in a big circle and sing cheesy songs to confirm our undying love for everyone; I’m not that unrealistic.  However, if you see the opportunity to be nice, maybe think about doing it.  Hold a door for someone.  Say “please” and “thank you”.  Don’t say nasty things about someone behind their back.  Don’t judge others because their lives are different from yours.  Don’t call somebody or something “retarded” because you disagree/don’t like/find them ridiculous…and I do mean any form of that word (“libtard”, “fucktard”, “tardball”…unfortunately, there are more), and definitely don’t defend your ignorance for using that word when somebody calls you out on it (we’ll get into that more later!).  Volunteer more.  Wave “hello” to your neighbors.  Return your shopping cart when you’re finished with it.  Don’t let your kids be rude to others, even if they are “just kids” or “don’t mean it”.  If you make a mess, clean it up.

Obviously, some of things are personal pet peeves; others, things I should work on as well.  This is not a complete list, for sure.  Forgive me if I sound condescending or self-righteous; that is not the intent.  Everyone has room for improvement.  Think of it this way: put positive in, get positive out.  What do we have to lose by being nicer to each other?

It’s up to us to make 2013 a good year.  If we sit back and complain about everything, say rude things to or about others, and not try to make any improvements, then we’ll be sitting here a year from now making snide remarks about the way the last 12 months went.  I’d rather hear about how great everything is, and make a list of things we can do to build on that.