I only want one thing from 2025

I used to come into every new year with a list of things I wanted to accomplish and/or have happen in my life.

Some were achievable, others were probably unrealistic.

Never did I manage to check every one off the list. Not once.

So now I'm paring down my list of demands, mostly because I am in no position to demand anything. It's more of a plea, I guess.

All I want this year is for everyone I love who is alive and well on January 1st to still be alive and well on December 31st.

This is a lot to ask, I know. It's unfair to ask God that I experience no pain or suffering when you consider the amount of pain and suffering experienced every day by most of the 8 billion other people in the world.

But I'm asking anyway. While I haven't lost an inordinate number of family and friends to this point in my life, I've lost enough that I would like to keep the ones I still have as long as I can.

So, if it's all the same to 2025, I would appreciate it if the people in my life can just get through the next 365 days healthy and happy. Or at least vertical and breathing.

Really, it doesn't feel like that much to ask.

You have a 10-day grace period during which you're still allowed to write "2023"

I feel like it isn't nearly as much of an issue as it used to be when we all paid our bills and made large store purchases via check, but I have good news when it comes to writing the incorrect year on any document.

Whether it's a school paper, a work email, or yes, even a check, I hereby grant you free rein to mistakenly write "2023" without fear of ridicule or penalty from now through Wednesday, January 10.

After that day, if you continue to get the year wrong, the rest of us will call you out in a well-intentioned act of correction. We don't want to make fun of you, but if it takes you that long to adjust, then we're clearly doing you a favor.

Ten days is an arbitrary number, but then no one was stepping up and making an official ruling on this. So I'm taking the initiative here and giving you a defined period during which your foolishness will be tolerated.

Again, though, no mercy will be shown after the expiration date. From January 11 onward, you will need to get your act together and catch up to the rest of us.

"The rest of us" meaning "everybody but me," of course, as I will continue typing "2023" on everything until at least March.

As the one who showed some leadership on this issue, I feel like I deserve a longer reprieve.