Things I’d Like to Learn in the New Year
With a new year comes an opportunity to reflect on what the past one provided. As 2026 begins, here’s a list of things I’d like to learn over the course of the next year — some practical, some fun, each rewarding in its own way.
1. Curse words from native speakers in other languages. I could Google phrases, of course, but I like the idea of forming bonds of friendship with folks who would teach the juicy phrases in their native tongue.
2. To recognize constellations not named Orion’s Belt or the Big Dipper. I’d like to learn the myths behind them, too. And I’ve never regretted staring up at the stars, even if I can’t distinguish Cassiopeia from Perseus or even Venus from the North Star.
3. The names of every neighbor on my street. I’ve met everyone before, but I wanted to get over my embarrassment about forgetting their names and ask again.
4. How to fold origami. I find the printed diagrams as indecipherable as ancient hieroglyphs, but there are a couple of youth at church who are really good, and I’d love to learn from them.
5. How to make pizza sauce. Most Fridays, I make pizza for the family, including the crust. Adding the sauce would make the homemade recipe complete!
6. How to write more forms of poetry. Maybe a pantoum, terza rima, or a ghazal.
7. The names and emails of all my local elected officials. This knowledge will focus my attention and effort closer to home, rather than on national politics (which often cause me to curse in English).
My underlying goal is to foster relationships with people and places around me. But I don’t want to give the impression that I aspire to be a know-it-all. Rather, I’m learning that the true journey is in curiosity. Here’s to a new year of learning and paying attention and kneeling and questioning and being flabbergasted and letting the feeling of “God, this is beautiful” zap right through me.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of the book with Wipf and Stock Publishers titled This Is the Day: A Year of Observing Unofficial Holidays about Ampersands, Bobbleheads, Buttons, Cousins, Hairball Awareness, Humbugs, Serendipity, Star Wars, Teenagers, Tenderness, Walking to School, Yo-Yos, and More. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he is a student of joy.
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