What's Your Word for 2019?

My daughter Maya came back from school yesterday, carelessly threw her backpack on the couch, and — while taking her shoes off without untying the shoelaces — asked me: "What is one word that is going to define what you do this year?"

I wanted to tell her to untie her shoes properly first, but I refrained — here she was, trying to have an intelligent conversation, and the mom in me was worrying about shoes. Shooing my interruptions away, I asked: "Why do you want to know? And how can a word define my whole year?"

She patiently explained that her teacher was doing an exercise in class in which the kids choose a word that would define their year.

"Hmm, this is still not convincing. What word did you choose, Maya?"

Maya said: "I chose inquiry."

"Inquiry? Seriously? What does this mean?"

"I'm going to be asking a lot of questions. I want to participate, and that's why I chose this word. Mom, it's a good word. Now you choose yours."

My word for this year is going to be perseverance. I did think deeply, albeit just for a few seconds — but perseverance it is. In my mind's world, I'm known for starting a lot of things and seldom finishing them. There are canvases lying in the house with a few strokes of red and green since 2009. There are short stories still to be written, and I don't even want to talk about the Coursera courses. Yes — perseverance till the end. That's my word for 2019.

Now it was time to trouble my friends with this important question. So at a meeting today, when all of us were deeply engaged in how to effectively make our community aware of the dangers of addiction, I popped the question. Surprisingly, N and J were excited to answer.

N said her word for the year is intent. Everything she does, every person she meets this year, she will ask herself what her intent is in doing these things. I thought it was pretty neat, and I'm going to be checking on her every few months to see if she's following her word.

J's word for this year is play. She said she takes things very seriously, so her word is going to be play — it will come in handy especially when she's learning new technology, because she'll tell herself she's just playing around. She's going to take a childlike approach to doing things.

And of course, when I got home after the meeting, I still wanted to trouble some friends with this imminent question. So I logged into Facebook Messenger and asked a few friends.

G promptly replied ambition. G is young — younger than me by at least a decade. God, I am ancient! Her word is ambition: ambition to achieve, ambition to grow, ambition to be better than today. A great word!

SM, the poet, the one who has a way with words, had chosen effervescence. She tends to be guarded in social settings, so this year she's going to be vivacious, full of enthusiasm (which, in my opinion, she already is). I think SM is going to add the fizz in other people's lives.

A has chosen transform. She's going to be transforming herself into everything better. Even in sticky situations, she'll remember her word "transform" and come out of the situation better.

If you haven't chosen a word for yourself this year, please do. I promise you this seemingly futile exercise is fulfilling and hopeful.