New Years Resolutions: Winnipeggers looking for more joy in 2025
Posted December 31, 2024 3:08 pm.
Last Updated January 2, 2025 8:11 am.
It’s December 31st, which means, we made it through 2024!
I’ve been thinking about my New Years resolution, and I’ve decided I’m going to do things that bring me joy. Like performing a traditional cedar bath ceremony with a friend and learning how to bead — so I can bead myself a pair of earrings. They will be pink, they will be posted on socials.
As I’ve been speaking with people around me, I realized I’m not the only one in Winnipeg who is chasing joy in 2025. Here are the stories of two people we spoke to just before New Years, and what they’re hoping for as we welcome in the new year.
SAM CAHATOL
“What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.” -Carl Jung
28-year-old Sam Cahatol is a voice actor living in Winnipeg.
This year, Cahatol found this quote by Carl Jung which she said changed her outlook on life.
“What I want to do in 2025 is I want to actively search for and kind of remember and go revisit the things that made me happy when I was younger,” she said.
Cahatol explained she spent a lot of her 20’s feeling suicidal due to the way she approached joy.
“I actively made a choice to not engage in anything that made me ‘too happy’ for fear that it would make me lazy or that I just didn’t deserve it because I wasn’t working hard enough and that really took a toll on me,” said Cahatol.
This year, Cahatol said she’s started dancing again — an activity that holds fond memories for her from her childhood. In 2025, she’s also looking to start up acting classes again and resume her career.
“I’m gonna revisit the things that made me happy, because I do deserve that kind of thing,” she said. “I do deserve to be happy and it’s not something that I have to work hard for necessarily.”
As Cahatol looks to 2025, she also shared a piece of advice for those who are still looking for a resolution.
“Don’t feel discouraged if you see other people on their New Years resolutions make like these big like, oh I’m going to run a marathon or I’m going to go ahead and get my PhD. Like, that’s all great and all, but if your New Years resolution is, I wanna make it to next year and the year after that, then I think that’s enough.”
BRETT MADILL
Brett Madill is a Toronto-based VFX artist from Winnipeg.
His 2024 was heavily impacted, as the industry was going through the aftermath of the Hollywood Writer’s Strike.
“All the delays in the shows from 2023 kind of caused VFX to be waiting to be able to do our work,” Madill explained.
Looking forward to the new year, Madill said he hopes the delays are done and the industry can come out of the strikes stronger than ever — so artists like him can continue to do the work they love.
“I’m just really hoping to stay busy and maintain my employment through next year, and further on into the future,” he said.
Reflecting on the stories coming from Hollywood, Madill also said he’s looking forward to being part of new kinds of storytelling.
“There’s definitely been some chaos and some disruption, but I’m really hopeful that there can also be really positive disruption that will shake things up and give us a lot of opportunities to tell new, different stories in new and exciting ways as well.”
If you have any resolutions, I’d love to hear about them. Send me an email or a message on socials anytime.
From our team at CityNews, have a Happy New Year.
