This is NHPR’s The Big Question. In this series, we ask you a question about life in New Hampshire, you submit an answer, and your voice may be featured on air or online.
A new year can mean a fresh start, a new chapter, renewed resolve.
For January’s Big Question, we asked: What do you hope to accomplish in 2025?
Here’s what some of you shared.
Ruth Smith – Canterbury, NH: 2025 is going to be a fun year for me because I’m looking forward to taking on a rather daunting project, but one that’s very exciting. I have quilt squares that were made by my great-grandmother probably over 100 years ago, in the early 1900s, and they were never assembled into a quilt. The quilt squares are actually a style called redwork, which was typical of that time period, and they have images of children and animals. My project this year is to finally assemble them into a quilt and give that quilt to my new great-niece, who was born in June. It’s kind of fun to think about maybe connecting the generations through this quilt.
Cathy Wolff – Kittery, ME: My resolution and my goal for 2025 is to be less judgmental, especially of other people. It’s not the first year I’ve had this as a resolution, but I’m going to try again. Most of my adult life, I’ve prided myself on being able to critically assess just about everything, but last year I realized that I can be too critical, at least too judging. And I really don’t want to be that way anymore. I think the biggest strategy is to remind yourself when your judging is aimed at yourself or at another person, that they’re just a person. So my resolution is to be less judging and more compassionate, less critical and more kind to myself and to others and maybe even the world.
Liz Ryan Cole – Lyme, NH and Thetford, VT: I hope to persuade my little town in Lyme and other towns like it that it’s important to expand our zoning. And I would like to see some more variety in housing. If we had more types of housing, we could make homes for people who work in town and not have our teachers and firefighters have to come in from other towns. I’d love to see Lyme create a housing committee as so many other Upper Valley towns have. I’d love to work with individuals, elected officials [and] appointed officials and show them that multi-unit housing really has a place in our little towns.
