For many young people, the new year does not feel like fireworks and fresh starts. It feels like pressure. Like everyone suddenly expects you to have a plan, confidence, motivation, and direction, just because the calendar changed, and if you don’t?
You start feeling like something is wrong with you.
At Proudtobeme, young people sit across from us and say things like, “I don’t really feel excited about the new year,” or “I’m scared it’s just going to be the same again,” or even, “I feel like everyone else is moving forward and I’m stuck.”
The truth is, a new year doesn’t magically heal low confidence. It doesn’t erase self-doubt. It doesn’t suddenly give you opportunities you never had access to, and if you’ve grown up facing disadvantage, inequality, or constant pressure to “do better,” January can feel less like hope and more like another reminder of what feels out of reach.
That is why at Proudtobeme, we don’t start the year by asking young people to be more impressive. We start by asking them to be human.
How was last year, really? What hurt? What felt unfair? What made you tired? What small thing are you proud of, even if no one clapped for it?
When young people are allowed to answer honestly, something shifts. You can feel it in the room. The tension eases. The pretending stops, and in that honesty, hope begins to grow, not loudly, but quietly, because hope does not come from motivational speeches.
It comes from being understood.
We’ve learned that belief is built when someone listens to your story without judging it. When someone tells you, “You’re not weak for feeling this way,” or“You’re not behind, you’re still becoming.”
Through our mentoring, digital skills programmes, creativity sessions, and leadership spaces, we don’t just teach young people what to do. We remind them who they are.
The new year doesn’t need you to have it all figured out. It doesn’t need you to be fearless, perfect, or certain. It just needs you to keep showing up, even if that looks like asking for help, starting again, or taking things one step at a time, and we’ll keep showing up too.
Belief changes lives, and belief always begins with someone saying, “I see you.”
