When I moved to Brevard County in February 1999, I’d just celebrated my 35th birthday.

I didn’t own a cellphone. FLORIDA TODAY had four computer terminals, in the middle of the newsroom, with dial-up internet access. Google and Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves were strange, unexplored worlds. 

My colleagues and I spent much of that year partying like it was 1999 and prepping for a catastrophic Y2K shutdown.

It seemed the 21st century, with all its mystery and possibility, would never arrive.

Now, here we are a quarter of the way through it.

I’ve adapted to this George Jetson world of handheld computers, video chats, self-driving cars and televisions that can stream almost anything but are, oddly, harder to operate. We now take for granted things that were sci-fi fantasies in 1999. It’s been a wacky, wonderful and sometimes heartbreaking two and a half decades.

I gave up New Year’s resolutions about the time I got rid of my landline, but as we enter the second quarter of this century, I do have hopes and hankerings for the coming year.

I know all the dogs in my neighborhood by name. This year, I’m going to do my best to learn the people’s names, too.

Let’s move out of the Me, Me, Me Era and move into the We Era. Life is happier and more fulfilling when we don’t push others down to build ourselves up.

I’m obsessed with the camera bird feeder I got for Christmas. It makes me crave the company of feathered creatures. I can’t wait to revisit the Viera Wetlands and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see the white pelicans, flamingos and roseate spoonbills.

We all want lives of security and abundance, but let’s not get so wrapped up in wanting more that we forget to appreciate what we have.

If I get my novel published, might some of you be willing to read it?

Can we hold our leaders, regardless of their party affiliations, to the same standards we hold our friends and families? Bullying, bad-mouthing and refusing to compromise aren’t traits we should celebrate.

Maybe this will be the year I figure out how to enjoy cooking and eating vegetables, as well as how to drink plenty of water without spending my day in the loo.

Even Alexa, with her overly chatty, enhanced AI personality can’t tell us what the next quarter of a century will hold. But if it’s anything like the last one, we’d all better buckle up.

As we dive into 2026, I wish you all a healthy and happy new year.

And I hope you will join me in living by this simple mantra:  Let me better today than I was yesterday.

Joy and blessings, y’all.

Suzy Fleming Leonard is a retired journalist who spent 25 years as a writer, editor and columnist at FLORIDA TODAY. Reach her at suzy@321creates.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Here’s a mantra for 2026: Be better today than you were yesterday