Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Car­la Kan­ga­loo has called on the na­tion to re­flect on the chal­lenges of the past year while em­brac­ing the op­por­tu­ni­ties for growth and re­new­al in the year ahead.

In her 2025 New Year’s Day mes­sage, Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo said, “It is a use­ful prac­tice, as we stand on the thresh­old of a new year, to look back at the jour­ney we have tak­en and to look for­ward to the path ahead.”

She ac­knowl­edged the pro­found dif­fi­cul­ties of 2024, in­clud­ing the coun­try’s on­go­ing bat­tle with crime that led to the de­c­la­ra­tion of a State of Emer­gency, the trag­ic loss of lives to road and in­dus­tri­al ac­ci­dents, and the heart-wrench­ing deaths of D’Abadie/O’Meara MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and two of her chil­dren in a dev­as­tat­ing house fire just days be­fore Christ­mas.

“For many, the year that has passed has been marked by pain and grief,” she said.

“Still, those of us who re­main stand­ing are called to find mean­ing in the abun­dance of sad­ness.”

Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo urged cit­i­zens to turn in­ward for strength, draw­ing on the “di­vin­i­ty that in­hab­its all of us” and look for mo­ments of in­spi­ra­tion amidst ad­ver­si­ty. She high­light­ed the re­mark­able achieve­ment of young pan­nist Joshua Re­grel­lo, who is try­ing to es­tab­lish a new Guin­ness World record af­ter play­ing the steel­pan for over 30 con­sec­u­tive hours, as a sym­bol of re­silience and tri­umph over chal­lenges.

“Our lives, like the mu­sic of the steel­pan, are of­ten the prod­uct of steady blows against un­yield­ing steel,” she re­flect­ed.

“Yet, these mo­ments can be trans­formed in­to melodies that in­spire and up­lift us.”

Look­ing ahead to 2025, Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo en­cour­aged the na­tion to ap­proach the year with courage, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and hope.

“Let us tap in­to the strength with­in us to step in­to 2025 with for­ti­tude and the re­solve to make it a bet­ter year than the one just past,” she urged.

She con­clud­ed her mes­sage with a call to op­ti­mism, ref­er­enc­ing the words of David Rud­der’s Ded­i­ca­tion (A Praise Song): “Be­tween the wrist and the rub­ber, there is a new truth to dis­cov­er – a new melody, a glo­ri­ous song of songs.”

“My hus­band and I ex­tend our best wish­es to Trinidad and To­ba­go for a strong and re­silient 2025. To­geth­er, I be­lieve we can over­come our chal­lenges and build a brighter fu­ture,” the Pres­i­dent said.