New Year’s Eve. The time to celebrate the old and welcome the new. Major cities around the globe boast extravagant parties, open bar, buffet, fireworks, and champagne toasts at the magical moment when the last grain of sand slips through the hourglass of 2011. We pop the bubbly and clink glasses to new memories and old friends. There are toasts and laughter and kissing once the countdown begins– a flurry of celebration and a nighttime of magic.
Personally, I have not experienced one of these New Year’s Eves. Each year I search for a cheap, super chic party in a major city so I may laugh gayly while sipping some fruity mixed drink and wearing at least one sequined article of clothing. When this search proves less than fruitful I turn to creating my resolution list, mixing inevitable events with vague references to verbs followed by the word “more.”
My 2012 New Year’s Resolutions:
-Get one year older
-Graduate college
-Exercise more
-Cook more
-Blog on a regular schedule…more
And by 11:59pm on December 31st, I stop scrambling for last-minute plans, down an extra glass of champagne, and contemplate my reasons for failing yet another new year’s celebration. Frankly, I’m New Year Eved out.
So what is the hype? Even before When Harry Met Sally and Billy Crystal professed his love to Meg Ryan amidst the cheering crowd and soft melody of Auld Lang Syne, we have been fascinated with New Years. The new year is full of the hopeful promise that forgotten friends will be reunited and current struggles will soon become distant memories. It is a night of secular confession, silently acknowledging last year’s mistakes and becoming absolved as soon as the digital clocks blinks 12:00 (or 24:00 depending on location and military time preference). We are Cinderella but instead of the night ending at the stroke of midnight, our magical evening has just begun. Anything is possible.
For me, anything includes the feeling of fulfillment at the birth of this new calendar year. Maybe there is no ideal template for wish-making, hand-holding and speech-giving at the start of 2012. After all, January 1 is just another day to reassert one’s self as an individual trying to understand his or her place in the world. But one thing is for sure. I’m adding a new resolution to my list:
Plan early.
Twelve-toed Traveler 