Confessions of a New Years Naysayer (Or Why New Years is Awful and No One Admits It)
2016 is quickly ending, and the holiday I dread is quickly approaching: New Years. I'm generally a holiday lover, but New Years' is one that has never won me over. In fact, it ranks dead last on my list of holidays (Valentine's Day only slightly edged it out because of the prospect of copious amounts of chocolate).
Why pick on New Years, you say? Isn't it a time to celebrate with friends the joyful end of one year and the welcoming of a brand new year, full of hope and possibilities? No, it's not. Allow me to explain why New Years sucks and no one will admit it.
The principle reason New Years sucks is that it never lives up to expectations, no matter what you do. I've been graced with an incredibly low amount of FOMO in my life (for my non-millennial readers, that's "Fear of Missing Out.") and I generally try to keep my expectations low. Even though I like (okay, love) to make plans, I'm generally just as happy meeting up with friends, going out, or attending an event as I am staying at home, taking a bubble bath, reading a book, and being soundly asleep by 9 pm, regardless of what anyone else is doing. But each year, when New Years' rolls around, I feel a ridiculous pressure to have some sort of exciting plan for New Years. It's somehow impossible to not have high expectations of doing something awesome on New Years, and then inevitably being disappointed.
No matter what you do for New Years', you're screwed. If you stay home and take a bubble bath and go to bed at 9 pm, you feel lame for not going out and doing something, even if you never feel that way on literally any other night of the entire year. If you do go out for dinner, you have to make reservations way too far in advance, and then you'll pay five times as much for it as you normally would just because it's December 31 and they give you a glass of cheap champagne (see also: Why Valentine's Day sucks). If you go out to a club, you end up paying some insane cover fee to finally dance with strangers after freezing your appendages off standing in line outside (well, if you live in the Midwest, at least). Then you get to feel alone in a crowd full of strangers (which, by the way, is one of the worst feelings in human existence), and wish you were at home taking a bubble bath.
Another reason New Years is awful and no one admits it is the forced self-flagellation of making meaningless resolutions that rolls around at the end of every December. Don't get me wrong, I think the process of careful self-reflection and making purposeful resolutions regularly is a really good thing, and I usually try to do it once a year or so. But as I pushed my grocery cart towards the checkout lane today, I realized that all of the "resolutions" that are pushed by American media are all about one thing, and one thing only: physical appearance, or more specifically, weight loss.
As my eyes perused the magazine covers in the checkout aisle, their titles screamed things like "Get ripped in 2017!" "Get the abs you've always dreamed of!" "30 ways to lose the holiday pounds." Not one said something like "Be less of an asshole this year!" "Try a little kindness in 2017!""Love yourself the way you are!" It bothers me that our society focuses so much effort on the physical, and so little on the spiritual and emotional. It troubles me that nearly all of the magazines in that supermarket aisle were specifically targeting women, their covers telling us that we're not skinny enough, that we are not whole and complete and valuable as we are. I am all for being healthy, and I'm all for making resolutions, but to me putting so much effort on outward appearances compared to little or none for what really matters underneath makes me feel sick.
Resolutions that matter seem all the more urgent this December 2016. The world feels a little less welcoming, a little less kind, and a lot less reasonable. Though I usually make resolutions around my birthday, I'm trying to keep these in mind for 2017:
Why pick on New Years, you say? Isn't it a time to celebrate with friends the joyful end of one year and the welcoming of a brand new year, full of hope and possibilities? No, it's not. Allow me to explain why New Years sucks and no one will admit it.
The principle reason New Years sucks is that it never lives up to expectations, no matter what you do. I've been graced with an incredibly low amount of FOMO in my life (for my non-millennial readers, that's "Fear of Missing Out.") and I generally try to keep my expectations low. Even though I like (okay, love) to make plans, I'm generally just as happy meeting up with friends, going out, or attending an event as I am staying at home, taking a bubble bath, reading a book, and being soundly asleep by 9 pm, regardless of what anyone else is doing. But each year, when New Years' rolls around, I feel a ridiculous pressure to have some sort of exciting plan for New Years. It's somehow impossible to not have high expectations of doing something awesome on New Years, and then inevitably being disappointed.
No matter what you do for New Years', you're screwed. If you stay home and take a bubble bath and go to bed at 9 pm, you feel lame for not going out and doing something, even if you never feel that way on literally any other night of the entire year. If you do go out for dinner, you have to make reservations way too far in advance, and then you'll pay five times as much for it as you normally would just because it's December 31 and they give you a glass of cheap champagne (see also: Why Valentine's Day sucks). If you go out to a club, you end up paying some insane cover fee to finally dance with strangers after freezing your appendages off standing in line outside (well, if you live in the Midwest, at least). Then you get to feel alone in a crowd full of strangers (which, by the way, is one of the worst feelings in human existence), and wish you were at home taking a bubble bath.
Another reason New Years is awful and no one admits it is the forced self-flagellation of making meaningless resolutions that rolls around at the end of every December. Don't get me wrong, I think the process of careful self-reflection and making purposeful resolutions regularly is a really good thing, and I usually try to do it once a year or so. But as I pushed my grocery cart towards the checkout lane today, I realized that all of the "resolutions" that are pushed by American media are all about one thing, and one thing only: physical appearance, or more specifically, weight loss.
As my eyes perused the magazine covers in the checkout aisle, their titles screamed things like "Get ripped in 2017!" "Get the abs you've always dreamed of!" "30 ways to lose the holiday pounds." Not one said something like "Be less of an asshole this year!" "Try a little kindness in 2017!""Love yourself the way you are!" It bothers me that our society focuses so much effort on the physical, and so little on the spiritual and emotional. It troubles me that nearly all of the magazines in that supermarket aisle were specifically targeting women, their covers telling us that we're not skinny enough, that we are not whole and complete and valuable as we are. I am all for being healthy, and I'm all for making resolutions, but to me putting so much effort on outward appearances compared to little or none for what really matters underneath makes me feel sick.
Resolutions that matter seem all the more urgent this December 2016. The world feels a little less welcoming, a little less kind, and a lot less reasonable. Though I usually make resolutions around my birthday, I'm trying to keep these in mind for 2017:
- Kindness is never a mistake. One of my former yoga teachers used to say this, and I think I could be a lot more conscious of how I'm coming across to other people in 2017. The world needs a little more kindness.
- An empty cup cannot pour anything out. I tend to burn myself out and not take enough time for self-reflection and solid introvert time with no distractions; I sometimes focus on what needs to get done rather than where I need to go. Taking quiet, alone time seems all the more urgent now that I'm a working Mom, and didn't exactly do a great job finding time for myself the past few months. When I don't take time for self-renewal, I don't have as much energy to give.
- Prioritize relationships. In 2016, I wasn't great at prioritizing my relationships, and took a lot of them for granted. Part of this was feeling overwhelmed trying to find a work/life balance with a new son, but I too easily forget that relationships are like house plants, and need regular watering and attention. I need to make more time to talk to, see, and spend time with the people I really care about, and tell them how much they mean to me in 2017.
I'll see you on the flip side. May 2017 be a little easier on all of us than 2016.
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