Holiday season is almost over and I couldn't be sadder. I am a sap for Christmas time: Christmas trees, Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and presents. Christmas is the overachieving brother in the family of Holidays. He gets straight A's, is the Starting QB on the high school football team with a full ride to Illinois (a powerhouse in football) , the most popular kid in the class, etc. My problem is that once Christmas ends (which is the second TBS decides to stop airing 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" ), another holiday tries to split the spotlight.
That is New Years Eve.
To compare New Years Eve to his All-State brother, New Years Eve is the person who makes up stories about his weekend/ summer vacation to sound cool even though no one actually believes he got into a strip club at 16, tries grinding on people at bars without asking if they want to dance, says Pocahontas is the hottest Disney Princess, laughs at Jeff Dunham's comedy special, etc.
I like the premise of New Years Eve just fine. It is one big party and everyone knows it. Much like Unofficial St. Patrick's Day at the University of Illinois (a powerhouse in football), people have embraced the drinking side of the holiday. That is rad.
When you were younger though it wasn't about getting smashed and finding someone to kiss at midnight. It was a night where you could stay up late with no consequences, Disney was playing the best shows of the year all night, parents would order a pizza, and you probably were with your friends. No expectations other than to stay up till midnight and try and eat the whole pizza.
Shit changed the second drinking came into the equation though. While I said the drinking side is rad, it has tainted this holiday. No matter what happened the year before or the year before that, their is an insanely high expectation on the night that make no sense.
Examples:
"I am gonna finally get the girl who has friendzoned me for so long to fall in love with me."- If she wasn't a big fan of the entire 2014 you, the first 2 seconds of 2015 you is going to be disappointed.
"I am gonna get so drunk" - fuck you. You will not remember midnight and miss out on your friend getting rejected by the girl of his dream. Also falling asleep at a bar will get you kicked out and your friends will have to leave the bar early to take care of you.
Whenever you go out on a Saturday, odds are you are looking forward to drinking with friends and that's it. A kind of "we'll see what happens " attitude. Now, if that night is just drinking and hanging out , your goals for the night were made. If something awesome happens, it is one of the best nights ever. Expectation were low and it worked out.
You can't have low expectations for New Years Eve because you have to make plans week before. You spend hours at work reading about the Open Bar, the DJ, the food provided, etc. You are bound to get your hopes up. If you don't make plans in order to calm down the expectations, you will find yourself without a place to drink (besides your house) looking at your friends on social media having what looks a great time.
At one point on December 31st, you will say "It's New Years Eve, I should be having a blast." When have you had a blast on New Years Eve past ten years old? Even when you started drinking in High School , you had to hide being drunk/hungover in front of your parents and you probably threw up because it's high school. When you are of age, deals are outrageous, people are assholes, and you will end up drinking too fast because the term "open bar from 9 pm till 1 am" means "open bar from 9 until double fisting rum and cokes takes you out." Which, by my studies, isn't until 1 am.
New Years Day is so much better than New Years Eve. I love New Years Day because people everywhere have embraced that everyone is going to be hungover, there is plenty of football games to watch/ gamble on , and you could use the excuse "I'm drinking this hangover off" and mean it.
New Years Eve though can burn in hell with Hitler and Dick Clark. Even after this realization, I still have high expectations for this year and will find a way to say "it was alright."
New Year, New Me though.
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