I stand divided when it comes to New Year’s Eve. On one hand, I love partying and starting off with a fresh slate, knowing that it’s time to buy a new calendar (if I bought calendars) and considering that something should be novel in the near future.
But, I know I will write 2009 on papers for at least a month out of habit, and I will comply and pay an astronomical amount of money for drinks or conveniently “all inclusive” dinners the night before.
However, there’s a lot to New Year’s maybe I just will never be able to fully cope with.
The expectation that a new year is going to be an overhaul in every respect is absurd. You will still face similarly now “dated” issues even if you have the highest of hopes. Let’s not forget, many of the people and situations you don’t find optimal haven’t suddenly vanished into thin air.
Also, resolutions are a mind boggle to me. I respect people making noble efforts and wishes to be better in some respect, whether it is with people, your health, personal finances, whatever. But why do you have to wait for a new year to start thinking of ways to improve? It’s never too late to start thinking about this, but it’s never too early either.
Make a resolution that will last. Most people want to lose an unattainable amount of weight and buy a year membership to the gym (membership numbers spike at the beginning of each year) but only attend for the first few weeks. Life doesn’t work like that though. Persistence is the key to getting what you want.
All in all, 2010 will be a great year, marking a new decade, looking forward and hopefully separating itself from the double zero’s, which were just that culturally. But, all the hype surrounding 2010, the fright of Y2K, the imminent fright of the apocalypse of 2012 (maybe it will be a comparatively bad year, but I’m not going to pretend I know what will happen), even a new president (he’s not as painful to listen to as Bush, but he’s also not the messiah of the economy) needs to be deflated, at least a little bit and put into a realistic perspective.
Evan Seaman is a junior majoring in marketing. He may be contacted at eseaman@themiamihurricane.com.