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So many people seem to want me to go to a party, or a few parties, or even watch a huge party in some other town I don’t live in on New Years eve.
But is having this big day really that important? Not really. Does society put on pressure that it is a necessity to have a memorable night? In some cases yes, with over a million people crowding the freezing streets of Time Square to watch a glowing ball drop, it is a little overwhelming.
Did i feel pressured into going to a party on New Years? On the week of New Years I did, I was asking around to see who was having a party, none of my friends were having one. It was a weird feeling. No one doing anything on New Years and as a senior in high school it was the last chance for me and my friends to spend a New Years together, before it would become more of a struggle to get together in college. There ended up being a small get together with mostly recent graduates of high school and me and two other seniors. We did not outright acknowledge that this was our final year together, but were more or less worried just about having a good time for that one night. Not a big party but more than nothing, it was respectable and I had the best New Years of my life.
New Years, much like Christmas, has been becoming increasingly glorified. New Years used to be about just beginning a new year, a simple turn of the calendar. Now it is this worldwide event that a billion people tune in to watch. A key thing to remember about New Years in America though is time zones. People in California are watching the ball drop in New York, it is a new year in New York, yet its just turning 9 pm on the West Coast. Yet it’s as if its a new year all around the world when New York hits midnight. Why is that? Just look at some of the pictures, Dubai threw a much bigger New Years bash than probably anyone in the world.
New Years has reached such a level of focus that it is impossible to talk about the holidays without someone asking, “What are you doing for New Years?” Why are parties such a big deal? Even as a teenager you go looking for the place that is going to have the best party. Or you are going wherever your friends are going because you do not want to be left out of a party that happens every year, every year on the same date, at the same time. Social media, as always, is a buzz for big things around the world. Snapchat was a big thing I noticed this holiday season, every new holiday that came around since Halloween had a special filter to add to your snaps. Halloween and Thanksgiving had one while Christmas Eve and Day each had their own. Then New Years had one, with certain cities having the city name included in the filter.
The world just needs to cool it with taking things, like New Years, to the extreme. It is understandable how everyone has fun in their own way, all in all, just enjoy the holidays as you wish and don’t feel pressured into doing something you do not want to do.
