The truth about New Years Eve

Posted on by The Gryphon Web Editor

Let’s be honest, New Year’s Eve is a little over rated.

I don’t just mean the overpriced drinks, the inevitable hangover, or the mad rush to find someone vaguely good looking to kiss at midnight.

As soon as December hits we are all firmly in our overdrafts: counting down the days until that January loan. We just about struggle past Christmas and then – the horror- someone asks what our New Year’s plans are. You can just about guarantee you’ll be met with the horrible realisation that actually, you should have planned all this months ago, because everything except your local dodgy pub is totally overbooked.

Last year I ended up in aforementioned dodgy local pub. My best friend left her phone in a taxi, and we spent half the night waiting for the company to bring it back (because for some reason she couldn’t survive without that flurry of ‘Happy New Year’ texts – which I always get from people who literally NEVER text me at any other time). That whole tragedy was prior to even entering the pub, and it pretty much set the tone for the whole night.

Now I’m not a total scrooge. I love the fireworks, celebrating with my closest friends and getting dressed to the nines. What I don’t enjoy is the pressure placed on such an anticlimactic day of the year – midnight hits and absolutely nothing has changed. It’s just an over-glamourized day, and everyone knows that realistically we will all be counting down the minutes till midnight hits, just so that we can get out of the cold and the crowds, and go home to bed.

And the whole ‘kissing someone at midnight’ thing is quite frankly, weird. What happens if you don’t? Is that it? Does that mean you will be alone for the entirety of 2018? Whatever you do, please do not just grab the nearest stranger without their consent. It might seem romantic to you, but it is just a violation, and they will definitely be creeped out.

And then there’s New Year’s resolutions: ‘This year I’ll drink less, not text that guy and stop eating meat’. I can guarantee you’ll get smashed and ring him in the taxi on route to the kebab shop. That’s not to say I object to resolutions as a whole, but set yourself reasonable targets. Aim to be a kinder person, to have a positive attitude, or to just generally do things that have a real chance at making you happy this year. I know it sounds cheesy, but these are the resolutions that will A) actually make a difference, and B) hopefully not be broken!

https://twitter.com/kkimthai/status/947181539384705024

So just because the clock is ticking, don’t feel pressured to go out or make drastic changes in your day to day life. The idea that ‘next year will be different’ is a great one, but you can choose to renew your outlook on life whenever you want to; you don’t need a strange byzantine celebration as an excuse to do so.

Rosie Plummer 

Photo credit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-years-eve-family-disco-tickets-39770234843