Let’s Not Expect Too Much From New Year’s Eve

It won’t erase a devastating year, no matter how festive we try to make it

Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” — William E. Vaughan

I’m what you might call a connoisseur of New Year’s Eve. I’ve spent quiet evenings at home and wild goth nights at Neo in Chicago. I’ve attended fancy shmancy galas at the Cleveland Museum of Art and I’ve walked alone to the corner store for a tin of smoked oysters and a cheap bottle of bubbly because that was all I could afford.

I have a tendency to expect too much from New Year’s Eve, under the best of circumstances. While my “12 Days of Christmas” celebration doesn’t technically end until January 5th, New Year’s Eve always feels like the last hurrah. It’s the end of the party, the tipping point after which we know we have to go back to our often-lackluster jobs, assuming we’re lucky enough to have one. This is 2020, after all.

Soon we’ll be vowing to return to the diets that fell by the wayside over the holidays and the quarantine months. Perhaps we’ll decide to participate in Sober January. We’ll make plans to de-clutter, be productive…