I am, as you may have noticed, a fan of holidays. Especially the widely-celebrated ones...and what's more celebrated than the calendar's holiday based not on religion, country, or tradition, but the calendar itself?
This holiday that connects the world, at one-hour intervals, is the New Year. At the very smallest sense, the holiday is one of our most pointless. It's basically a global party because the Disney Princess calendar hanging in my bedroom ran out of Princesses, and I get to put up my Princess and the Frog one instead. Nothing happens in outer space, that glorious moment when your spot on the planet is as far from the Sun as possible as it's been billions of times before and at the place it was exactly one rotation ago.
When I was younger, that was my opinion of the New Year. Maybe not in quite so many words, but enough that I thought the parties, while a fun reason to stay up later than normal with the kids of my parents' friends, were kind of overrated. Ten years ago, I don't think I cared much about the New Millennium at all. But with each year, I get a little more sentimental. And this year is PROBABLY going to be the most sentimental year of all.
Do you remember that time in elementary school where someone's brother or sister was graduating high school, so you and your friends, or maybe even the teacher, helped figure out your year of graduation? I remember thinking 2010 must be the COOLEST year to graduate EVER, barring 2000 and 2020 alone. I still hold that opinion very strongly. My friend once told me that she got the chance to skip a grade, and the reason she didn't was because she wanted to be in the CLASS OF 2010. The Sen10rs. I don't know if I believe that was her only reason, but knowing her, it was definitely a deciding factor.
Now, after 18 years of life and quite a few years of waiting, the calendars all agree that that time has come. Nothing earth-shattering has happened yet, I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, but every calendar, clock, and TV episode summary I look at makes me shiver a little. That year has come. This is the year my life changes...forever. This is the first time I can say with certainty that there is no certainty, come roughly nine months from now. I don't know where I'll be, who I'll see every day, what I'll do to feed myself, or what kind of person I'm going to shape myself into.
It's scary, guys. But that's what this holiday is really, truly, for. It may just be an excuse for some to drink different drinks, wear much-too-small hats, watch Justin Bieber perv on Selena Gomez, pay more attention to a clock than anyone ever does at a good party, and time a much-anticipated kiss. Or, it may be an opportunity to reflect on what's happened in the past and get riled up for a wonderful year ahead.
Happy New Year!
This Year can be found by the A*Teens
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