Dear, guys – welcome back to Letters From Liz!
Happy New Year, Letter Readers! Here’s to the start of a new year, a new decade, new memories, and new content for the blog! I hope that this year I am able to bring you guys content that is fresh, new, inspiring, and innovative!
Although there are positives of a new year starting up, it’s not always the greatest thing for me. I’m not negative about a new year, nor am I this negative Nancy-all-bitter-and-nasty about the celebrations of a new year, it’s just that during this time of the year, I have to take extra care of my mental health.
So, here is this month’s installment of:
When I was younger, my family and I would always go out for New Year’s Eve. We always had friends and family in the area, and we always went over to celebrate the countdown of a new year with them around. It was always fun; I got to dress up in a very sparkly dress and shows, I would eat good food and snacks and dance to the music playing, and right before midnight we would all gather around a watch the ball drop. It was always a holiday I enjoyed when I was younger, but as the years passed on and I got older, New Year’s Eve became this holiday I wasn’t looking forward to.
New Year’s Eve, traditionally, is a time of celebration, going out with friends and family, drinking. I truly believe everyone gets New Year’s Day off because we all need the extra day to cure the hangovers of all the drinking that we do on NYE. While yeah, most of us are able to go out, drink, have fun, and go into the new year as smooth as possible, it’s truly one of the hardest and anxious things to go through when alcohol and drinking isn’t a positive thing in your life.
I can only imagine every person who has an alcoholic in their family or within their friend group doesn’t have the greatest relationship with alcohol, and to have a holiday that emphasizes the usage of alcohol does nothing but get me anxious, stressed, and worrisome. As I got older and became more aware of what the drinking was doing to my family on NYE, I started to resent the holiday as a whole, and I now honestly try not to even see it as a holiday, but just another day turning into yet another day.
While I embrace the new positives and start of a new year, I don’t believe in new year resolutions nor am I a fan of the constant “weight-loss deals” and commercials that spam your television or advertisements. For a person that has tried to lose weight every new year since forever, it’s just a constant reminder that I couldn’t do it myself, and it’s just a downer. I mean, I won’t put anyone else’s dream of weight-loss down, it just sucks that this “new year means you have to lose weight” concept bothers me.
Also, a couple of years ago, something happened on NYE with my family. I wasn’t at home when it happened, and I’m thankful that I wasn’t, but it doesn’t mean that it didn’t affect me the way that it did. I still think about it every year that NYE comes around, and it does put a damper on my mood every year, and even after trying to do things that could put a happier mood on the holiday, things just never really went as planned. So, for now, I try not to do anything for NYE and treat it as any other day. Sure, I am grateful to live to see another year and I get another opportunity for growth and such, celebrating it for one night just isn’t something I want to do.
Maybe in the future, I’ll see the holiday in a new light and actually enjoy it, but maybe I just need some extra mental health care whenever it comes around. I’m just lucky to see another year and just continue living, in all honesty.
So yesterday, I didn’t do much; I only got a wisdom tooth removed and now I’m just recovering from that. I wrote some blog posts for this anniversary celebration, I relaxed with my family; nothing major or special was done and I’m fine with that. As long as I’m taking care of myself on days like that, it’s a victory for me.
Letters From Liz. 