By Adrianne Hutto
New year new me, right? Wrong. It’s the same you, and that’s totally fine. Every year, around two weeks prior to the ball drop people all over the internet decide that this year is their year. While it is great if you want to use January 1st as your opportunity to “be a better you,” by starting a diet or going to the gym twice a week, it’s okay if you don’t. There are a number of reasons why you shouldn’t feel bad if you aren’t starting your mornings by going on walks or reading 100 words a day like the people on TikTok lead you to believe they are.
Let’s start off with the fact that the new year does not change anything about your life, barring a few factors. Your schedule, job, mental health and laziness are still huge factors in your day to day and millions of people getting together and drunkenly counting down from 10 isn’t going to change that.
Another reason you shouldn’t worry is that most resolutions made with the high hopes that next year will be “your year,” never actually follow through. Did you know that only 9% of people make it to the end of the year with their resolutions? And you know what? That’s okay. Society will convince you that each year you need to churn out a whole new lifestyle as if you don’t have a million things to worry about.
This new year’s eve I spent the “holiday” with my mom. We went to brunch at a restaurant we loved where a Polish mother tried to set me up with her son, despite the knowledge that we were BOTH in a relationship. Then my mom and I went shopping and found clothes that were bound to be staples in the new year. Finally, we went to one of our favorite bars on the upper west side, attempted to ignore the man sitting next to us who refused to stop hitting on my mom the whole night, counted down the new year and then uber home right at 12:05. It was a perfect new year’s eve. However, the next day my mom kept making inferences about the new year and what small things meant. The train was delayed, “this means we’ll do lots of waiting this year,” she found something she lost the day before, “this means we’ll have luck in the new year.” Finally, she stopped making inferences when the bathroom sink of the basement I live in flooded and there was water in both of the closets, “it doesn’t count because it’s after midnight,” I said.
So, if you spend New Year’s Eve alone and wonder if this means you’re going to be alone this year, it doesn’t. My basement has flooded three times in 2022 and it has nothing to do with what year it is, it’s the previous tenants, or more likely my hair clogging the drains causing a back up. If you’re single for the entirety of 2023 that’s okay, call your friends and spend some time outside because if you smiled at least an eighth of the days this year, you completed a resolution.