New Year!

   Well, it's a new year. So: Happy New Year's! I hope you have a fantastic 2013, dear reader. :)

  I've been thinking a lot lately about why New Year's is significant. All growing up, I've seen New Year's as an excuse to hang out with a bunch of people and stay up all night. This year, for varying reasons, I was alone as far as friends went. I had my parents, but I've never...I've never hung out with my parents for New Year's.

    A few years ago I decided resolutions were dumb. Why should I make a list of resolutions if I'm just going to wind up angry at myself in 12 months? Why should I make a resolution simply because it's a new calendar date? I can choose to set goals anytime I want.

    But...as I've been thinking about it...New Year's isn't an excuse to party. I mean, it is. But it isn't at the same time. Making a resolution isn't completely stupid. I mean, I still choose not to make them so that I wind up totally amazed at myself a year later. I don't have an expectations for myself, so it's a great year regardless of if I do a lot of productive things or not. If I do something productive, and I have fun, then I'm happy. But...a new year...to a lot of people...a new year is a fresh start.

    You made it through a year, and you can hang in there for the next one. Just take life one day at a time and pat yourself on the back for surviving 365 of them. Right? :) Setting resolutions is part of the idea of a new beginning. It's a day that makes you think about how you can better yourself. People just party first.

    It's like Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is honestly the holiday I least like. It's a historically inaccurate day of gluttony. Most people eat themselves sick, and I don't see the point to it. But...I mean...how many people get too busy in their daily lives to remember to stop and be thankful for something? Thanksgiving at least allows people to step back and remember, "Oh hey, I'm thankful for this, that, and this."

    New Year's allows you to step back and evaluate yourself. What you like about yourself, what you don't like. What you think you can improve, what you would like to change. What you would like to accomplish. And so on and so forth. It's a day...well, I feel like it can be a day that allows people to put aside their grudges, against both others and themselves, and "start over" in a sense. :)

    Of course you still have your past riddled with both good and bad choices...and you may still have consequences taking place from some of those. Of course things aren't erased with a New Year. But...it's the symbolism. It's hope. Amid the partying that goes on, if one were to just stop and think about what New Year's represents...it's hope.

    So...I'm glad that I wound up alone this year. It helped me to step back and evaluate the holiday and figure out why it isn't a stupid day after all. :)

    I know...that holidays aren't stupid. Not really. Not at the root of the day. They all have symbolism, and they were all created for a reason; created as a day for people to remember. It's just that...well...they get blown out of proportion these days. People get so caught up in the festivities, that they forget to remember now. At least, a lot of them. For the three recent ones:

-Thanksgiving: Gratitude. Remember your blessings.

-Christmas: Religion; Celebrating the birth of Christ. Give service, be selfless, be loving, be forgiving, be understanding, give thanks... essentially, remember the Savior, and try to be more like Him.

-New Year's: Hope. Better yourself, and your life.

^ That's as they should be. How they seem to be turning into:

-Thanksgiving: Gluttony, and (if you aren't the one cooking) sloth. "Lay on the couch all day and stuff my face until I puke, and keep eating anyway? Sounds like a plan! Where's the TV remote??"

-Christmas: Greed. "Let's see what I got this year~!"

New Year's: PAAAARTY!!! "Time to get drunk!"

^ That. That is why I have a hard time with holidays and tend to think they're less-than-desirable. Why bother with a day that's just gonna be like any other day, only with more people? Holidays aren't being practiced the way they were meant to, I don't think. They...they're being turned into something else, something less meaningful and something that is really very pointless when it boils down to it. And...that's how they're starting to be taught, too.

    As holidays come up throughout this upcoming year...I think I'd like to try and post about what I think the symbolism is. I'll probably even do research to find out the historical significance of them. :) I dunno...I just feel like maybe if I'm feeling bothered that people are forgetting about what the holidays are meant for, and bothered that I don't even know what some of them are meant for...maybe I could try and do something about it. At the very least, I can make a change in myself. :)

   Anyway. I really do hope you have a great year, dear reader. Remember that the future is as bright as we'll let it be. :D Always look for the good in every situation, no matter how good or bad, always find a reason to smile, and always find something to be thankful for, whether it's big or small.

Have a great one!

-Bryn