So Long, 2024. Hello, 2025.
By Sean McVeigh
Because of the way dates fell this year, the past few weeks have made it feel like I am either writing to you about things that are too far away or things that have already happened and are no longer relevant. Here we are again. That said, if I seem a little scattered, you have my excuse upfront.
New Year’s Eve is not my favorite holiday. (“Your list of hated holidays is getting pretty long…” -The Haters) It has always felt forced to me. You know what makes me more tired than anything else? Telling me that I have to stay up. I am not exactly an “early to bed, early to rise” kind of guy but on December 31, I always feel the urge to make that motto my resolution for the year and get a one-day head start on it. I’ve always enjoyed stories about parents setting all the clocks in their house forward a few hours so the children think they’ve made it to midnight when it’s really only 7 p.m. Try that one now and the kid will whip out his iPhone and tell you that it might be midnight in London but it ain’t here. All I’m saying is that an expensive bottle of champagne tastes just as good at 9 p.m. as it does at midnight, and some experts say it tastes even better on your own couch in some comfortable clothes. But that’s no fun, and even though almost nothing will change on New Year’s Day — except that you will write the date wrong a few times — New Years Eve makes us all feel the urge to get dressed up, stay up late and overindulge … even on a Tuesday.
Celebrating the New Year is all about celebrating a fresh start — never mind that you’re tired and hungover. We’ve ripped the last page off the calendar, and we can throw that old thing in the trash. Now it’s time to break out the shiny new 2025 one. We seem to have a thing for fresh starts. Only a few months ago, we bid adieu to the summer and a new school year began. It’s hard not to consider that a new year of sorts. And only a few months from now, we will begin to thaw out from the winter and celebrate springtime. Nothing says “fresh start” like flowers blooming and spring cleaning. Here in New York, these two faux “New Years” have the added bonus of weather physically changing. The real New Year is usually preceded by cold and darkness and followed by … cold and darkness.
All these fresh starts are just do-overs. Do-overs in life should be cherished. I may have a rocky relationship with the game of golf, but I am a vocal proponent of the traditional “breakfast ball” and its more versatile cousin, the “mulligan.” I would have no opposition to those facets of the game expanding beyond the country club and into other aspects of life.
With the New Year and fresh start also come resolutions. Resolutions are hard. Most people don’t quit vices cold turkey. What makes us think we can develop virtues cold turkey? These things need to be worked on and developed over time. It is no surprise, then, that these resolutions of ours don’t last very long, regardless of how resolute you are. But, nonetheless, I think resolutions are a good thing. They keep us honest about ourselves and how we’ve acted over the past 365 days. A little introspective reflection every now and again is good for the soul. What did we regret from this past year and how can we avoid that this time around (the sun)?
Speaking of regrets, you know who I hate? People who say they don’t have any. I always think of the “No Regerts” tattoo that pops up in movies and on TV from time to time. It perfectly sums up the people who say they don’t have any regrets: they are too dumb to realize that they should! Everyone has regrets — “Out of the crooked timber of humanity…” and all that. I have regrets. Boy, could I have used one of those life mulligans a few times.
After a variable amount of time, we are all likely to break our resolutions. For some, that’s in a few months, for others a few weeks, and I’d bet there are even a few of you who have already broken that resolution. That’s OK. It will not be long before spring rolls around and you can reup on whatever virtuous vow you were working on. And when summer shows up, you may have some more lapses — I mean, it is summer after all — but fall will be right around the corner for you to pick up right where you left off. Some might call it a vicious circle. Others might call it life.
As for myself, 2024 was a pretty good year. I wouldn’t mind keeping most things the way they were, but I think that’s a little selfish and, after all, what’s the fun in monotony? So, I’ll come up with a few resolutions and hopefully I can keep them until at least Rockaway St. Patrick’s Day.
Here’s to 2025. Happy New Year.
