New Year’s is Not Overrated

The ball drop, shimmering neon lights, world-famous musicians, and extravagant performances; the heart of Times Square; it seems like the ideal place to be on the fateful turn of the new year. But the reality is even the most idealized setting is not without its many flaws: crowding, theft, among many more. So if the arguable most sensational way to celebrate New Year’s is still so imperfect, what makes it so special?

According to a poll from Statista, about 23% of Americans wanted to start 2022 by eating healthier, 21% said their New Year’s resolution to focus on personal improvement or happiness, and 20% set goals to lose weight. But according to data from an article by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 41% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, but only 9% feel that they were actually successful in staying true to them.

Americans are very unsuccessful in keeping New Year’s Resolutions, so much so that January 17th is dubbed “Quitters Day,” after being named the most likely day for people to give up on their resolutions. The idea behind it is that a resolution will not last the entire year, so it’s more important to give up now rather than later. Physical exercise tracking service Strava confirmed this, as that was the day they observed the most dropoff in activity.

But quitting, and being allowed to quit without repercussions, is what makes resolutions fun. Non-binding action statements are often the most lucrative because we can shut them away into our back pocket without much of a hassle. We have freedom to say whatever we want because there is no true accountability to commit to our words. We can go back to our roots, go into our own fantasy worlds and play pretend for a bit. We can imagine we’re children in a candy shop, picking hopeless resolutions from the aisles, and purchasing them with a small part of our ego. We can spew white lies out of our mouths like “I’ll sleep more,” but we all know it won’t last. We can be kids again, without all the responsibility on our shoulders, without all the pressure to succeed.

This New Year’s, gather around and make resolutions, but do not plan to see them through. Try your absolute hardest to stick to them for one, maybe two days, but allow your resolve to drop exponentially with every passing day. Pretend to solidly plant your stakes but crumble and fall to the ground in the presence of the slightest wind. For it’s not the self-improvement, but the moments of collective delusion that make New Year’s beautiful.

Party poppers, confetti, and cake are not for the birth of 2023, but for new beginnings and new goals, that will likely all fall to the same fate. Sparkling champagne and fireworks are to not celebrate the passage of time, but the stronger bonds we form as we stand united in inevitable failure. It’s not the destination. It’s the unity in knowing that we’ll all concede somewhere along the way. And there is no other occasion that even comes close to paralleling the feeling.

New Year’s is not overrated—just simply misunderstood.

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This was written for the December 2022 edition of IVC's Honors Tribune.