Lifestyle

How To Have The Best NYE: Just Think Of It As 'Wednesday'

by Maria Bellissimo
Stocksy

Are you newly single and stressing out about your New Year’s kiss? If so, please stop. Finding someone to kiss is an everyday problem in the single world. Welcome to it!

Don’t turn a regular concern into a New Year’s Eve dilemma. This holiday is already stressful enough, so let’s prioritize.

If you’re one of those people who's had New Year’s Eve dinner reservations, club/bar/hall/whatever tickets and an overpriced hotel room booked since November, stop reading, you organized holiday superpower.

If you haven’t even thought about New Year’s Eve, you need me. Because the truth is, it doesn’t matter what you plan; New Year’s Eve has a tendency to suck anyway.

The problem rests in our expectations. We expect the coming year to rain good fortune because every single time, New Year’s Eve is promoted like it's bound for greatness.

It’s the one big holiday that primarily centers on friends instead of family (yeah, there are the summer long weekends, but those aren’t so much holidays as they are days off), making New Year’s Eve the party holiday.

But, New Year’s Eve isn’t just framed as a party; it’s framed as the biggest party of the year.

Combine that with the hope that each year will be more prosperous than the last and the stars will align in everyone’s favor on January 1 at the stroke of midnight, and there you have it.

Extreme pressure and the irrational belief that New Year’s Eve is worth at least half a paycheck to meet its demands.

Fortunately, I have a solution! Admittedly, I do have a history of terrible New Year’s Eves, but that only makes me an even more credible source of New Year’s Eve advice. From experience, I can teach you how to save yourselves.

Yes, I, the chick who once spent most of New Year’s Eve in a franchise pizza place during a snowstorm, can help you salvage your New Year’s Eve before it even starts.

Don’t worry: I’m won't spew out a list of the “best” parties to attend. If I could tell you which “best” New Year’s Eve parties are actually the best, I’d have New Year’s Eve plans myself.

Instead, I will help you correct your ridiculously high New Year’s Eve expectations. Newfound perspective — not logistics — is the way to redeem this holiday.

Think about it: New Year’s Eve only sucks because it rarely lives up to its astronomical expectations. You typically put more time, effort and money into planning it than a regular night out, but it’s usually no better than average.

Now, what if New Year’s Eve isn’t New Year’s Eve? What if December 31, 2014 is just Wednesday night? You’ll have Wednesday night expectations, which typically don’t include bursts of confetti, flutes of champagne or a countdown to midnight.

With your perspective set to weekday mode, your night will have real potential to exceed your anticipation. Let’s be real: bottles aren’t bursting with bubbly on most Wednesday nights. You also don’t normally get to say fun, pretentious words like "bubbly."

As a result, while everyone else is having an average New Year’s Eve, you’ll be having a fabulous Wednesday. Thus, I advise you to decide New Year’s Eve is not New Year’s Eve. This year, it is just Wednesday.

Going in with that mentality will give your night room to unfold into something other than a harsh comparison of real costs to unrealistic promises. As for that kiss, it’s a 2015 problem; worry about it then.

Happy non-New-Year’s-Eve, friends!