So I figured it's time I get back to writing now that the semester is over, and this means regular updates from here on out.
The first thing I want to say is, happy holidays to all! It's been a great year for me, and I am very thankful for all my friends and family who have been there for me down the line.
The second thing I want to say is, stop spending so much! Stop dreading! Stop stressing! It's a holiday. It's about joy and togetherness and giving and love and being with those you care about.
Let me back up a minute.
Unfortunately, this holiday season, finances have been very strapped on my end. Following my recent trip to NYC, I've been living paycheck to paycheck. The funny thing is that while I have no money, I've spent more time Christmas shopping this year than any other year before, and what I've seen is scary. Apparently I am the go-to shopping buddy within my circle of friends, so I'm the one who gets to tag along and watch them spend away their hard-earned cash on trivial items that will probably be forgotten by their recipients within the next year. At the rate they're spending, I applaud their giving. However, their attitude leaves me a bit perplexed.
Too many times this year have I heard friends exclaiming that they hate the holidays. They hate spending all their money. They hate shopping, yet they go out for hours on end buying item after item in multiples and multitudes for everyone they know. They feel guilty that the gift they got for their sister was only twenty dollars, and so they feel obligated to buy them more. They feel guilty that they only got one gift for their mother, when they got three for their partner. Pretty soon they're dropping a couple hundred dollars on each person and a few thousand in total. I find this holiday inflation all too ridiculous.
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived way out in the rural Minnesota backwoods with his sister and his single mother. The mother was hard-working and dedicated, but very poor. Each Christmas, the boy and his sister received one gift a piece. Value didn't matter, because they weren't worth much more often then not. You got one present. One. That's it. After presents were opened they feasted with the whole family on rice and sugar and cream to remind them that there are others out there who have even less than they did; to remind them that they had enough. Now that little boy was me, that family mine, and that was the mind set of our family holidays. It wasn't about giving gifts, it was about celebrating that we had made it through the year and had an extra thirty dollars when all was said and done to spend on a new toy for the youngest.
This story also leads me to my second point - going home. All too often do I hear people dreading returning to their families for the holidays. Also due to financial restrictions, I will not be going home for the holidays, but left and right I hear my friends and coworkers dreading the impending doom of sitting around a table with loved ones and feasting until their bellies burst. You know what? I would do anything, and I mean anything, to be able to go home this season and spend time with my family. Maybe I'm the exception because my family is so close, but none the less, a family is a family, and we need to appreciate them while they're here. In light of so many recent tragedies both personally and on the nightly news, I'm realizing more and more these days how numbered our days are. I don't mean to sound morbid, but it's a fact.
So, this holiday season, I implore you to just let bygones be bygones and truly appreciate family. If you're still debating going home for the holidays, you still have twenty-four hours to make it. If you're unable to go home, make sure your family knows how much you love them. Don't worry about the gifts and the things and the wheres and the whens. Who knows, maybe the Mayans were a couple weeks off and this is our last holiday season as we know it. Live it as such.
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