The holidays aren't just hard for people without a significant other. They can be especially dismal if you're far from your family and subject to watching Elf all by yourself. As I've grown older and moved away from home, I've learned the importance of friends as a kind of pseudo-family for when your real family is out of reach or intolerable on any other day besides Thanksgiving.
The holidays can be an intense time for friendships, whether that be deciding what to get someone for a gift or being excluded from a holiday party. When the world is immersed in commercialized love and cheer, it's easy to feel the FOMO.
Truth be told, Christmas isn't necessarily "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year". It's smack dab in the middle of finals season, it's incredibly cold, and everyone is too busy these days. It's looks glittery on the outside sure, but in reality, I'm hanging decorations outside while cussing underneath my breath, and I'm baking a tray of Christmas cookies to bring up to my room and eat alone to numb the stress.
The commercial pressures of gift-giving are enough for anyone to wish they had no friends, too. What do I get for someone who has everything she could ever want? If I make her a gift does that look cheap? Is she gonna outdo me? Will she even get me a gift at all? All these thoughts run through my head as I struggle to "rank" my friends in terms of who is worth a gift.
Isn't that terrible? My friends are all so different and meaningful to me in different ways, yet there's no way I can afford to get all of them gifts. I have to eat at the end of the month, anyway.
But perhaps these realities of the holiday season make us more grateful for the few breaks we do get - like giving the spare change in my wallet to the salvation army donation buckets or seeing your dog get all happy playing in the snow. Most of all it makes me grateful for another year lived and proud of all I've accomplished.
The end of the holiday season means a new year is upon us. A year full of resolutions and promises and gym memberships. And the world will once again return to its normal lull, school will start again, and the stores will start advertising for the next loneliest holiday: Valentine's Day.