New Years Stories

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I haven’t really made it a secret that I don’t do New Years. I used to, in the early days of my youth so long ago, but as I get older, I get more and more over it. 

As a youngster, I did participate in the normal “growing up in a Christian household” New Years Eve activities. When I was old enough, I went to the jr. youth and then the youth events. Staying up all night because it was “so much fun”.

It wasn’t until I was 19 when I started to actually do non-church things. Also, because at 19 in Canada you can drink so it makes youth events seem just not that much fun when you can be out with your friends drinking or in a club dancing.

The year that I was 19, I was in with an older group (actually I always seemed to be in with an older group). These ladies were all 3-5 years older than me, which made me the baby of the group, but it was fun to be included nonetheless.

In March of that year, literally 3 weeks before I turned 19, I was invited to a weekend in Toronto which included sneaking me into a nightclub for a charity event with Nick Carter’s sister and ended with our car being broken into and having all our stuff stolen. That’s a post in itself!

New Years with this group was almost no different. Arrived in Toronto and settled into our hotel room. Booked for 2 but had 6 people in it. We had to close the blinds (to avoid reflection from the windows) and hide in the room while the two who had booked the room ordered extra blankets and pillows. Then we all went to Nathan Phillips Square, we got there early so we were super close to the stage for the festivities. It was actually a super fantastic evening until the end of the evening. We made a plan that if we got separated in the chaos after the show to meet at a certain place. Great plans totally wasted twenty-somethings! Right at midnight, we were all crushed into the stage because people wanted to get super close to shake the hand of whatever artist was performing, and then after midnight, it was almost a riot to get everyone out of the small space. That was traumatic! Getting back to the hotel, we were stopped by security at the elevators. They had a clipboard. A list of the people staying at the hotel. We managed to get by since the two who rented the room said “look at them! They are all wet and freezing! They are just coming up to get dry and warm. They’ll be gone in 30 minutes” We went up and came back down the next morning.

The next memorable New Years Eve party that I went to was when I was 22. It was my last year in University, and I had a solid group of friends. We were the ones that all met at work, treated each other like sisters and put everyone else down. I was starting to not like how I was acting and living my life and was starting to change things. This was the first NYE that I wouldn’t be drinking alcohol. One of the group decided to throw a fancy party with her then boyfriend. I showed up, all dressed up, with a bottle of sparkling grape juice that looked like a bottle of wine. I spent the entire night being shamed by these “friends” for my choice not to drink, while they overindulged. I left at about 12:10 when I had had enough of their snide comments. Apparently, it was unacceptable to them that I was making the personal choice not to drink. It was worse than not drinking for religious reasons.

In a bizarre twist of fate, that friend married that boyfriend (that’s not bizarre), and he now works for a substance abuse centre and was actually on the news giving a list of things for people to do who were concerned about their sobriety on NYE. 

After that NYE, I’ve spent almost each NYE in a style that fits me – order pizza, watch movies, and go to bed at a decent time. Definitely not as exciting as some of my other friend’s plans but it suits me perfectly!

Tonight, however, I will be going to a dinner put on by my parent’s friends which I was invited to. Well…not so much “invited” as my mom said, “you’re going to dinner”…

25 thoughts on “New Years Stories”

  1. Aww, at my age it’s a challenge to stay up til midnight! We go to dinner locally with a group of friends and then to someone’s house to play cards or a game till midnight. Drinks are part of it, but I usually only have one because of my meds but no one cares!

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  2. I’m not a huge fan of NYE either. It used to be so exciting when I was young to stay up that late. Now, I do it all the time, but my nose is usually in a book. I’m also not that into partying and getting drunk anymore. I’m a total NYE Scrooge 😂.

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  3. Happy new year! I was looking at old Facebook posts. Last year I was in Iowa watching football, drinking champagne with strawberries, eating fajitas and chilling in a garage apartment. 2 years, I was home and we went to my sisters for New Years eve
    Bonfire. 2014 I was in Danville Illinois at a bar shooting pool and rounding it out at N’s coworkers place with finger foods and drinks. 2013 I was at N’s step mothers mothers house. Watching fireworks. That was a good night. And the best fun time was 2012 when I went to a friends and we played poker (the winnings were candy), drank champagne and I chewed on a cigar and wore one of those transparent green poker hats with the big bill. Mind you, I don’t smoke at all, much less cigars. I just wanted to chew on it for the effect and for pictures. It was gross! There were many nights I went to parties with friends and also I remember one night about 6th grade, I was at one of my oldest friends house, we stayed up until midnight and I remember doing cartwheels in the living room at her granny and granddads home. Oh, good times and thankful for all the love!

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