Being a Scotsman I’ve always enjoyed the festivities that the New Year has brought me. As a young boy, my Mum and I would always go “first footing” to my grandparents just after midnight. First footing is a tradition in Scotland where we bring whichever household we visit good luck by being the first person to set foot past the threshold after the new year bells ring. Typically, a first-footer is required to be tall, have dark hair, have coal in one hand (for warmth) and whiskey in the other (for happiness). I’ve always enjoyed first-footing.
It’s common for people to go over the top with drinking on New Year’s Eve, and it’s why it’s so celebrated. It’s a blatant excuse to get inebriated with hardly any judgments. Alcohol sells out fast on the eve, even the most light-weighted drinker would be gearing themselves up for a marathon of whiskey or similar.
I’ve always said the best way to celebrate Christmas and New Year would be to have Christmas living in England and then spend New Year’s up in Scotland. Christmas isn’t as big a deal in Scotland, neither is New Year’s in England, although in recent years it’s gathered momentum. I blame the pull to get drunk out of your mind.
Twelve years ago, I stopped drinking. No alcohol has passed my lips since then, I’m a real teetotaller. I like to be in control of myself. Since then New Year’s has lost its appeal. It has just become another day, and it’s all faded to normality. I’ll probably not even stay up as late as I normally do.
It’s been a long journey getting to this point though. The first new year’s sober I spent it with my new girlfriend; I had high expectations of that night, knowing the whirlwind of awesomeness the year before was. We had spent it with friends and we stayed up late drinking and playing console games — I can remember the night as epic.
It was such a let-down; my girlfriend and I stayed up past the bells and then we fell asleep, talking, and sober. Whilst this may have been sought as by some as a romantic getaway, it was just a boring day between two sober individuals with a few good things on the television.
The following year was just as bad. I had decided to spend it with my two friends; I was single again, and I was finally beginning to enjoy my own company. It was becoming very apparent to me that my friends and I were losing anything we had in common with each other as I watched them roll about the floor in a stupor, and then get up to argue. I can remember sitting there, thinking, “Is this what I was like when I was drunk?”
That year had a significant impact on how I viewed alcohol as I watched my closest friend go running down the street after his girlfriend following an argument over something that if they were sober wouldn’t even have been an issue. It caused me to reflect deeply on the days when I had associated some of the best times in my life with drunkenness, and how as a fly on the wall they might have not been that great after all. I had viewed myself as a pinnacle of masterful awesomeness as I danced around the floor with moves that would be envied by any onlooker, but I may have just been viewed as a drunken fool. It was quite the reality-slap.
But for me, now, the new year is about letting go of old memories and looking forward to creating new ones rather than getting out of my face on poison. I like to reflect on the new year from all of the experiences I have had in the past year and take them as lessons to apply in the future years ahead.
This year has been quite a significant year for me when it comes to life lessons. This year I learned that I am important, yet insignificant at the same time. Important to me and my own environment and perception, but as it stands there are six billion people in this world which renders me rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
When I die, life goes on. I’ve also learned the lesson of keeping my opinion to myself. I was once tricked into the notion that if I wasn’t talking about it then I wasn’t doing enough about the situation at hand. I would spend hours battling insignificant people about random crazy Political positions, whereas instead of being useless I could have been implementing the change I wanted to see in the world.
Yeah, as I reflect on the year past it’s probably been my hardest, yet greatest one yet. We’ve scraped and foraged around for pennies to find rent and survive through some of the toughest time. Bitcoin went from $20,000 to $3000 in a matter of months, and since a significant portion of our income was based on the price of Bitcoin, we’ve seen some of the hardest times of going without so that our son can have. Yet it’s been my most creative year yet.
Yes, we’ve struggled, but as the money began to trickle in rather than flow, I’ve tried to offset that struggle by creating and working with some of the most innovative real-world solutions to actual problems globally, and it’s been a success. Next year we plan to see those rewards for our efforts flow in like the kickback from a Tsunami.
I’m excited for next year, I feel it in my bones. Next year I feel will signal the end of a period of bad struggle and set us on the path of being comfortable.
I feel new energy for next year.
I’m excited.
—
◊♦◊
Here are more ways to become a part of The Good Men Project community:
Request to join our private Facebook Group for Writers—it’s like our virtual newsroom where you connect with editors and other writers about issues and ideas.
Click here to become a Premium Member of The Good Men Project Community. Have access to these benefits:
- Get access to an exclusive “Members Only” Group on Facebook
- Join our Social Interest Groups—weekly calls about topics of interest in today’s world
- View the website with no ads
- Get free access to classes, workshops, and exclusive events
- Be invited to an exclusive weekly “Call with the Publisher” with other Premium Members
- Commenting badge.
Are you stuck on what to write? Sign up for our Writing Prompts emails, you’ll get ideas directly from our editors every Monday and Thursday. If you already have a final draft, then click below to send your post through our submission system.
If you are already working with an editor at GMP, please be sure to name that person. If you are not currently working with a GMP editor, one will be assigned to you.
◊♦◊
Are you a first-time contributor to The Good Men Project? Submit here:
◊♦◊
Have you contributed before and have a Submittable account? Use our Quick Submit link here:
◊♦◊
Do you have previously published work that you would like to syndicate on The Good Men Project? Click here:
—