Hey there, dear readers. I hope that those of you that celebrate the holiday have had a wonderful day. My Christmases haven’t always been great, so I especially wanted to reach out to anyone that might be feeling the same way right now.
In my 20s, while I was muddling through college, I couldn’t go home for Christmas one year. It was many miles away, I had to work, and I just couldn’t make a trip happen. My best friend happened to be in a similar situation. So we made a simple decision: we were not going to let ourselves get bummed out about it. We decided to split a bottle of scotch, and just…drink it. We probably also watched Die Hard*. And that was our Christmas.
While not what one would normally categorize as “great,” that’s definitely one of my more memorable Christmases from that era. Some years were entirely forgettable. That one definitely was not.
So if you find yourself having a rough holiday, or just a less-than-stellar time in general lately, I just want to say that I feel you. I can absolutely relate, and it really can get better. Perhaps you’re looking for the right job, as I was for an interminably long time. Keep at it. I know it’s frustrating, and it can become really easy to give up hope.
But don’t.
Just keep telling yourself: all it takes is one. And that’s the truth. I’m proof. I kept telling myself that as long as I could find someone that would actually look at my writing and give me consideration based on that, and not my sub-standard resume, that I had an actual chance of finding the kind of job I wanted. It took a long time. I got frustrated. Some days it was difficult to keep firing applications off into the ether, after hearing absolutely nothing over and over again while aiming for jobs I knew I could do.
But it finally happened. And now here we are. And if you’re reading this, then *you* are literally someone that has made my life better, and that alone brightens my holiday. Thank you so much to all of you out there. If you had a big, wonderful, family gathering…that’s fantastic. But if you’re passing tonight with another lonely friend and a cheap bottle of booze, just know that it might become one of your most memorable holidays yet at some point down the road.
Best wishes to every single one of you out there. Thank you again for being here. It means so much to me.
*Die Hard is my favorite Christmas movie. And for the uninformed that insist on arguing that it isn’t actually a Christmas movie at all…come on. The entire film takes place on Christmas Eve. John McClane gets off the plane with a big, stuffed bear as a Christmas gift in the first sequence of the movie. The *score* has literal jingle bells featured prominently on it. The entire event happens because of the Nakatomi Corporation’s Christmas party. I don’t see where there is even an argument.
I ate Christmas lunch at the Village Inn and spent the rest of the day napping or hanging with my cat. I think I'm going to watch Die Hard tonight.
Happy Holidays! And thank you. It's a rough time for me.
As a single, childless person, it's the second Christmas in a row I've spent alone (in a different country than my family) due to covid. Last year was okay, but this year has been hard. So thank you for writing this. I wish you the very best for the new year!