together
Single on New Year's Eve? No problem
By Dave Ruigh, Jayplay writer
Fueled by booze and bliss, the party-goers raise their glasses high and their voices higher in a collective cheer. A girl, her blue eyes bouncing off her green dress, turns to the man next to her, their eyes meet and linger briefly before the two spiral into each other's arms. The happy couple is not alone: the lips of nearly every other loaded undergrad are now firmly intertwined with those of another. You are close enough to observe but too far away to relate. You are alone. And this is strikingly clear in the first few seconds of the New Year.
Conceding the amorous superiority of Valentine's Day, there are few occasions with a latent emphasis on relationship-status greater than that of New Year's Eve — implied for most of the night but manifested in the commemorative kiss. Granted, many enterprising people manage to convince other single partygoers to join them for a celebratory midnight make-out session (in nearly all of these cases, though, Jungle Juice actually deserves most of the credit.) But what about the people with
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first-hand knowledge of the downside of New Year's hook-ups and/or moral conviction or the gargoyles who simply can't bamboozle someone for a kiss? How can you be single on New Year's Eve and still have fun?
It's quite simple, really. First, don't let being single on New Year's get you down.
"The more relaxed you are about being single, the more at ease you are with others," says Judy Ford, author of Single: The Art of Being Satisfied, Fulfilled and Independent. "You are not a bad person or undesirable or a loser just because you don't have a date."
Ford says that instead of wallowing in doubt or self-pity, one should embrace being single on New Year's Eve. She says that planning your day ahead of time provides a structured way to have fun. Going out to dinner, getting dressed up and spending time with friends are all ways to enjoy your dateless NewYear's Eve.
Of these three, the presence of friends is likely the most sound and logical component of an enjoyable evening. Going to a party in a group will make
you more comfortable with yourself and will increase the likelihood that you will have a good time, especially if a few of your friends are single as well. In fact, having no romantic attachments can be a positive thing.
"When you're with your friends on NewYear's Eve you can kind of let it out, in a way you couldn't if you were out with a date," says Kristin Potter, Ottawa junior.
Put simply, being single allows one to roam a party freely.
"New Year's isn't really the holiday where you stick with a date," says Chelsea Braden, Lawrence sophomore. "If you go to parties, you're going to be social with everyone. You should stick with
your friends but try to meet people."
Now this can-do spirit is all well and good, and it may pay off in the end, but there are benefits to having a date on New Year's as well. Dan Belz, Prairie Village freshman, has a girlfriend and recognizes the comparative New Year's advantages inherent in his relationship.
"We'll probably go somewhere," he says, referring to his girlfriend, "and it'll be nice to have her there."
So there you go: In the end, New Year's Eve can be a fun time for everyone, regardless of relationship status.
"It's good to have that comfort of knowing who you'll kiss at midnight," says Potter. "But it's also fun to not know."
Five things worse than being single on New Year's Eve
1. Eating blueberry pancakes whose blueberries have mysteriously been replaced with ¼" screws from Home Depot.
2. Waking from a vivid, surrealistic dream only to realize seconds later that it was, in fact, nothing but a dream.
3. Being John Malkovich.
4. Contracting the avian flu from a seemingly well-intentioned meadowlark
named Tony who swore he was clean.
5. Happening upon a formula that, when employed, answers all of your existential questions (i.e. cos1.58 x a / b, where a = the number of bananas harvested that day in Guatemala, and b = the type of toothpaste you used that morning), only to forget said formula hours later while watching VH1's Best Week Ever.