| Rant : A Long December Quite often, but frankly, not often enough, we get a good break to just do nothing. The time that we have been whining all year about not having, the time where we can choose to stretch out and watch the world go by, or act like a frantic turkey on speed in getting all the last-minute chores done. I�m talking about New Year�s Eve. Now, before I launch into my point about the little significance New Year�s Eve has in the grand scheme of things apart from giving the whole world some free time, let me give you a little sneak peek on how December generally tends to go for me. For a dozen years of my life, December always starts off with a bang, as it coincides with the school holidays. Term schedules were such that the school year began the day after New Year�s Day, which meant that early December is usually the time when it dawns upon you that you have an entire month to allow your brain to rust, an entire month to eat a lot, party hard, play computer games late into the night, and wake up in time for lunch. Before January comes around and you gotta launch yourself into the bathroom at six-thirty in the morning just to make sure that no one else gets there before you. Also in January, your brain starts to grapple with the finer points of electrical circuits and the uses of ammonium nitrate, and you have to work off all the calories you piled on by betting with your best friend just how many Christmas puddings you can eat (where you ate five puddings, and still lost). So as you can imagine, I�ve grown to love the early days of December. I usually accomplish precious little during this time of the year. The homework deadlines seem months away, the festive mood starts to set in, and you can spend the entire day dreaming about the presents you could be getting by the time the 25th starts rolling around. This year was not much different. I entered the working world, and I came to realise that most people don�t seem to take December too seriously. I mean, the deadlines are still there, and we still have to work to accomplish them, but the office almost breathes a little easier during this month. Many of the bosses take their vacations, and other colleagues with families treat themselves to a holiday as well. The result is that people become more cheery, either with the anticipation of a holiday coming up, or the fact that the bosses are out of town, or just possibly because everyone else seems to be happy and festive. And then, just when December seems like it�s never going to end, I come to the bitter realisation � this usually comes when I�m enjoying a cup of tea and a cupcake and end up biting my tongue � that the end of the month, no, in fact, the end of the entire year, will soon be upon us. Suddenly, the tea, which just minutes ago smelt like love at the beginning of spring (I have no idea what that smells like, it just sounded nice to put in), scalds the tongue. Also, you start viewing the chocolate cupcake not as a treat for having conquered Level 74 of that computer game, but as something that will result in you taking an additional fifty seconds to complete running a mile. So you end up leaving the tea to turn cold and feeding the cupcake to the dog, and scurrying around, in panic, deciding what it is that must be done before the end of the year swings round. For nearly 15 years of my life, that something to be done hovered around the vicinity of homework. I would clear the cobwebs over my school bookbag, buy new writing equipment to replace the ones I can no longer seem to find, and realise (to my horror) that what I had initially thought was two assignments turns out to be seven. And a book review of the best book you�ve read during the school vacation. Clearly a review of �Kerrang Annual� (showcasing the ten best rock albums and concerts of the year) or �Lonely Planet�s Guide to Western Europe� (encompassing twelve countries and even includes conversion to Euros!) was not going to find me favour with my teachers. And thus begins a mad rush to complete the work. Nights would be spent trying to re-capture what you learnt about calculus and the many chains that atoms chain themselves (by now you should know that I sucked at chemistry), instead of trying to get past Level 75 of the computer game. Before you know it, Christmas Eve is here! You partake in the turkey and the ham and the pudding and the champagne, all the while nodding furiously when your relatives ask if you�ve finished your homework. After all, there�s still a week to go before the New Year. At one assignment a day, you�re well on your way to finishing it all. This is the part before you realise that Christmas Day will almost be entirely spent with relatives � and even if it�s not, the rest of the time you�re just sitting there trying to read the history textbook while attempting to figure out what exactly is that odd-shaped thing Aunt Betsy bought you this year. This year, that mad rush took on a different shape. I was all comfortable in the fact that I�d never have to complete another piece of calculus homework in my life ever again, before it started dawning on me that Christmas was around the corner, and I had yet to get all the Christmas gift shopping done! So I had to squeeze out the two hours or so after work each day to head on down to the shopping mall, to jostle with crowds of teenagers (haven�t they got homework to do?) and parents (haven�t they got teenagers� homework to supervise?) in grabbing gifts. The problem with me is that I only buy gifts that I actually would like to receive for myself, and given the pitiful salary I�m drawing right now, such gifts don�t really amount to a wide selection. True, there�s a wide selection of rubbish and nonsense and gifts that I would hate receiving, but the process by which one has to sieve through all of these and get to the good stuff is time-consuming and energy-sapping. I never knew Christmas shopping could get this tough. So when you finally get all of that done, Christmas is over, and everyone is back into a relaxed mood again. It�s a week to go before yet another holiday, and everyone is still on leave, and suddenly the tea and the chocolate cupcake seems like a good idea again. Until you realise that your next deadline is on Jan 2. Then, this deadline was about homework. Now, this deadline is about work. Those two sentences look deadly similar. So thus begins the mad rush to meet the deadline. You work and you work, and the festive mood disappears in the spirit of work, and suddenly you don�t care about the Christmas presents anymore, and you tell yourself you�ll live with the ugly ornamental duck that someone decided would have a great place on your mantelpiece. It�s all about the work! And you get through it, you pull through. And all is good. The date is usually Dec 31, and all is done. It�s almost a miracle that you made it through the whole year. And you know what, it is. It is a miracle that all of you reading this got through to Dec 31 last year. So congratulate yourselves for it. Treat yourselves to a cupcake or something. Now this is the point of my entire rant : New Year�s Eve is always great. Everyone is in a jolly mood, �cos everything that had a deadline in the past year is no longer consequential. And New Year�s Eve is a fantastic time, because it�s one of the few days where you get a break, where you get to go home early. For no reason at all. Think about it. It�s not a day where you commemorate or celebrate or think back to something religious. It�s not the longest and the shortest day even � there�s nothing about Dec 31 itself that is worth celebrating. Except for the fact that it is the last day of the year. Or more so, that it comes before the first day of the New Year. Now, do we go about giving great significance to 11 o�clock? But the latter part of Dec 31 is something so precious. It�s the time where almost everyone gets some time to himself or herself. It�s almost as if the powers that be all decided that this should be the time when people should look back at the year, make a few New Year�s resolutions if one is so inclined, or just get ready to party, damnit. This time, the time before the clock strikes midnight and you usher in a new year, which is followed swiftly by the realisation that there are another 364 days ahead of you (365 days every 4 years) � whether it be at work or at school � before the same joy and relief comes round again. Before all of that sinks in, you have Dec 31. To be happy about the year gone past, or to look forward to the year ahead and the wonder that life might bring to you this New Year. And that, is what I wish for you. Happy New Year, everyone. |