My New Year’s celebration might be too wild to recount on my Sport Changes Life blog, but I’m going to go for it anyway:
I’m with a new friend I met. His name is Jay, and he goes to school in London. I know his name is Jay because instead of responding to my bored conversational advances, he was working on his resume for the entirety of the flight (7 hours). But the party really started during my eight-hour layover in Chicago. I knew it was going to be a good time when I discovered that the airport Wi-Fi wasn’t free… or maybe it was when I had to spend $5 on a bottle of water. Things got a little hazy for me between all the John Cusack movies I was watching. Finally, 4 PM came around, and I boarded my flight—seat 36k. I sat down next to my new friend Jay who, between reading his book for school, taking notes on a radio program, and working on his resume, was a little too busy to talk to me. How can someone be so productive on a flight? Meanwhile, I’m either sleeping, watching fight club, or staring out a window.
Suddenly I think the night is taking a turn when the captain comes on over the radio to announce the New Year: “3…2…1… Alright, folks, that’s New Year’s.”
Wait. That’s it? A few awkward claps and a failed attempt at singing Auld Lang Syne, and we’re done? Goodbye 2016? In my mind, I guess I’d hoped for at least some champagne or maybe a hoot and holler from the easily excited passengers. Oh well.
I looked out the window for a few minutes after the announcement, feeling like I was suspended somewhere between 7 PM eastern time and 12 AM Dublin time. I was half excited to enter the new year in Dublin and half sad to be leaving my family behind for another four months. But mostly, I think I was just in need of some recovery from that intense New Year’s party I’d just experienced. I ended up getting back to my apartment at 6 AM and sleeping until 4 PM. Then I still slept like a baby that night. Happy New Year to me.
(P.S. The photo you see is not one that I took, considering I was in a plane. I found that lovely picture in the group chat with my Management class. Most of them went to the celebration in Dublin and certainly didn’t have as good of a time as I did.)
