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Writer's Block: Holiday blues
Dec. 15th, 2009 04:46 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
I don't have nearly as much reason to enjoy the holidays as I did when I was younger. When I was a kid, Christmas was exciting because it meant presents. Nowadays, gifts don't excite me nearly as much, especially since almost anything I really want that anyone might conceivably give me I can just get for myself. I don't get to see people who are important to me during the holiday season any more than I get to see them any other time, so that's not a draw for me either, and that's about the only other reason I can imagine looking forward to the holidays.
Well, that and caroling. Okay, I admit that I do feel good when I can get some caroling in. But that's mainly because I don't get to sing enough the rest of the year; what I really want is to find a choir to join. (The only one local to my current residence I failed to get into this year; they only had one open spot in the alto section and it went to someone else.)
Meanwhile, the downside of the holidays is that I always seem to be the only person around who's not spending them with family, and that makes me feel vaguely left out. And the best cure for that would be to spend time with one or two close friends, but my close friends are always among the folks who are with family. Sometimes I get invited along, but spending time with other people's families is always kind of awkward and definitely not the same as just being with people you really care about.
So on balance, the holidays tend to depress me a little. Not quite sure what to do about that in the long term; in the short term I generally just hunker down and wait for them to be over.
I don't have nearly as much reason to enjoy the holidays as I did when I was younger. When I was a kid, Christmas was exciting because it meant presents. Nowadays, gifts don't excite me nearly as much, especially since almost anything I really want that anyone might conceivably give me I can just get for myself. I don't get to see people who are important to me during the holiday season any more than I get to see them any other time, so that's not a draw for me either, and that's about the only other reason I can imagine looking forward to the holidays.
Well, that and caroling. Okay, I admit that I do feel good when I can get some caroling in. But that's mainly because I don't get to sing enough the rest of the year; what I really want is to find a choir to join. (The only one local to my current residence I failed to get into this year; they only had one open spot in the alto section and it went to someone else.)
Meanwhile, the downside of the holidays is that I always seem to be the only person around who's not spending them with family, and that makes me feel vaguely left out. And the best cure for that would be to spend time with one or two close friends, but my close friends are always among the folks who are with family. Sometimes I get invited along, but spending time with other people's families is always kind of awkward and definitely not the same as just being with people you really care about.
So on balance, the holidays tend to depress me a little. Not quite sure what to do about that in the long term; in the short term I generally just hunker down and wait for them to be over.
