Why Holidays Just Don’t Feel the Same

As we’ve gotten older, why have the holidays just felt like another day?

Adult life holidays. Photo credit: clipart-library.com

Now that were adults why do the holidays suck?  Where’s the excitement we got years ago? Running downstairs on Christmas morning, eating a whole bag of candy to prepare for Halloween, carving pumpkins, going out and setting off sparklers and poppers on 4th of July. Things just aren’t the same anymore, why is that?

I think this is because the kid in us didn’t have all these responsibilities and pressure from the real world back then. Christmas when you’re 10 is fun and exiting. Christmas at 24 is stressful and expensive. When you’re 10 and going to see what Santa left you under the tree, you see all kinds of gifts that just appeared overnight. Nowadays, you see your checking account dwindiling because you feel held responsible to get gifts for everyone in the office, friends, parents, siblings, family, etc. Theres no time to carve pumpkins before Halloween because you’re scheduled to work 4-10pm each night. You missed Thanksgiving dinner with your family because work ‘really needed someone to help out’. You can’t go visit family because you ONLY got that Thursday off from class. Projects, deadlines, bills, auto-payment, these are things we didn’t have to worry about twelve years ago.

The pure joy I got from hanging up one string of Christmas lights outside last week was phenonminal. I came home from class, hung the lights, enjoyed them for a second, and had to change to go work a double. It made me feel so spirited, which is sad, the astonishment that I got from having an extra 15 minutes to do something cheery. My boyfriend bought me home a Christmas tree which has sat un-decorated and sparceley watered for the past three weeks because I have not have the time to do so. Wake up each morning to errands, school, work, and responsibility and come home so exhausted each night I barely remember to feed my poor cats before falling asleep and doing it all over the next day.

“I have soccer practice and games at least seven times a week, sometimes more depending on if we win or not. I secretly wish my team was worse just so I could go home and relax instead of being here for four hours each game.” Kayla Buncher said.

“I’m scheduled part time and my availability is limited, but my boss doesn’t care. I worked eight hours yesterday even when I was only scheduled to do five. I worked eleven hours on Thanksgiving. I had to have left overs the next morning because I was too tired to heat them up after I got home that night.” Emma Kinsley stated.

“I really wanted to have a Halloween party this year because Halloween is my favorite holiday. I wasn’t able to because it was on a Thursday and I had class at 8am the next morning. I left out a bowl of candy and went to bed by 9pm because I had to be up early. It was pretty sad actually, I wanted to stay up and carve pumpkins or pass out candy but I didn’t have time.” Noah Silva told me.

With the holiday season already half way over, please do your adult self a favor and drink some coffee and find a little time to do something festive. You will thank yourself and feel a little bit better knowing it’s not all boring and dull this season. Bake some cookies, wrap a couple presents, plan your New Years Eve night, please try and have a little fun while you can!

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