My Disappointments During the Holidays

As many college students were, I had been very excited for my winter break. I was looking forward to four weeks of stress-free days to be spent at home with family and friends. However, this holiday season, I came to experience that things don’t necessarily turn out as expected.



I was disappointed by two things: For one, something about Christmas was different this year. It seemed to have come sooner than anticipated, and I didn’t feel entirely ready for it. I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic about the childhood excitement during the holidays. As kids, we used to be so caught up in little traditions such as leaving cookies for Santa and our anxiousness to wake up on Christmas morning, run to the tree, and rip open our presents. I guess as we grow up, we tend to see things from a different perspective, and not only are we caught up in receiving presents, but we begin to feel a necessity to also give presents to show people how much we appreciate them and wish them joy and happiness. But, I just found myself reminiscing about past Christmases and that special feeling I seemed to have missed out on.



Another disappointment was how certain setbacks disrupted my holiday plans. I was supposed to spend Christmas with other relatives in San Diego. However, my dad found out that he had work the day after Christmas, and so, we just ended up staying home. I remember one Christmas that we spent in Las Vegas. That Christmas was probably my favorite one because the whole family was there. Hearing everyone laughing, making jokes, singing karaoke, and just the simple fact of having your whole family gathered together at the table. This is what I would consider Christmas because it’s a time when you all come together and celebrate a year’s end and the beginning of a new one. I can also recall how all the grown-ups were downstairs talking amongst themselves, and the teenagers and the little children would be upstairs running around, playing tag, hide and go seek, billiards, ping pong, and cards. However this Christmas, I was disappointed in not being able to spend time with my cousins. Since my cousins live hours away we barely get the chance to see each other. That is why we look forward to the holidays, because for us, the holidays is a time when we as a whole family gather together and reminisce on the challenging yet enjoyable moments of the past year. As the new year approaches we also look forward to creating new memories that we can look back at as this year will soon be over before we know it.



Aside from these disappointments, the holidays didn’t turn out so bad. Although the whole family was not able to get together, most of us enjoyed each other’s company and made the most out of it. From watching the Lakers vs. Phoenix game on Christmas day, to the USC vs. Michigan game on New Year’s Day brought excitement to us seeing how badly Michigan lost to USC. Having four weeks of leisure time and spending it with family and a couple of friends was better than nothing. The simple fact of having people who care about you and those who have raised you in your presence during the holidays- there’s no better feeling in the world.