New Year's Eve, New Year's Day... both synonymous with celebration and change.

And yet, I cannot help but wonder, why is it so special? Time could have easily been divided any other way; the new year could have been in July or September or March. And do we not have the ability to change, to become who we want to be any second? Why do we wait for January 1st to live the way we want? We do not have to be slaves of time.

And yet, I cannot help but appreciate celebration and catalyst. Putting up a new calendar does have a profound impact on humanity's desire to change. And that, I think, makes all the difference. People want something they can date their decisions back to, a reason to change. And what better reason than forward movement of all markers of time, second, minute, hour, day, week, month, and year?

Along with desire to change comes realization of wish to keep. We want to keep the good parts of ourselves and our lives even as we filter out the bad. The new year offers an opportunity to reflect and do just that.

And yet many don't change as much as they plan; many find themselves falling back into habits they resolved to conquer. Why? Is this because they lack the willpower to change or because they misjudged what to change? What is that pushes us backwards when we want to move forwards? Perhaps it is thinking that we will fail, that we will not be who we want to be. Perhaps individuals make resolutions with the mindset that hey will keep them for maybe a week; perhaps, they make resolutions that are difficult, even impossible to keep for long because they have already decided not to. Perhaps, we should not make resolutions for a whole year on one night. Perhaps we should plan for the year on the night it starts. Perhaps it differs for all people.

Many love the New Year for all its celebration. It is an opportunity to unite and reunite, to watch and to live. It is a chance to have fun with friends, to travel somewhere new. It is an occasion, an event. Different people mark this event in different ways. Some travel to see fireworks and ball drops; others find entertainment near them. Some cultures celebrate at different times and in entirely different ways. There is remarkable beauty in all this variety; one person can celebrate one way, or many ways, and see others reveling in a myriad of different, unique forms.

No matter whether one makes a resolution or not, whether one celebrates extensively or not, whether one watches fireworks or a ball drop, one wishes to see the New Year in, wishes for success and happiness, wishes for a repeat of all that has gone right and a second chance for all that has gone wrong. One wishes for progress and reprisals of beauty. And that is perhaps the best part of the New Year; it symbolizes that which ties us all together. The whole world wishes for brightness in their lives. The way, the time may differ; different cultures celebrate the New Year in different ways, at different times, but all cultures hope that it brings betterment.