I come from a big family. My mother has six sisters, each with at least one child which always meant that holidays consisted of one, loud, jam-packed house. New Year’s Eve specifically was always especially fun; at least forty of us would pile into my aunt’s house and blast salsa while we watched the ball drop.

In high school I began to resent my family’s monopoly on New Year’s Eve. I was sixteen, I wanted to be at a house party with the rest of my friends mixing drinks and kissing boys, but of course my family had other plans. Every year I’ve spent New Year’s in the same living room with the same people and as the years progressed, it only got better.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for tradition but when I was younger, my mother always told me that the reason we spent every New Year’s with family was because the year would progress the way it found you. If the New Year found you in the company of people who love you and care about you then they would remain with you for the rest of the year.

I believe this wholeheartedly and I am so thankful for the New Year’s my parents didn’t let me spend out getting wasted. I can’t imagine doing anything other than dancing to salsa with my aunts and playing cards against humanity with my cousins on New Year’s Eve. It may not sound like much to some, but it is everything to me.