Why I Completely Stopped Going out on New Years eve

Quite a lot has changed in my city over the years

Photo by Jack B on Unsplash

Over the past many months, I’ve written quite a bit about my struggles with veganism, and how I said my final goodbye to the one beloved hobby I had taken up more than 15 years ago. In “Practicing Veganism In a Constantly Changing Cultural Landscape: How Does One Do It?”, I wrote about how difficult it was to continue staying vegan in a fluctuating cultural landscape, and the isolation and estrangement it brings between oneself and their immediate cultural environment.

I’ve also written about how I lost my friends one after another to ultimately end up completely friendless and alone today.

The overall message I was trying to convey through these articles is the fact that a city has a much more significant role in shaping a person’s identity and how they view themselves as individuals than we think.

We always think of ourselves as independent beings immune to the vagaries of the environment we live in. It’s only when that protective social layer that you have wrapped around you begins to crack, and you abandon all the core passions that once formed your identity, do you realize how much you’re part of the city and not someone that operates in isolation to it. As long as you’re surrounded by a group of friends who are always there…