Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Allow love to find you this New Year’s Eve
NEW Year’s Eve means it’s time for sparkly outfits, champagne – and, for some lucky revellers, a bright, new beginning.
Yes, the evening is often over-hyped, overrated and overpriced. But sometimes a midnight kiss – or When Harry Met Sally- style declaration of love – can lead to a new relationship.
Whether you’ve known the person for a long time, or just met, here are three stories of couples whose spark ignited on New Year’s Eve. Maybe they will encourage you to start some fireworks of your own.
Lily Dwoskin, a 27-year-old musical theatre writer.
New Year’s Eve 2013. A bar in Pennsylvania.
After wrapping up her final performance of Christmas Carol, about 45 minutes away, to celebrate the holiday with a female friend.
A“We struggled to find a parking spot and didn’t really make it into the bar – the only one that didn’t have a cover charge – until 11.45pm,” Dwoskin recalls.
Seconds before the bar’s midnight countdown, a stranger approached Dwoskin and asked her to be his New Year’s kiss. “I was really excited because things like that don’t happen to me,” she says. “I was so flattered that I had this impulse to just go for it.”
Their kissing led to texting, and ultimately to a fivemonth relationship. While the romance has since fizzled, Dwoskin believes it wouldn’t have been sparked had it not been for that fateful night. “I think the energy of New Year’s put me in sort of an open mood, whereas any other night I probably would not have responded to some random guy at a bar coming up to me,” Dwoskin says with a laugh.
Her advice for meeting someone on December 31: Stay positive and keep an open mind. The times that I push myself to jump out of my comfort zone and meet new people are the times I’ve been most rewarded,” Dwoskin says.
Also, bring back-up. “It could’ve ended up in a sketchy situation, but I knew I had someone there who had my back, and I likewise had hers.”
Emma Silvers, 33-year-old music journalist, and Jonathan Kirchner, 33-year-old bassist for Con Brio. New Year’s Eve 2010. The Knockout, a bar in San Francisco.
The pair became texting pals after Silvers interviewed Kirchner and his band for the East Bay Express in October.
The flirting amped up over the holidays and, while Kirchner was on the East Coast, the pair decided to meet up the day he returned to the Bay Area, which happened to fall on New Year’s Eve.
“When he asked if I had plans for New Year’s Eve, I remember thinking it was a kind of a crazy idea for a first date. I mean, it’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to hang out on this night where it’s basically assured we will kiss?’ There’s a set time for it and everything,” she quips. “But it was cool. It felt like an ‘anything goes’ kind of night.”
The two met up just after midnight, made their way to the thick of the dance floor and shared a kiss. “I had a feeling of like, ‘Cool! I’m so glad we knocked that out of the way.’”
The two were married this July, and now Kirchner dedicates a performance to Silvers at each New Year’s Eve gig with his band.
Advice: “Prior to that year, New Year’s was honestly one of my least favourite holidays,” Silvers admits.
“The pressure aspect of it is immense – I remember it as a single person thinking: ‘This is the worst thing ever.’ But I would encourage others to take a chance, go into the night with a positive attitude and an ‘anything goes’ kind of mentality about it.”
Jenna Jonaitis, a 28-yearold freelance writer, and Joe Jonaitis, a 29-year-old climate and geography graduate student at Appalachian State University.
New Year’s Eve 2014. A mutual friend’s house in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Two months leading up to New Year’s, the pair had been hanging out as friends after being introduced by Joe’s sister. “I had really started to develop feelings for him, but I had no idea where he stood,” Jenna says. To test the waters, she invited him to join her at a mutual friend’s house on New Year’s Eve. He said yes.
Lucky for both of them, their pent-up feelings for each other converged at midnight. “As the ball dropped, he leaned down and kissed me for the first time,” Jenna says. “And then we just continued kissing the rest of that night.” The pair went on their first date the next day and got married in January this year.
Advice: “When the kiss happened, it kind of took a lot of the pressure off us,” Jenna says. “It was like, this special moment occurred and from then on we could share everything and bond in an open and honest way.
The holiday season gives people the opportunity to be a bit braver than they might ordinarily be, she added. “If you are in the holiday spirit, there are less inhibitions to hold back because you are surrounded by this joyful and optimistic spirit. I think that could be a good time to make a move, share your feelings or even kiss somebody! And, even if it doesn’t work out, you have a whole year to move on.”
Megan McDonough is a weddings writer and editorial aide for The Washington Post. – The Washington Post