How to Spread Yourself Around This Holiday Season

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By Jesse Schmitt
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We're all scattered across wide geographic swaths and the holiday season can be the worst as it can vividly remind us of those who are not in our immediate sphere anymore. Fear not! Rather than let this stand as an obstacle, use the fact that we’re all in so many different places to your advantage! Get right on the plan of spreading yourself around this holiday season.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

self
good intentions
World Wide Web
planes, trains, automobiles
phone

Step 1

Make Commitments: This means you need to tap old wells that may have long since gone dry. Call grandma, get your favorite aunt on the phone, strike up a chat with that long, lost best friend, visit the chat rooms your cousins hang out in and get reaccelerated. The holidays can be a really lonely time or a really celebratory time; so find out where the party’s at and boogie down!
Step 2

Honor Your Commitments: You need to go. Once you’ve found out where everyone is getting together, you have to make it a priority to be there. So plot your trip, buy your plane tickets, get on that Chinatown bus, have your dad pick you up at the train station, and get there! Also, if there is no room for you at the inn, make sure you’ve got a place to lay your head even if that means rolling out the sleeping bag and getting all basic-training on your party.
Step 3

Contribute to the Festivities: Whatever your special skill or hidden talent is, people; especially those who haven’t seen you for eons, want to know what you’ve been up to! So paint them a picture, read them a story, sing them a song, break out into a jig or write them an eHow article, but do something so that your presence is not just felt, but remembered.
Step 4

Don’t Forget Everyone Else – The tragic truth is that we can’t all be everywhere at the same time. And whether that’s because you’re married, your parents split up, or whatever else, there are undoubtedly going to be some people you won’t be able to see. So if you can, start the weekend early; head up to your destination so that you can bolt on Thursday late and spend the weekend portion of things with other folks! If that’s impossible due to distance or something else, there is always the World Wide Web to connect us when we’re apart. So get on Facebook, MySpace, the email services of the Internets or just reach out and touch someone like in the olden days on your telephone; but do something so that you are remembered and that those ties which were so important to begin with, don’t wither and die.