My best friend Lily and I met in high school. Ever since then, we had spent New Year’s Eve together. We’d watch together on TV the New Year celebration in Times Square, a the world-renowned tradition for millions to welcome the new year. Every year,   thousands of people will gather in Times Square New York in person on New Year’s Eve counting down to the new year, with celebrations and performances after midnight. And we’d always say that one day we should go there ourselves.

Then we both went to college. Struggling through exams and schoolwork, we had little time to meet up. We missed each other terribly and decided it was time: to finally go to New York ourselves, to be present at the New Year’s celebration, and to do something fun together.

We worked out our schedule, bought tickets for everything and, most importantly, planned how to survive the long hours of waiting in the biting cold before the celebration — we wanted the best spot possible, and there’s only so much space, so we had no choice but to get to the Time Square early.

When the big day finally arrived, it became snowy and colder than any cold we had ever experienced. Actually it was one of the coldest New Year’s Eves on record. Everyone thought we were going to back out.

But we didn’t. We didn’t make it that far to back out.

We woke up and set off early. And, of course, we did freeze along the way, but we kept cheering each other up. Once we got there, we found our way to the line pretty quickly, considering everyone else was pushing their way in the same direction. We got in line and waited to finally get into our area in the Time Square, which thankfully was pretty spacious and close to the stage.