I want to spend my New Year’s in Boise, Idaho, watching a giant potato drop. At the start of every year, a 17-foot-long spud made of foam and fiberglass — over 17,000 pounds of Idaho pride — makes its way down from the sky in our city’s quirky twist on the Times Square Ball Drop. As the countdown begins, my friends and I press closer to the crowd and brave the cold together while the potato starts its descent. After spending my first semester of college more than 2,000 miles from home, I’m looking forward to this New Year’s potato drop not for the spectacle itself, but for what it represents: a return to where I grew up, to hometown friends and to the familiar feeling of sipping on a pineapple Jarritos from the taco truck down the street.
Yekyeong Lee is a freshman studying Neuroscience from Boise, Idaho.
