i go to bed on 12/31 and hope secretly that it’s all a simulation that ends.

By that age you'd have seen such an event almost 20 times, give or take. You know how it turns out and don't need to see it for yourself, you can just get the highlights later if anything abnormal happens.

I'm practically nocturnal, so staying up til sunrise is no problem, in fact getting to sleep before sunrise is the tricky part. It's the after sunrise part when I hit the wall.