Like most other people celebrating the New Year, my mind tends to wander to what it will bring and how I want to be during it. Some plan on exercising more to reach that goal weight or to fit into that dress that’s just an inch off the waist from fitting perfectly. Some focus on love, or rather, not putting so much focus on it like they did the year before. Others kick into to high gear in regards to their studies to get the grades they want achieve. And there are those that don’t fall into any of those categories and just want themselves, along with their family and friends, to be happy and healthy.
New Year’s resolutions come in all shapes and sizes, though I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice that jokes about them being forgotten after a week have become more common. The Friends episode in which the characters can’t keep their resolutions comes vividly to mind. It’s true that they are cliché. They’ve existed for centuries so it’s was bound to happen. However, maybe we’ve just been going about them all wrong.
Resolutions don’t just pop up out of nowhere. They come from place in you that wants things to be different from the way they’ve always been or, at least, have been for the past year. What if instead of treating them like a rule to be followed and subsequently broken, we instead remember the reason we wanted them in the first place?
I have a couple of resolutions for this coming New Year. To write everyday, to get out of my dorm for more than just classes, and to tone up. As I stare at them in this simple list, they all carry so much weight for me. But then I remember why they exist.
I want to write more, both for Her Campus and my ever a work-in-progress fiction novel, because writing is my life. But the inconsistency in which I do it, doesn’t accurately portray that. I’m finally going to put my money where my mouth is and be on the constant look out for articles to write while finally reaching that coveted “The End” of my story.
I want to get out of my room more often quite simply because this is college. Spending all my time in my room watching TV or sleeping is something I did often at home, but that was because there was nothing I wanted to do. UCF and Orlando are filled with events and locations I can go and spend my time, especially with the friends I’ve made. I don’t have an excuse any more.
And finally I want to tone up, for the simple reason being that I want to. I’ve been blessed with a pretty high self-esteem and I in no way hate what I see in the mirror. According to some, I spend too much time in front of reflective surfaces. But I also know that one day it won’t be so easy for me to maintain the way I look, my fast metabolism won’t last forever. To me it’s better to start a regiment now rather than later. Besides it might nice to look in the mirror and know that it’s the result of hard work rather than just lucky genes alone.
So I leave you, my fellow collegiattes, with this. Make a resolution for yourself. Don’t make a resolution for yourself. It’s entirely up to you. But if there are some things in your life you want to change or improve, remember the reasons why, rather than the end game. Before you know it, the year will be up and you’ll wonder why you’d ever thought it be hard to be the new you.