Was it not just yesterday that we were ringing in the year 2014, celebrating in some zany way with our family and friends. When the clock struck midnight last January 1st, we promised each other that this will be a fantastic year, full of big changes and great adventures. For many of us, this year really has been as amazing as we hoped, making it so much more unbelievable to fathom that this year is coming to an end. So we start to look back on the things that truly made 2014 so special. Then we start to think of how 2015 will measure up in comparison.
Throughout the Internet, we see all these writings and memes joking about New Year’s resolutions: how we’re going to break them less than 24 hours into the New Year, or how we’ll say that we’ll accomplish something, like buying a gym membership, only to use it once in the entire year. I for one believe that making New Year’s resolutions are great…if they’re realistic and achievable. We should keep our goals broad because we never know what kinds of curveballs life is going to throw our way. When we set out to achieve resolutions that we know we can’t handle, we’re setting ourselves up for failure.That’s why I’m going to suggest some general resolutions for the New Year that we collegiettes can certainly accomplish in many different ways and feel very proud of!
1. Take Care of YourselfHealthiness is not just buying a gym membership. It consists of the little efforts we make into maintaining our physical and mental well-being. It is often hard to stay healthy as a collegiette, what with tight budgets and study snack habits, and the countless hours of procrastination that we are all guilty of. However, there are little adjustments to our everyday lives that can lead to a healthier lifestyle: for example, change your route to school to make it so you are walking for a little bit longer (and make it a scenic route too so you can check out some parts of your neighborhood that you never really paid attention to at first!). Maybe you want to cook more at home and bring leftovers to school instead of buying Subway sandwiches every single day. And most of all, although I admit this one can be very difficult to achieve, get some more sleep! Even if you go to bed just 30 minutes before your usual time, going to bed just a little bit earlier can make a huge difference!
2. TREAT YO SELF!The NBC show Parks and Recreation established this awesome mantra when in one episode, two characters embarked on their annual tradition of treating themselves to whatever kinds of luxuries they want and felt they deserved. My suggestion is that this shouldn’t just be an annual thing: we should reward ourselves, and acknowledge the triumphs that we have accomplished as university students more often, but not so much to the point where we come out to be more of a shopaholic than someone who is treating themselves. Next time you finish that brutal ten-page paper, treat yo self! Midterm or finals season just end? Treat yo self! Did you finally get the nerve to end that awful relationship in your life? Treat yo self! But to what should we treat ourselves to exactly? Most people think that the reward should be a night of heavy drinking, which can be rewarding in some situations. Here, I suggest buying yourself a gift, whether it’s an expensive lunch, a super-fancy latte or an amazing pair of shoes. Or maybe, you’ll treat yourself to a yoga class or a Netflix marathon. Either way, you deserve to treat your self to something that you can remember, so you can look back on it as something you know you really deserved. We don’t often realize just how much stress we put ourselves through in university, and in the midst of this madness, we definitely don’t often take enough time to self-reflect. So make this year one where you start acknowledging the amazing and fierce collegiette you are on a more frequent basis, whether its by treating yourself to little trinkets, or fun experiences.
3. Spread the LoveThis resolution has really struck a chord with me. This past year, I’ve realized that one of the simplest pleasures we can enjoy is the expression of love and appreciation. From complementing the person standing in front of you at the coffee shop, to messaging an old friend to say you miss them, there is no shortage of ways to tell people how much you appreciate them. It makes a major difference in that person’s life, but also in yours. Ever hear of the law of attraction? Or the golden rule? Both of these life lessons teach us that whatever we put out in the world, we get back. In other words, we treat people the way we want to be treated. From personal experience I can say that even if the other person does not respond, just making the effort to reach out to another person in a positive way does good for the soul. I’ll admit I have a lot to work on in this respect, but I believe this goal is feasible in many respects. If we keep reminding ourselves that sending out love will always do good in some way shape or form, we’ll keep trying.
Images obtained from:
http://www.troll.me/images/x-all-the-things/spread-all-the-love.jpg
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