We are rolling full speed ahead into the third week of this semester, and it got me thinking about what I want to do differently from last year, what little things about my habits and my mentality do I want to change. Some people love New Year’s for resolutions, but in my head these resolutions tend to play out like that episode of Friends (S5, E11), where everybody’s idea about how to better themselves lasts for a few days before everyone ends up falling back into their old habits. For me, a new school year provides a lot of opportunity to reflect on your past college experiences and define real goals for self-improvement, I mean college is only the best years of your life if you make it so.
I believe resolutions should be personal and realistic, you’re not very likely to put effort into something you don’t care about or something that’s unattainable; the idea is that it’ll be something you enjoy working at.
- Maintaining meaningful relationships
This is something I have really struggled with the last two years in college, with work and my course load, somedays it really feels like your relationships are stretched thin. What I really want is to feel more involved in my own life, I want to spend more time with my friends, I want to continue growing and exploring my relationship with my boyfriend, I want to see my family more, and honestly I should probably call my grandma more often than I do. And that’s what I’m doing, I’m making the phone calls, planning the trips, and basically just making the most of every busy day. I’m tired of being so swept up in the mundaneness of work that I neglect the people that I love, the people that bring happiness and joy into my life.
- Two words: SELF CARE
Taking care of yourself is the first root to plant in the garden of learning to love yourself wholly; we preach about the importance of treating each other kindly but we can’t treat ourselves with the same type of respect? I feel like I’m constantly having to remind myself to slow down, to treat my mind and body gently, that not all things are worth stressing about. This year I’m encouraging myself to relax more, take a nap, do some yoga, read, call a friend, binge some Netflix, go for a walk, try new foods, take another nap; the possibilities for improving mood are endless, and they are meant to be done in small doses here and there, not crammed into one self-care Sunday a month.
- Write more
I’m an English major, and I’m at that point in my college career where, if I’m not assigned writing, I’m not writing at all. My hope is that this blog will change that as it gives me the opportunity to talk about my interests rather than course material. However, I feel like I’m losing my love for what I do, forgetting why I’m pursuing and English degree in the first place: I love to write, and I miss that. I hate how dispassionate I’ve become about something that’s a central part of who I am, which I feel like is something all college students go through at some point; maybe that’s why we tend to change our majors so often, we don’t want to see ourselves hating something we love. So, I’ve bought the fancy pens and the pretty writing journals and I am taking the initiative to resume collecting my ideas and my stories like I used to, because unfortunately my novel won’t write itself.
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Now I know we’re all busy getting back into the 8-am-class-no-lunch-break-can’t-find-a-place-to-park routine again, but I want to encourage everyone who reads this to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and think about how you’d like to be a better version of yourself this year, and then act on whatever those positive things are. You’ll thank me later!