Don't wait until the end of the year to change yourself

> Why the ‘New Year New Me’ mentality doesn’t work

Katie Czenczek
Staff Writer

 

t’s that time of the year again. The

Earth has managed to make another
lap around the Sun, thus signifying
a New Year has come once again. It
is the time to get back into the swing
of things after a hopefully relaxing
break from school. It also happens to
be the time where everyone decides
they must make resolutions that
are either impossible to accomplish
or are far too many to keep track of
causing anyone’s head to explode.

My gripe isn’t with setting
goals. More, it’s when people
choose to set goals.

Why wait until the New Year to start
your resolutions? If you are currently
unhappy with a bad habit of your’s in
December, June, or March, why wait
until the next year to start working on it?
I know it’s hard to fathom, but I do think
there is something to be said about all
the memes featuring people failing their
New Year's resolutions for a reason—and
we all know that memes never lie.

I’m not trying to be cruel or
insensitive to people wanting to change
a few things about their lives after some
self-reflection. In fact, I think that self-
reflection is a beautiful thing and we all
tend to get so caught up in what we're
doing that we don’t even have time to
reflect on whether or not it is making us
happy or fulfilled. That’s exactly what
allows us to create New Year's resolutions
in the first place: That weird gap in many

of our lives where we have nothing really
to do between the holidays and the New
Year allows our minds to wander, and

to finally question the things we do.

My problem with setting resolutions
during this time is that they are made
right before getting back to work and we
tend to get a little carried away with the
goals we set for themselves. As a result,
your gym membership has already been
a waste of money by the third week of
January, causing you to feel like a total
and utter failure for even trying.

We've all been there, where we’ve
been super excited about a new change
we've planned to better ourselves for the
upcoming year... only to let ourselves
down horribly the second the going gets
tough. For me, it’s every single time I’ve
said that I would stop my procrastination
habit for the upcoming year. It’s so easy
for me to make some grand promises of
change and improvement when I don’t
have to act on this change until the New
Year. That’s why I have failed miserably
every time. Or maybe it has more to do
with my addiction to The Sims. I find
nothing more thrilling than pretending
to do my homework as a Sim rather
than doing assignments as myself.

The failure isn’t in wanting to bea
better person every year, it’s in the lack
of action taken throughout the year to
make those dreams become reality. It is
easier said than done, but trust me when
I say it is worth it. In fact, you might just

find that the next time the New Year rolls

around, you won't have as many things
you'd like to change about yourself.

I spent New Year's

alone at home and you should too

> You don’t have to party to celebrate every New Year

Jessica Berget
Opinions Editor

 

lot of people would dread the idea
f staying home alone on New Year’s

Eve—I know I did. However, being horribly
congested with a head-cold and having
my only friend busy that day meant
that I had to do exactly that. Despite my
initial dismay, this year was probably
the most personally gratifying New
Year’s I have ever had, and now I think
everyone should celebrate New Year’s by
themselves at least once in their life.

The New Year is a cause for a great
celebration, but that doesn’t mean you
have to go out partying and get drunk to
commemorate it. Like any holiday, there
is a lot of pressure to celebrate as much
as possible, and New Year's is a prime
example. Celebrating New Year’s usually
means partying till the wee hours of
the morning, drinking, and doing other
inebriating substances. Although this is
arguably a much more fun way to ring in
the New Year, that doesn’t mean you have
to do it every single year, nor should you.

Drinking and partying have
become the cultural norm for
celebrating any holiday and occasion,
and I think this is something that we
should ease up on, especially when
it comes to ringing in a New Year.

New Year's Eve isn’t really known for
being a day of relaxing, but it should be.
l appreciate wanting to have the greatest
last day of the year before the new one
begins, but that doesn’t mean you have
to get awfully drunk. There is honestly
no better way to start the new year than
by waking up from a peaceful and restful
slumber—and not being hungover.

New Year's should be a day to
celebrate all the accomplishments you've
made in the past year. It should be a time
for reflecting on the previous year and
thinking about what made it great or
awful and what you want to do to make
the next year even better. Even if the
previous year sucked, there is still a lot
you could learn by reflecting on what
made it bad and what you can do to
change it. It could also be the day you get
a head-start on your resolutions, which
is almost impossible to do when you're
drunk or trying to sleep off a hangover.

Start your year off right by doing
something you love to do, or something
that’s on your list of goals for 2018.

One of my goals was to start painting
more, so I was doing exactly that when
midnight struck. It’s a great start to
following through with your resolutions
if you have trouble keeping up with
them, and it makes you feel positive
about the rest of the year to come.

 

 

 

Photo by Analyn Cuarto

Photo of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai via The Hill