In Defense of New Year’s Resolutions

As I’ve looked back on 2014, things haven’t quite sucked but they haven’t been exactly wonderful either. I had a lot of fun, but I made some terrible choices. I made new friends, and lost some. No whirlwind romances, but no pregnancy scares either. As much progress as my sorority has made, ΔΔΘ is nowhere near where I want it to be.

All in all, I can’t complain. There will be no year, or life for that matter, without struggle, disappointment or hardship. However, looking forward, I hope to change myself in ways that will better prepare me to face and overcome the inevitable.

The best time for progress is always the present. It’s silly to wait a year, or any amount of time to improve. What’s sillier than that, though, are those constantly poking fun at the idea of New Year’s resolutions or proudly proclaiming “new year, same me” as if stagnancy is an accomplishment. There is nothing wrong with figuring out what worked and what didn’t in the last 365 days of your life and considering what you want to change in the next 365.

In 2015, I want to become better at prioritizing and managing my time. I want to play a more active role in maintaining my figure. I desperately want to intern in DC over the summer. But most importantly, I want to be a kinder person. I want to love more freely. I want to be a person that smiles at strangers and offers my seat on the train after working a double. I want to be more patient and more understanding. As painfully cliche and hipstery as it sounds, I want to stop existing and start living. I don’t want to only expect to enjoy the fraction of my week that I spend drunk and party hopping. I want to welcome each day as a blessing and an opportunity and stop begrudgingly accepting it as another chore.

I know that with only so many hours in the day and all of my obligations and responsibilities, I can’t live my life like some white girl with dreads and a nose ring “finding her center” in an indie film, but as a generation I think we’ve thoughtlessly accepted school and/or working, napping, netflix and partying as our reality when our lives, even as college students and 20 somethings, could be much more meaningful. Instead of waiting for weekends or vacations or study abroad to expect more out of our time, perhaps we could all benefit from redefining our lives on our own terms and making happiness a habit.