I think a way you can tell that I'm not a real adult yet, besides the fact that I still eat the cream out of the Oreos first, is that I don't think of January 1st as the start of a new year. The new year starts when school starts. So, as I prepare to head back to campus this week (cue excited squeals), I decided it was time for some New Year's Resolutions.
1. Go to the Rec more often.
To be honest, this one is mainly just so I can feel less guilty about the amount of Moe’s Queso I will probably consume now that I live in towers.
2. Do laundry more often.
Sometimes it kind of got out of control last year. Now that I live in a building that has laundry (woooo that East House life), I have no excuses to let it wait that long.
3. Create a schedule and stick to it.
Hopefully this will help with the laundry thing.
4. See more of Nashville.
While I have been very well acquainted with 12th South, I would love to get out a bit more, especially now that more of my friends will have cars on campus! It’s a great city with a lot to take advantage of, and I would love to do that more.
5. Be a better friend.
While I try to be a good listener, I know that I could always be better and be there for people more often. This is kind of a life-long goal.
6. Get better at making friends.
I will admit that I am awful at making friends. Out of my five best friends from home, I started out having a mutual hate-filled relationship with four of them. It’s not something I am naturally good at partially because of my introverted nature, but I also have to admit that I could be more open to new people.
7. Branch out.
Last year it felt like the only advice I was given was “Don’t overextend yourself.” Well, this made me so nervous that I "underextended" myself. While this was a nice break from the hectic schedule I had in high school, I think it's time to meet new people and try new things.
8. Say "yes" (but sometimes say "no").
This is actually advice I gave one of my best friends the other day. It is really important to me that I become a more positive person, and I think something that goes with that is being open to trying more things and just generally saying "yes" more often. On a similar note, it’s also important to stick to your morals and say "no" when you need to or when you get overwhelmed.
9. Put my all into everything I do.
It isn’t worth it to do something if I’m not going to care enough about it to put my all into it. So that’s the plan for the year. Do things I love with great enthusiasm and hope that changes my outlook.
10. Accept failure at face value.
One of my best friends wrote an amazing article for the Vanderbilt Hustler about this called, “An open challenge to admit your failures,” and I think everyone should go read that right now. It’s fabulous. It’s okay to fail. Everyone does it sometimes.
11. Stay in the present.
It is easy to remind yourself of all the things you’ve done before and what has happened in the past, and then never let yourself get away from it. I am incredibly guilty of this. I need to remind myself that I cannot change the past, but I can affect what is happening in my life right now.
12. Accept that it is okay to not be the happiest students in the nation sometimes.
Everyone has days that suck. Those are the days when being the happiest students in the nation for the second year in a row is a curse, not a blessing. It’s hard not to look around and compare yourself to everyone else and think, “Well, if we got it, everyone ELSE must be happy.” It is important to remember that everyone has bad days, but if it's recurring, there are resources available that are great to use like the PCC. And it’s okay to go there if you need to talk.
Unlike most of our typical New Year's resulotions, let's make these resolutions to stick to.
