Here are just a few new school year resolutions we can all relate to:
1. Vowing to wake up every morning and do my makeup and hair and wear a cute outfit.
Ah yes, on first semester's eve a girl is dreading the end of summer but welcoming a new season of life and clothing. The night before your first day of classes, you're rested. You haven't been up at 8 a.m. since May, and the idea of waking up and going to a class with all new faces is intriguing! You've picked out your best pair of wearin' jeans, your eyeliner is perfectly winged and your curls lack no volume. In this moment, you feel like this semester could only go up. But what we don't anticipate are the late 2 a.m. nights and the mornings that come so early. On these mornings, our hair is up in a messy bunny (and when I say messy bunny, I actually mean messy. Not the cute Pinterest bun that is impossible to master.) Our eyes have dark circles around them, and maybe we've mustered up putting on some mascara, but probably not. Our outfit is anything but fashionable; in fact, it doesn't even match and we probably wore it last night. These are the things we know will come, but every August we expect things to go differently. They don't.
2. You're going to start new good habits like eating healthy.
A new year of school beginning is an infamous fresh start. It's when we feel motivated, determined, and willing. During this time, the idea of eating fruits, vegetables and tofu at every meal seems like a very possible thing. You've decided that in between classes you'll skip grabbing the unhealthy frappuccino and sub in a light snack of almonds and blueberries that you've brought from home. This is your body, and you're motivated to lose that extra 10 pounds you gained over the summer from eating Cook Out late at night. Unfortunately, this eating healthy kick will only last for so long. While eating healthy is a great thing, very often its not convenient and isn't convenient a college student's middle name? While we'd like to think that the chicken salad we picked up in the dining hall is healthy, the piles of ranch piled on top kind of cancels out all the lost calories. Hey, at least we tried right?
3. Promising yourself that you'll put in effort to make new friends.
At the beginning of the year, most likely your school is covered in flyers that boast sayings like "Back to School Mixer!! Come show your [insert cheesy college mascot here]" or maybe even something like "Movie night! Bring a snack and mingle with your classmates!" While your school or university means well, nine out of 10 times these events are lame and are a recipe for an awkward female-male encounter. You know this deep down in your soul, but alas, you promise your self that this year will be your year to be the social butterfly. Slowly but surely, staying home and stuffing your face with ice cream on a Friday night and binge watching "How to Catch a Murderer" is way more than a once a month thing. It's OK. Again you tried, and you like your old friends better any way.
4. Telling yourself that you will make straight A's or something very close.
At the beginning of the year, you have a clean slate. There's no better feeling than knowing that on the first day, there's nowhere to go but up. During syllabus week, you're sure that the 4.0 GPA is something in easy reach. Your notebooks are fresh and your pencils are sharp; you know you got this. A few weeks go by, and your adrenaline begins to plummet and suddenly the 500 word extra credit assignment that use to seem like a piece of cake now seems like a strenuous research paper. Once again, you tried. Don't beat yourself up about the assignments that don't deserve a gold star. We all have those days.
5. Telling yourself you won't stay up until the wee hours of the night doing things you shouldn't
We all have those nights where we should be studying but instead we put on our high heels and go out. Or, if you're not into that, instead of being logged on to the math assignment you should be doing, you're drooling over clothes on Pinterest that you know you'll never be able to afford simply because you can't even work a part time job because of all the school work you have. Ah yes, don't beat yourself up about it. Some days, the eight hours spent at school is enough. Close the books, it's really OK.
6. Expecting your book bag to stay clean and organized.
Even though I've used the same book bag for middle school, high school and college, I always get warm fuzzies knowing that on the first day of school, I'll have an entire pack of new gel pens and any sharpie color you can imagine neatly tucked away in the front pocket. The first week of class, you're stocked on supplies. You never fear that you will get to class late, reach in your book bag and not have what you need. But as the semester goes on and rations get low, you realize that leaving your pencil on your desk after every class is a fast way to muck up your perfectly organized system. It's OK. This is a good excuse to make a Target run, right?
7. This will be the best semester ever.
Every semester starts out the same: hopeful and fresh. But as we all know, and as I have pointed out in this article, within a week or two, things return to normal. Life sets in and suddenly you realize that the organic chemistry class you have to take for your double major really is no joke. The boy you've been dating turned out to be a total tool, and you're pretty sure you got sick from the equipment at the gym you've been using. Things happen, and semesters get hard. Remember, you've made it this far, do not give up!
When entering a new semester or new school year, we all have expectations. Expectations are a good thing, and it's good to be able to laugh at our short comings. College is a hard season of life. During the crazy moments of each semester, keep in mind that every long grading period is followed with some kind of break. Be extra thankful for those Christmas and summer vacations. Savor the moments of relaxation and prepare for a hectic, awesome, exhausting and wonderful experience. We love to hate this thing we call college.
