The New Year starts this week, bringing with it a flurry of "resolutions" such as:
-- Eat healthy this year
-- Join a gym
-- Actually use my gym membership
-- Study harder
-- Spend more time with family.
All of these resolutions are well-intentioned, and many people will even follow through -- albeit briefly. As the numbers for the gym my mom owns show though, hardly anyone makes it to February with these grandiose commitments. So why are we so consistently drawn towards these ideas? Facebook provides us with a "Year in Review" to share, and everyone from the pastors of our churches to family members ask us what we have decided to promise (however half-heartedly) this year. I suppose it all boils down to peer pressure, since we think everyone around us is committed to working towards change, so we feel like we had better promise that change too.
Four years ago, I did not make a resolution; instead, I wrote a list of things I wanted to happen for me that year. By December of 2012, I had in fact accomplished nearly all of the items on that list, but the ones which I didn't haunted me consistently. Then came 2013, which I largely wanted to spend the way 2012 had ended -- that New Year's celebration was so anticlimactic, I honestly cannot remember what I did.
2014 started with a small party of my closest friends, with the intention of focusing on "learning how to accept help and support" for the coming year. Unfortunately, the night ended in tears, which categorized a decent portion of my year as I struggled to accept help when offered, but also to step away from those people and situations which brought me more harm than good. It was a painful year, which I was happy to be done with, but I did have to admit that I stayed truer to the theme for my year than any specific resolution I had made in the past.
As I entered 2015, my new theme became "grasping opportunities," which meant everything from taking a job choreographing a musical, even though it meant working with friends (which continues to be a bad idea), taking voice lessons for the first time in my life, acting in a role which I would never have considered six years ago (although I killed it, if I do say so myself), to simply allowing myself to travel with my best friend over spring break.
As I look back on this year, although aware of my cliched story, I cannot help but think that I did marvelously at sticking to my theme, my new version of a resolution. I did not promise to go to a gym (sorry, Mom) or go on a diet; in fact, I weigh more now than I typically do at this overly stressful time of year for me. I did, however, commit myself to learning to dance on pointe in ballet before I graduated from Pepperdine. When I applied to a job posting for a cheerleading coach at a dance studio, I had no idea that this job would help me with this goal. Now that I am dancing at two studios, one where I took classes last year and one where I teach as well as study dance, I performed on pointe a few weeks ago, months before graduation.
I also took my deep desire to return to coaching cheerleading, although I did not see it as a possibility until I eventually had children of my own to coach, and applied for a job I had no reason to expect would become mine so easily. Less than 48 hours after seeing the posting, my (now) boss referred to me as "exactly what (she) was looking for" in a coach and offered me the job. It is difficult to say what I would have accomplished if I had allowed my fear to rule me in 2015, as I have many times before, but I cannot express how happy I am to have followed through on my resolution. Though I am running out of time now to pick my theme for the next year, I am still toying with a few options. (Comment with any suggestions you have, I would love to hear them!)
As for you, dear readers, I wish you the best of luck with whatever resolutions you make, even if that resolution is not to make a resolution. Happy New Year!
