The holidays are such a great time of the year: seeing family, getting gifts for loved ones, and of course, a break from college. This is all fun and relaxing until it is 11:59 on Dec. 31, and you are desperately trying to find a New Year’s resolution to commit to. New Year’s resolutions are usually treated similarly to any political issue on campus: you get really passionate about it for a while, fully intending to make a difference and it is forgotten in a few weeks. People usually seem to have trouble sticking to their resolutions. I, for one, seem to have the problem of forgetting what my resolution was the previous year. It is possible that I stuck with my goal, but a year is so long to remember something.
There seems to be two types of New Year’s resolutions that come to mind. Well, three types if you consider resolving to do nothing or to come up with a resolution for the next year. That being said, the first type of resolution is a self-improvement of something you didn’t like about the previous year. There was just something about yourself that you didn’t like: grades, how you treated people, how much time you spent with people, how you look in the mirror – something you wish to change about yourself. This type of resolution can be hard to accomplish because old habits die hard. In the spirit of resolutions, you find what you want to improve and tell yourself that things will be different during this astronomical revolution around the sun. To everybody who has a wish of self-improvement, I say this: pick something that you know you can change, not simply something that you want to change. Be realistic with your goals.

The second category of resolutions consists of goals and accomplishments you wish to meet in the near future. These resolutions are not exactly tied to the mistakes of the past as much as they are open to the possibilities of the future: the goal to live on your own, graduate, get a job, learn a new trick. The people who have their eyes set to the future have typically had an overall good year, found little they wanted to improve and decided to shoot for the stars. To these people, my advice has not changed much. Be realistic. Resolve to do something that is in the realm of possibility. Otherwise, the resolution is only so much hot air and will be forgotten within a few weeks.

This finally takes me to the part you’ve anxiously been waiting for – my resolution. Well, I had a pretty good year, which means my resolution is set for the future. My resolution is to have a real, full-time job after graduating in May. Now, I am an education major. Remember what I said about being realistic? My resolution is to get a job…I never specified “teacher.” That would just be silly of me.

By Mike Metz