The clock strikes twelve and you’re filled with the ambition and aspiration to change yourself for the better.  Thoughts of your New Year’s Resolution stand ahead of you, glowing in gold and looking oh-so easy to achieve, until it’s nine pm the next day, and you still haven’t made an effort to reach your resolution, as it seems a lot more difficult and distant.

Every year, only eight percent of the millions of people that make resolutions, achieve them.  Due to the amount of effort that goes into a resolution, some are starting to stray further away from even setting a goal, let alone reaching it.  However, others stay persistent with this time-old tradition, even looking forward to the chance to start anew once more.

Though she has had successful resolutions in the past, senior, Sara Xibos doesn’t entirely agree with them now. “I don’t have any, I think they’re dumb to make,” exclaims Xibos. “If you’re going to change something then just change it, don’t wait for a specific date.”

Junior, Julie Whitaker disagrees. “It is a good way to get motivated, last year my resolution was to drink more water and I’m still doing it.”  This year Whitaker plans to go dairy free, and explains that “writing it down and having a tracking system, along with multiple goals throughout the year instead of one big goal” is the best way to achieve your resolution.  

While some remember resolutions they’ve made in the past years, seniors, Sam Ackerman and Sam Bley don’t recall ever making one.  “If it works for you, good, but I don’t need the beginning of the year to tell me that there’s something wrong in my life,” says Ackerman, “to me they’re all kind of pointless.” He further claims that people create New Year’s resolutions “because it’s trendy, not because you actually want to do it, it’s apart of the American culture.”

Bley explains that “you can change when you want to change and not procrastinate on it, resolutions like to study more or work out more are pointless, if you’re not already doing it or you’re just making it as an arbitrary resolution then it’s going to be a lot harder to change.”

Senior, Marissa Refsnyder, admits that resolutions don’t have to be set in January at all, the last time she had a resolution was before freshman year started.  “I wanted to have good grades, and that lasted for three years.”

To each person, New Year’s resolutions entail a different meaning, challenge, and set expectation.