For some, the first semester can be recalled as a drowning amount of Natural Lights, copious orders of Campus Corner and unending caffeine-fueled weeknights. What does this mean? Simply, all this means is that odds are you grew a gut.
With the new year comes the cliché new year’s resolutions. Filled with aspirations to better oneself through their mind, friendships and most commonly their physical appearance. From syllabus week until the end of January, odds are the Dixon Center will be jam-packed with muffin-top-adorned, and double-chin-wearing students just trying to reclaim the body they moved in with this past August. The problem isn’t with the influx of students wanting to become more healthy, the problem lies with the fact that come the first week of February the number of new-found gym bunnies will be cut in half.
It isn’t always about getting in shape—you may be the guy bordering on being an alcoholic so you’re determined to stop that, or the girl that has made so many mistakes first semester that you’re afraid to touch the holy water while fulfilling your resolution to go to church. However, just like the gym, there is more than a possibility that the guy is going to find a reason to drink his body weight in Bankers Club and Keystone Lights all over again and the girl may even go right back to giving the holy water a reason to feel like acid to her touch, but that’s okay.
Whether or not we can hold to the promises we make to ourselves isn’t something we should be ashamed of. If a person sets a New Years resolution and desires to fulfill it, they need to truly want it. There is no way that you’re going to stop smoking Newport 100’s because you know how much your mom wants you to quit. It has to be for you.
What about the people who do want it for themselves yet still stop pushing come the first week of February? Maybe it’s just not the right time. Whether it is a myth or not, my grandmother has always said, “It takes 21-days to break a habit, which means it takes 21 to make one.” Don’t let missing a week or two convince you to completely stop. If you can’t go to the gym every day to lose that gut, go when you can, and if you don’t make it to church to beg for forgiveness about what you did last Friday night, try to make it next week. Whatever you said your resolution is, keep to it—regardless if it’s not consecutive.
At the end of the day, New Year’s resolutions aren’t really different from any promise you would make to yourself. Don’t limit yourself to just New Years. The glorified idea of a New Year’s resolution is just an excuse for attention-seeking social media users to post “#newyear #newme,” when everyone knows deep down inside that you’re still the same chunky girl that left for Christmas break and you’re still the belligerent super-freshman who bongs beers before psychology class.
Basically, don’t do it for your followers on social media, do it for yourself. If it doesn’t work the first time, try next month.
