New Year’s resolutions are a big part of welcoming in the new year for a lot of people. The tradition started roughly 4,000 years ago with the ancient Babylonians and it has evolved over the years. It became common in the 17th century and is a big part of modernly ringing in the new year. Even if you don’t watch the ball drop at midnight, chances are you at least think about making a resolution for the new year. According to a poll done by Statista about America’s 2021 New Year’s resolutions, the top five most common resolutions were exercising more and improving overall fitness, losing weight, saving more money, improving their diet or pursuing a career ambition.

Senior Aiden Milewski is going to be trying to “develop better self-discipline skills and habits” as his resolution. This is important to him because he gets “a lot of self-worth out of productivity.”

Senior Bella Hodnett Ortiz said that her “main New Year’s Resolution is to continue to keep [her] personal life and school life balanced.” Many people like Bella feel the need to maintain or achieve this good balance especially in high school. She is going to “work on [her] time management” skills to help reach that healthy balance. 

Junior Gianna Dicks has a resolution that is also highly focused on self-care. She wants to “find something kind about [herself] or something positive that happened each day of the year.” She then wants to take about five to ten minutes a day to reflect. She brought up how by focusing on the good things in life she can also work on the issues that can be fixed while letting go of the things that are out of her control.

Sadly, one thing that frequently happens by February or March is that people stop following through on their resolutions. Hodnett-Ortiz said that she thinks she will follow through on her resolution “because this is something that is really important to [her]” and it is something she already prioritizes. In her opinion, it will be “easier for [her] to continue it and to get better at it.” Dicks said she “truly doesn’t know if [she] will keep up with [her] resolution,” but that she is going to try her best and work hard towards it. Milewski said that he feels “confident that although at times [he] won’t be as productive or disciplined as [he wants] to be, [he] will continually improve this and stick with it.”

When picking a resolution, pick something that you feel strongly about so that if you are motivated you will be less likely to stop or give up. Happy New Year!