New Year, New OHS?

January 1st. For New Yorkers, New Year’s Day involves subjecting yourself to the cold of a northeastern winter night to watch the ball drop. Brazilians dress in all white and welcome the new year on a beach. Meanwhile, in Spain, people eat a dozen grapes for good luck. There are various traditions and ways to celebrate New Year’s Day around the world, but new year’s resolutions seem to be the common denominator. 

Something about the first day of the year prompts people to hit the reset button of their lives. They drop old habits and begin new ones with a newfound motivation and the hope that this year will be different than the last. Consequently, there is a spike in downloads of diet or language-learning apps and workout subscriptions during this time of year. However, much of this new year’s motivation has proven to be shortlived. According to Forbes Health, 55% of the surveyed people didn’t follow through with their resolutions for the whole year. The environment of knowing that your neighbors and community are creating resolutions as well also comes with a disadvantage as this creates a lot of pressure to make—and stick to—your new year’s resolutions. 

Many OHS students also participate in new year’s resolutions. As the pie chart to the right expresses, out of the 9 surveyed OHS students, 36.8% had health-related resolutions. These anonymous students wanted to focus on exercising and eating healthier in the new year. One particular student shared “[I want to] practice intuitive eating and work out in a more body-positive way.” Instead of working out or dieting to reach the “ideal body type,” the surveyed OHS students are admirably prioritizing balance and challenging themselves.

Furthermore, 21.1% of OHS students have resolutions that fit into the “learning” category. Multiple students want to start reading for leisure again. They find themselves too occupied with assigned texts to explore genres and authors that interest them. One student wants to improve their tennis skills. Other students aim to learn new languages this year. The most popular languages that OHS students want to learn are Spanish, Korean, and Tagalog. 

Tied for third place are time management and personal growth-related goals. One anonymous student wants to take advantage of their planner this year, admitting that “last year, [they] ended up accidentally doing assignments the day before they were due, [which was] very stressful and made the process of doing assignments pretty horrible.” The new calendar year also signifies the start of a new semester for students, so many want to get ahead of their long to-do list. Ending their cycle of procrastination was a big goal of many OHSers. As for personal growth-related goals, multiple students plan to express their gratitude through journalling. According to one student, this is a way “for [them] to have a positive and hopeful perspective and keep that blissful New Year’s Day energy throughout the year.” 

Finally, 10.5% of the collected responses featured technology-related goals. Especially as online students, many OHSers wanted to decrease their screen time. With multiple hours on YouTube and TikTok logged in 2022, students wanted to find alternative ways to spend their free time. Examples included playing sports, practicing an instrument, or spending time with friends. 

Interestingly, one OHS student argued “Why can’t we try to get better every day of the year? Why make New Years a special day for making resolutions!? Just try to be better every moment you can!” For some people who find it hard to stick to resolutions, they may find it more meaningful to explore ways to bring the unique enthusiasm and ambition of New Year’s Day into daily life. To keep up with resolutions, some OHS students advise just forcing yourself to get past the adjustment period. Once a new habit becomes a real habit, completing it will become natural. Others suggest scrapping the boring and ambitious goals for more light-hearted ones that you have fun working towards.  

Whether you are for or against New Year’s Resolutions, there’s no doubt that there is a pressure from others and social media to wake up at 5:00 a.m. to workout or buy that new juicer that the department store conveniently put on sale. The thought that everyone in the country—and the world—is making resolutions at the same time on the same day is overwhelming. While, admittedly, this pressure can sometimes be self-imposed, the most important thing to remember when faced with all of these outside influences is that resolutions are ways for you to become the best version of yourself possible. Missing a day or making mistakes is not detrimental to your goals. You don’t have to wait for 2024 to restart. You can always try again tomorrow.