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The Section - Resolutions, Anyone?
01/02/2006
The Section is a new feature within The Waterbury Observer written by, for and about area youth. It is produced by Media in Motion, a youth jouranlism program, in partnership with The Observer. For more information contact Youth Editor and Executive Director Quajay Donnell at quajay@leader365.org or 203-500-3891.
By Julie Albert
Junior, Waterbury Arts Magnet School
Most resolutions end up being about weight loss, getting a job, or doing well in school. Around the third day of attempting to keep the promise to yourself, it's completely forgotten, and all hope for your resolution for that year is lost. So why bother making a resolution if you know you won't push yourself to achieve it? Why put yourself through the ordeal of thinking up one of the things you are absolutely terrible at just so you can pretend to yourself for a couple of days, or a week if you're lucky, that you can change so easily?
Personally, I don't like to dwell on what I'm awful at. It doesn't exactly make for a good time at a New Year's Eve party. Besides, making a resolution really isn't the first thing on my mind while watching the ball drop. New Year's Eve shouldn't be about remembering every miniscule detail that you messed up during the year. It shouldn't be a time to mope around, or think too seriously about anything. New Year's Eve should be when we get rid of the old year as much as possible. We should forget everything bad that happened that we might want to change because, in a completely new year, how much of that bad can really carry over?
So, my advice to you, forget your resolutions. That is, if you even made one this year. Trying to kick a bad habit shouldn't have to do with starting a fresh new year. Bad habits bring down the mood of whatever sort of celebration you attend, so don't waste time thinking about them just now. Reminiscing is good in doses so long as you don't bog yourself down with the past. A new year is just that- a new chance to begin over. There's no need for hang-on memories that don't allow you to move on. And resolving to do something never works out exactly right anyway. It's like a command to accomplish some great goal that you probably won't get done by simply telling yourself to because no one likes to be ordered around. Whoever first thought of New Year's resolutions clearly didn't know human nature. We can't tell ourselves what to achieve for only the sake of having something to do. We need drive. We need willpower. We need a reason behind every infinitely small task we go for; if the only reason to do something is because it was a resolution, it won't be on the top of the list of things to do.
Try those New Year's resolutions some other time when you don't feel morally obligated to complete them. Chances are the less compelled you feel to fulfill your resolution, the easier it will be to actually do the impossible and help yourself out. And trust me, procrastinating until the reasons for resolving build up will make you jump to it. What is it about New Year's resolutions that make them so impossible to keep? Perhaps it's because we make them at midnight, when normally we wouldn't be asked to make such important decisions. Or maybe it's because we make them impossible to fulfill. Either way, it seems like a majority of teenagers have decided not to make a resolution this year simply because it's a waste of time.
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