(CU Independent illustration/Adam Milner)
New Year’s Eve is generally celebrated by indulging in food, liquor and sometimes illegal activities that the doer is already prepared to swear off come just a few hours…
Besides the irony of that particular fact, New Year’s resolutions seem like a good idea, right?
Some students disagree.
Malia Caldwell, 19-year-old sophomore political science major, says she doesn’t believe in the idea of making resolutions.
“I don’t make resolutions because I don’t keep them,” Caldwell said. “My resolution is to make no resolutions.”
Caldwell isn’t the only student who said they had trouble keeping a New Year’s resolution.
Sophomore architecture major Cassidy Rosen, 20, said she was only motivated a few days for her goal.
“I tried to quit smoking and I smoked two days later,” Rosen said.
Other students took a different approach to accomplishing their ambitions; they didn’t project goals far into the future, but rather decided to take each day one at a time.
Kenaya Camacho, a 21-year-old senior and anthropology major, said she is focusing on changing a daily routine.
“I figured this year if something comes up I’ll work on it at the time—just try to be the best person I can be every day,” Camacho said.
Other students like Whitney Anyanwu, a 21-year-old senior creative writing major, say they embrace smaller lifestyle changes, setting more realistic and achievable goals.
“Just be real about what you think you can do,” Anyanwu said.
Like Anyanwu, Isaac Thill, 20-year-old communications major, set an important goal for himself along with some easy ambitions to fall back on.
“When anybody asks me, I say I’m gonna continue to not do meth,” Thill said.
Another resolution Thill set for himself was cutting back on soft drinks, a challenge many college students face.
“I’ll drink it with cocktails just not by itself,” Thill said. “I replace it with Gatorade, lemonade or juice. It’s hard when I wake up at a friend’s house and all they have in the fridge is Coke.”
Sallie King, a 21-year-old senior psychology major, said she looks at her resolutions from a broad perspective, and then narrows it down to individual levels.
“A resolution on a global level is probably environmental sustainability, reducing our carbon footprint and consumption,” King said. “Recycling, taking public transportation, using reusable containers, and not buying as many things you don’t need — these are all things we as individuals can do to keep that resolution.”
Ariel Jantzen, a 20-year-old sophomore philosophy major, said she finds making lists helpful in order to prioritize goals.
“I have them all written down; I have like fifty of them,” Jantzen said. “Surround myself with positive people, avoid abrasive people, work hard, play hard, create something and call grandma weekly.”
CU Independent staff writer Anna McIntosh at Anna.mcintosh@colorado.edu.
