New year, new me?

The most popular saying in January is “new year, new me” as people around the world strive to improve aspects of their lives with New Year’s resolutions. However, it is notoriously known that often times these resolutions are broken.

According to Forbes, 40 percent of people make New Year’s resolutions and only eight percent of people achieve them. Countless memes and tweets joke about resolutions being broken the day after they are made. Whether it be to go to bed earlier or drink more water, resolutions are often left in the dust. Why is this the case? Students at UHS have seemed to come to a consensus: New Year’s resolutions don’t work.

One reason for this is the convenience of New Year’s. Although the idea may come from the right place, it is not beneficial in the long run.

“People make [New Year’s resolutions] because of circumstance and not because of desire,” sophomore Richard Coulter remarks. “If you’re gonna make a change to yourself, you shouldn’t wait around to do it because that gives you an out.”

Junior Chloe Attrell has similar views. “It’s self-assigned penance for problems with easy solutions. People hype it up to be something that it isn’t. They could’ve done it regardless and they’re burning themselves up because of that.”

The popular phrase “new year, new me” has like reactions.

“It’s not true,” says senior Alyson Trowbridge. “I think they might be trying to motivate themselves, but it never really goes through.”

“It doesn’t seem to serve much of a purpose,” Coulter states.

Attrell acknowledges that the saying comes from the right place. “It may be a placebo effect but it certainly feels nice.”

Unsurprisingly, none of those interviewed seem to have made resolutions for 2018.

“I don’t wait until the new year if I decide to change,” sophomore Khaled Messai states. “If you need an excuse to fix something, then you usually don’t want to fix it in the first place.”

Trowbridge admits she has made resolutions in the past. “[My resolution] was to write more music and I don’t think I finished the songs I started. Life just kind of takes over.”

A general agreement was that New Year’s Eve is more a time for bonding with family and friends than making resolutions.

“I was with my family,” Attrell says about her New Year’s Eve. “We got Digiorno stuffed crust pizza and ate Ben and Jerry’s. I stayed up until 3 a.m.”

Messai spent the evening with his friends. “I was playing the claw machine at Steak n’ Shake. We went sledding at 10 p.m. [too].”

The central idea seems to be to focus on the present. Spend time with people you like, improve yourself because you want to and not because it’s a holiday. Whether New Year’s resolutions work or not, people seem to jump at the chance for self improvement. If anything can be taken from this, it’s to not wait for change.