The moment the ball drops and the clock hits midnight on New Year’s, senior Ella Aquino’s mind begins pacing with thoughts. It is filled with dreams and aspirations for 2025, as she hopes to stay consistent in new goals by committing to her New Year’s resolutions.
The celebration of the New Year has inspired several students like Aquino to strive towards their ambitions for the future pertaining to grades, colleges and workout goals.
“This year I really hope to stay motivated and live in the present,” Aquino said. “I get my motivation for my resolutions from reminiscing on the past three years at Miege, and wish that I would’ve enjoyed more moments rather than thinking about the next.”
A change in mindset is a similar resolution for sophomore Sadie Lepper going into this year. Lepper shared that motivation can be one of the hardest goals to stay consistent with while being busy with school.
“I tend to sometimes put off assignments until the last minute because I don’t have the motivation to do them, or feel like doing something else,” Lepper said. “However, starting the new semester I have a new chance to do better.”
For Lepper and Aquino, New Years means basing various resolutions around themselves, their future goals and their friends. According to Aquino, being reminiscent and reflective has been prominent in her senior year.
“My dad inspires me to do this because he talks about his past in such detail,” Aquino said. “You can tell he really soaked in the present.”
Last semester, Lepper’s goal was to improve her spring semester grades, and expressed that she hopes to stay on task even more by breaking procrastinating tendencies.
“My motivation to not procrastinate comes from my last semester grades,” Lepper said. “I am okay with how they were, but I know I could be doing better if I put more time into things and didn’t put off work ‘till the last second.”
For other students, motivation to set and achieve a New Year’s goal stemmed from inspiration from their peers. According to junior Brayden Enriquez, raising his GPA along with working out more in his at-home gym are two of his goals motivated by his friends who prioritize physical activity.
“This year I really want to lock in and stay motivated throughout the year, a lot like my friend Eugene [Brown],” Enriquez said. “He’s always working really hard and I want to be like that.”
As she thought up different goals she could strive towards, Aquino shared that sticking to the resolutions throughout the entire year would be her biggest challenge. Some things that have motivated her are thinking about her future college life.
“I think New Year’s resolutions exist so people have something to look forward to,” Aquino said. “I think they work only if you are consistent. But having something to look forward to helps me stay consistent; for me it’s college with my future roommates.”
The New Year for students such as Enriquez, Aquino and Lepper is a reason to bring about change and reset into personal lives.
“I think they exist because people use the new year as a way to change or do better,” Lepper said. “But I don’t think they always work, because some people, like me, don’t always follow through.”
