New Year’s Resolutions: everyone makes them, some stick to them, but all of them reveal things about ourselves that we’ve neglected. We here at the Culture Desk have been thinking about the ways we could be better this year, so here are our New Year’s Resolutions (two weeks into January) because it’s never too late to tell yourself this is your year!
Working out
Everyone makes this resolution. It’s a bit generic, which, if you’re me, means that you just need to do it harder than everyone else to make it meaningful. Last year my friend and I resolved to train for a half marathon. We got through about 8 weeks of training, running in the cold, our hands freezing on the canal trail, until the warm weather came and our runs became walks. Eventually, we would just sit on cross campus and soak up the sun. We never did run that half marathon, but it is January once again, and the canal trail seems to call our names.
Waking up early
The sun sets at 4 p.m. If you get up at noon you miss it all.
Reading a certain amount of books
Haunted by that Goodreads book goal? Me too. Always feeling inferior when your section asshole quotes some indie (derogatory), gay (derogatory) Russian novel that you can’t find in Barnes & Noble’s translation section? Me too.
Keeping a journal
One can look to Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook” and feel moved. But is carrying a notebook all that practical? I wonder how one could ration their pages when the Moleskine cost 30 dollars to begin with. Taking a notebook out might just make you look pretentious (and that is not in line with resolution 14: ‘reinvent yourself.’) Maybe you read the same substack as me on January 1st telling you to keep a list of things that moved you. Do it on your phone, it’s a lot more unassuming.
Being optimistic
Stop listening to your Daylist. It’s bad for you. Titles like “Gut-wrenching solitude kill yourself Thursday evening” might have something to do with your rapidly declining tolerance for humanity.
Fall in love
A friend of mine told me that her resolution this year was to fall in love. It inspired me how she said it, as if falling in love is as much your decision as it is the other person’s. Life is not about convincing people to fall in love with you, nor is it about convincing yourself to fall in love with other people, but finding someone else who joins you in the contract of love.
Yearn less
Do not yearn over a skinny white man. Since it’s a leap year, you will have to subject yourself to one more day of pain if you fall for another vaguely indie (derogatory), emotionally unavailable, somewhat literate film major. For some of us, though, this is asking a lot. Delusions aren’t deconstructed in a day…or a year…or twenty years. As an alternative, don’t yearn over 2023’s skinny white man. Find a new one!!
Being more intentional
One of us wrote this down as a resolution. I don’t know who, but I envy them. Personally, I have thought about every single action that I have ever taken in my life to an obsessive and concerning degree.
Being more social
I have never been good at drawing the line between complete isolation and self-care, but by God this will be the year I learn. Solitude and melancholy are out. 2024 is for lovers only. Repeat after me: I will not rot in my room all day!!!
Study more
Last year, my top song on Spotify was a deep house trance mix that I found while trying to write a paper. “Plasma” by Dr. Gabba has haunted me and everyone I have shown it to since. Spotify informed me that I listened to “Plasma” a whopping 431 times in 2023. Perhaps I ought to study less and go join a bluegrass band.
Spending more time with friends
I like this one.
Reinvent yourself
While I was packing for college, a friend asked me what my resolution for the semester was. Usually it’s to reinvent myself, to become someone the current me would never recognize: a more social, intentional, and mindful version of myself. I always come back from the semester not feeling too different than I did at the start, concluding I failed at reinventing myself at all. But perhaps there was never much to reinvent at all. Perhaps my resolution should have been not to reinvent myself but to start accepting myself.
We know that these resolutions will not help us achieve nirvana. Next year, we will still be doomed to the suffering of flesh and the eternal cycle of samsara. But at least we’ll be one year closer to self-actualization.
