New Year’s Resolutions: A Supposed Time of Self-Improvement
FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE… HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone shouts as the famous NYC ball drop strikes the bottom, bringing forth a fresh year full of new experiences, adventures, and, of course, resolutions. Like many people around the world, Riverdale’s faculty and students all created their own resolutions in the hope (for most) to better themselves.
These New Year’s resolutions can be characterized into three categories, the first of which is academic. English teacher Dr. Edwards shared how in the New Year, he aims to read 25 pages, one poem, two pages of French a day, and to exercise five times a week. I was blown away by such an impressive and ambitious resolution. I can barely complete my CA reading every day, let alone even start my Spanish reading. Lo siento, Profe. However, Dr. Edwards is not alone in his journey toward academic betterment. Junior Jesse Horowitz expressed how he wants to read eight non-school books throughout the school year.
But Horowitz’s resolutions go further than just school. His next goal falls under the second category of resolutions: personal. He shared in the new year that he wants to go to bed before 10 pm at least 2 nights a week, and to watch every Quentin Tarantino movie. I personally can relate to the first part of his resolution, considering I am writing this article at 3 am. However, I have never watched one of Quentin Tarantino’s movies. Though I do have 3 hours before I have to get up for school, the perfect amount of time to comfortably watch one.
The third category of resolutions is difficult to define in one word, so I’ll let the answers speak for themselves. The first student, junior Martin Samper, expressed, “I don’t need the new year to work towards a new goal.” Although I agree with Samper’s philosophy that self-improvement shouldn’t be contingent on a specific date or event, he may have slightly forgotten the point of New Year’s resolutions. Another particular answer was given by junior Will David, whose resolution is to simply “stay as beautiful.” While I am going to refrain from commenting on David’s looks, I wholly support his confidence.
New Year’s resolutions are meant to encourage self-reflection and self-improvement by identifying personal shortcomings from the previous year and working to address them in the following year. Writing this article made me realize areas I could improve on going into 2026, like completing my Spanish readings, sleeping more, and building my confidence in my writing. Hearing the Riverdale community’s resolutions showed me there is no single right way of improving oneself, and even hopeful goal-setting and small, incremental changes can make a meaningful difference on our individual journeys of becoming better, slightly delusional people.
