Welcome back everybody! It’s a new day, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new year, and it’s time to talk resolutions. Hopefully, now that we are two weeks into the year, you have had some time to reflect on 2014, and have identified some ways to enrich your lives. This is after all why we make resolutions. The tradition of making promises to ourselves to do good is intended to challenge us to improve our lives and, consequently, the lives of those around us. Contrary to popular belief, resolutions don’t have to be extravagant gestures. In fact, it is easier to follow through on simple tasks that have clear and specific steps to follow. Makes sense. An example of a resolution could be to be kinder, and a way to follow through this with resolution could be to hold doors for more people. Here are examples of other resolutions that are brought to you by your fellow NDA students:

Allison McPhail ’15: “My resolution is to stop interrupting people when they are saying something to me because I’m actually interested in what they have to say; it’s just a bad habit.”

Nicole Newman ’16: “My new year’s resolution is to read more books for pleasure. I enjoy reading, and it doesn’t hurt to brush up on my vocabulary for the SAT.”

Emmeline Endresen ’17: “My resolution is not to worry about the little things as much.”

These resolutions are all great because they are all thoughtful and personal. The beginning of a new year is the perfect opportunity to finally let go of bad habits and welcome permanent good ones. This means your resolutions have to actually last for more than a month. What? Yeah it blew my mind, too. In all seriousness though, challenge yourself to be persistent this year and stick to your resolution because who knows? Maybe once you get over the initial cheesiness you might actually come to enjoy your resolution.