Confession time: I’ve never made New Year’s resolutions! However, I am familiar with this yearly “tradition” of sorts that many tend to take part in. It makes sense. What more inspirational way to ring in the new year than to pledge to make improvements to your life? But phase two of this tradition includes breaking every single resolution within the first month of making them. Suddenly those life improvements don’t seem so important or exciting anymore. This is what has become a societal “norm.” When you tell your friends that your resolution is to lose 10 pounds, chances are they’re rolling their eyes at you and thinking, I give her two weeks before she gives up. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I tend to defy common thoughts held by society (totally on purpose). Seriously, anyone who tells me that I won’t stick to my resolutions will earn a death glare, free of charge. Who are you to label me or anyone else a failure “ahead of time”? To kick off the new year, and to show that amazing resolutions can come in tiny packages, I have my first ever list of New Year’s resolutions to share with you!
- Stop eating junkfood out of boredom. You don’t have to be a doctor to know that excessive junkfood is bad for you in the long run. Even if you can’t physically see the effects of eating all those cookies, cakes, chips and crap, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing bad things to you internally. I already know that I can go weeks without eating sweets (chocolate, etc.) because I’ve done it before. However, at some point during the semester, I felt like having a chocolate bar as a midnight snack and a well-needed pick-me-up. One chocolate bar one night turned into a chocolate bar every night, which turned into a pint of ice cream a few times a week! I had completely destroyed my no junkfood streak to the point where I’d go out and get junky snacks because I was literally bored and wanted to chew on something! Um, no. This isn’t going to cut the mustard this time!
- Travel around the city more. I always get weird looks when I tell people I’m from the boroughs of New York but I very rarely go to Manhattan. Always. It’s kind of disappointing to know that I wouldn’t be able to give clear (or correct) directions around the city if I ever needed to. Plus, I personally would like to explore some of the hidden gems in the city. Everyone knows the Statue of Liberty, Rockefellar Center and such (which I’ve neber visited, by the way) but I’d like to skip that and go hunting for the lesser known awesome places in the city. I have nothing against the fabulous landmarks in our city, I’d just like to explore the way I want to explore.
- Make new friends. This is especially important for me because some of my absolute closest friends who I met in college are seniors and are graduating this spring! Sure, I know some people my age but I didn’t always click with them the way I clicked with my older friends. I’ll be losing my Zumba buddy, sadly. While I still plan to keep in touch with my friends after they graduate, it’s equally important that I meet new people and grow new friendships. I’m sometimes good at starting conversations with random people, but following up is where I have the issue. I don’t always text people asking if they want to grab dinner or if they want to study together sometime. I really should because these are super easy ways to get to know someone new and build a friendship. But that’s what the new year is for – working on a few things!
- Gain membership into blogger networks. I’ve been blogging for two years now, but this is my first super legit website/blog and it’d be really cool to gain valuable insight from being part of blogger networks. There are two networks I already have in mind: The Her Campus Blogger Network and Blogger Babes. Blogger Babes is especially cool because it can help female bloggers be competitive in the industry while fostering a sense of community and oneness. Plus, gaining membership will give me a step in the right direction and show me that every ounce of work I’ve put into my website is paying off.
- Enhance my makeup skills. I’m fairly decent with applying foundation, winging my eyeliner, making my eyelashes look ginormous and doing pretty eyeshadow, but I’d definitely like to pick up a few new skills and master some new makeup looks. There are so many ways to do a smoky eye and I’d like to find one way that’s completely my own. I also want to learn how to make wild eyeshadow colors look flawless! Yes, I would be that girl walking through campus with yellow, green and orange eyeshadow and I would totally own it! To do this I will try to go to free beauty classes offered by Sephora stores to those who are members (like I am). I will also try looking around for other makeup events and such around the city (Whoo! Resolution #2).
- Practice photography and improve skills. As a blogger, I feel that having great photography skills of your own will help you out immensely because you’ll be pulling stockphotos off the internet less and less if you have your own fabulous masterpieces to put online. Plus, in the journalism industry (especially magazine journalism) if you can take your own high quality pictures, it’s a huge advantage when looking for employment because more and more content platforms are pushing for original photographs to accompany articles. I’ve been playing around with my iphone and trying to take better pictures using that for now, but I’d like to get a DSLR camera so I can really take pics like a pro.
- Enhance mental skills. Ever wonder what hidden abilities you might possess? No, I don’t expect to be able to move my eyeshadow palette with my mind (yet) but I definitely know that I want to be able to use my brain more. We probably all have more mental capacity than we might think, but the truth is, more often than not, we are slowing down. I want to pick up speed and be sharp as a tack. There are dozens of apps nowadays that allow you to train your brain and stretch cognition. I’ve tried some in the past (which can be addicting but frustrating if you don’t hit the goal you want to hit) but I have never sought to make it a habit, until now, that is. Thinking can be improved, problem solving can be improved, not to mention other cool abilities. Telekinesis is overrated, anyway.
- Get my first paying part-time job. Confession: I’m a sophomore in college and I’ve never had a paying part-time job. Ever. I’ve been an intern and volunteered before but I’ve never performed a task for monetary compensation. I would really like to get on that part-time employment train. Making my own money means that I’ll have more responsibility to save and monitor it properly, which is actually a really good thing because it teaches you habits that you’ll have to have when you’re older. Plus, I’ll be able to add to my list of references and experience by getting a job.
- Start reading again. I used to be able to go through novels in a day. That’s right, a day. I used to devour books and could recall every detail in them. When I got to high school, I stopped reading during lunch and instead listened to whatever gossip was going around the table that day. Now, reading books for class seems like a chore, and my reading speed has definitely slowed. My passion for writing started with my passion for reading, after all, and it would be great to get back into the reading zone.
- Get my clarinet fixed and play again. I’ve been a band geek for nearly 10 years. My instrument of choice: the clarinet. After high school, a key on my clarient broke and I never got it fixed. I’ve definitely been meaning to pick it up and play again, especially an awesome Game of Thrones cover, but I can’t do that with a broken key! I hope this will be the year for me to get it fixed and back in shape so I can get back to playing in my free time.
- Learn more Italian. I took Italian during my freshman year of college and it’s a really great language! I definitely would like to travel to Italy someday and being able to speak the language would be pretty helpful. My goal here is to refresh my memory on what I’ve learned and learn new things about the language and culture.
I hope you enjoyed reading my New Year’s Resolutions and I hope I even inspired you to make your own – no matter how big or small! Have a Happy New Year guys!
What are your New Year’s Resolutions?