I Hope Your Resolution Means Something

This is a new year.

2016.

Pandemonium erupted.

We waited all night on December 30th, anxiously anticipating 12:01, January 1, when all of our "old year" problems would magically disappear and we'd turn the page to a new chapter, a new year. And when that little zero finally flipped to a one, pandemonium erupted. Kisses. Embraces. Glowing spheres fell. For that one moment, everything was perfect.

And then that moment ended.

What makes us so excited for the new year? It feels the same as the old one, doesn't it? All of those New Years greetings feel a little cliché to me: "May every day of the new year glow with good cheer!" Get that cheesy grin off your face and step into the real world, please. I guess that goodness is what we want, what we hope for; but our resolutions die, our excitement dies within the month. By February all of our "Exercise more"'s and "Eat healthy"'s have faded into the every day doldrums again.

Sorry. I'm shooting down other people's hope.

But I'm not, really. Because even though this is going to happen, even though we're bound to lose steam after a while, there has to be some kind of resolution that we can keep. Something that isn't an "Exercise more" or "Eat healthy". Something that means something.

Why do people do "New Years Resolutions", anyway? So they can feel better about themselves? So they can fulfill the tradition? Or so they can legitimately work on improving themselves? That isn't hope, not really. These silly little lists don't restore faith in humanity because nobody ever sticks to them. They don't mean anything. And you can't say, "My New Year's Resolution is to make a resolution that means something!"

Come on.

So how do we change this? The non-fulfillment of the resolutions is almost as much a part of the tradition as making the list in the first place. We want to make resolutions that are meaningful but not cheesy, hopeful but not unrealistic. Maybe I'm placing the bar too high because I can't think of anything that exactly fits that description.

I think it'd be awesome if somebody could come up with something like that. I've done a ton of research and I haven't been able to come up with anyone who could fit my standards. The resolutions are made but never followed through. HOWEVER: if you have a story about an AWESOME resolution that you KEPT from any year prior to 2016 (obviously), email me at rsophie865@gmail .com or talk about it in the comments below, and I'll write about it in my next post!

I hope you all find some "meaningful" resolution to do that will eventually become a habit! Happy New Year! Go do something!