New Year’s resolutions are not a construct of modern Americans. According to How Stuff Works, over 4,000 years ago the Babylonians began ringing in the new year with an 11-day festival. Babylonians made promises to the gods in hopes they’d earn good favor in the coming year. Ancient Egyptians celebrated their new calendar year during the Nile River’s annual flood.
Presently, the majority of Americans age 45 and younger plan to make a New Year’s resolution whereas only 28 percent of those 45 and older make any. Approximately 43 percent of NHS students make New Year’s resolutions. This year, junior Nino Valle decided to participate in the act of making a New Year’s resolution.
“My New Year’s resolution is I want to give a compliment to someone every day,” Valle said.
Valle does not know where the inspiration for his resolution arose from but he plans to keep his resolution all year. Presently, Valle has been able to stay true to his resolution. Valle expresses that he just came up with his resolution after participating in his annual New Year’s celebrations.
“I really just came up with it after eating 12 grapes and drinking some sparkling grape juice,” Valle said.
For most students, they tend to make a more traditional resolution in that their resolutions usually relate to school and sports. Many NHS resolutions were along the lines of behaving well, getting better grades and staying fit. For sophomore Skyler Parks this is exactly what happened.
“My 2020 New Year’s resolution is that I want to do better in school,” Parks said. “Last year’s grades and last semester’s grades inspired my resolution.”
Parks expresses that she has only ‘kind of’ followed through on her resolution. However, she has seen results from her resolution in that she is doing well in school and not grounded all the time. For sophomore, Analiyah Torres, her resolution contains both school and sports.
“My New Year’s resolution is getting in shape for soccer and having soccer be a priority,” Torres said. “As well as, just getting good grades in school because I have to be a good student at the same time as being a good athlete.”
Torres’ 2020 resolution is inspired by her behaviors in 2019. Torres’s former resolutions vary from doing well in school, doing well in soccer and doing well in cross country. She expresses that she participates in New Year’s resolutions because she believes it is good to work to accomplish something.
“I decided to have a New Year’s resolution this year because I think that having a goal to strive for is so much easier than just being everywhere,” Torres said. “Last year, I was just all over the place so I really took this year and I wanted it to be different.”
Torres has participated in New Year’s resolutions continuously for many years. She tends to follow through on her resolutions as well, unlike 55 percent of NHS students, who do not end up following through on their resolutions. She has already begun to see results from her resolution in that it has kept her committed for what she loves most and has changed her health and body structure physically.
“I plan on keeping this resolution all year,” Torres said. “I might add to it as I go, but I plan to keep it all year long just because I love soccer and soccer season is coming up. Soccer has really just been my encouragement all along, school wise. School can be a struggle for me so having soccer around makes it all better.”