Every time the calendar turns to January 1, it seems the entire world creates a new workout plan, buys organic food and makes their beds in the morning. But we all know this lasts a couple weeks or so, and then old habits begin to resurface. This concept of goal-making is present in many college students’ lives as they begin each new semester, whether that be with academics or daily habits. But what matters is if we can keep it up or not.
Many students turn to academic goals. Freshman Lexie Deshon is simply aiming to “be a better student.”
There are many ways to do this. For some, it involves not procrastinating, and others just want to study more. Junior Sarah Abrams is one who wants to leave the habit of procrastinating in past semesters.
“Not procrastinating is a good habit to get into,” Abrams said. “It’s the hardest [resolution] because at the beginning of the semester, you don’t have as many assignments, so you think, ‘Oh, I don’t need to do it now; it’s due in a week,’ but in a week you’re going to have more assignments.”
Abrams’ tactic to keep goals for this semester was to make New Year’s resolutions and then continue them as school started.
“[My New Year’s resolutions are] to not procrastinate and [apply] lotion every day,” Abrams said. ”Since we haven’t been in the habit of school for a month, it was easy to start bringing those things into my everyday routine and make it a daily habit for myself.”
Senior Rebekah Mauschbaugh also had school-related goals.
“I just want to focus more on my schoolwork and get through the school year,” Mauschbaugh said. “I have 21 credit hours this semester, so now seemed like a good time to actually go through it, plus it’s my last year.”
There is a notion that New Year’s resolutions never last the whole year. 31.6 percent of people drop their resolutions within two weeks, according to Statistic Brain. It may not sound like a lot, but when you think about how short two weeks is and how many people make New Year’s resolutions, it’s a sizable group.
However, college students may be successful in the first couple weeks of the semester.
The first week of every college semester is often referred to as syllabus week, since all it really consists of is professors reading from the syllabi they have created. This may be one reason that it is easy for college students to maintain their goals, the first week especially, since they don’t have much else to do.
“It has been pretty easy so far,” Deshon said. “I have been doing pretty decent and staying on top of stuff.”
When adults who have jobs make New Year’s resolutions, they immediately have to go back to working at the pace they were before the New Year, but college students get to ease back into their routines.
So here we are nearly into the third week of the semester, and it appears people have been successful at making attainable goals. It might not be that way a month from now, but it’s a good start.
_Edited by Claire Colby | ccolby@themaneater.com_