By 
If I had a nickel for every year I’ve forgotten my resolutions by February, I’d probably have enough money to at least do one load of laundry in the Trinity washers.
In an effort to actually follow through, I started thinking about my resolutions in November this year. So, I present to you my list of resolutions I’ve been making a concerted effort to keep.
Disclaimer: This is a personal list, and I am certainly not qualified to give life advice. However, if any of your goals mirror some of my own, hopefully, you’ll find solidarity in another college student working on becoming a functional adult.
Learning to say no
Admittedly, this has been one of the most challenging resolutions on my list.
The prospect of letting people down makes me feel physically ill, but it’s also critically important to my health and well-being to learn that sometimes it’s okay to stop saying yes to things you don’t want to do.
The thing that’s been most helpful in following through with this resolution is realizing that saying no to something one time doesn’t make you a bad person, and the person who asked you probably isn’t stressing as much as you are.
If they’re not overthinking it, why should you? Saying no to something right now will probably not have a lasting impact five years, five months, or probably even five days from now.
While there are still some things that I begrudgingly do occasionally, being more assertive about the things I don’t want to do has helped me prioritize the things that matter in my personal life.
Writing stuff down
People have been saying that writing stuff down is the key to accomplishing things. Big shocker: it works. If I have a busy week (which is almost every week now as a second-semester senior), I’ve found that writing out my daily schedule makes each day seem more manageable.
Also, I forget about my homework a lot less when I have a written reminder to do it.
I hope writing my resolutions down in a public forum (i.e., this column) also helps me follow through with them.
Improving my health
Admittedly, this one has been a give-and-take effort, my biggest struggle being the amount of water I consume. There are some days that I’m super good about drinking water and others where the only water I consume is in the form of coffee and La Croix. I’m still working towards accomplishing this goal, but I’ve found on days I drink more than a single glass of water, I don’t have as many headaches. Go figure?
Winter in Montana is also super draining and sometimes I feel like it’s hard to get outside, but on days when it’s nice, I enjoy going on walks. Walking isn’t exactly the exercise I envisioned when I first made this goal to get healthier, but I can honestly say that my mental health has improved tenfold since I set aside time to walk every day. I think my daily walks may be one of the rare times I’m not stressed and can just silently reflect on my day. (I‘m literally always talking, so this silence is actually probably good for me).
Detaching myself from technology
This is super hard to do as a college student because I feel like almost everything we do is online. That said, I’ve been making a bigger effort to have a hard cutoff time for technology each night. While some nights are challenging because of homework or other job responsibilities, I try to stop using my computer and phone by 11 p.m. I’ve found that the things I accomplish after 11 p.m. aren’t that productive anyways, so it’s easier just to stop there and revisit the task some other time.
While I’m also an avid Kindle fan because you can jack the font up. I’m blinder than my grandmother, so I’ve made it part of my New Year’s Resolution to read more physical copies of books. Exploring the selection at the Lewis & Clark County library has been fun, and they have an excellent large print selection.
Even though we aren’t very far into the year yet, going into 2023 with some intentionality in my goals has made me feel like my life is a bit more put together.
While this is probably a ruse, it’s nice to work towards something and actively take steps to get there.
I wish every person the best of luck in achieving their 2023 resolutions. Hopefully, we make it to March, at least, before we forget them.
