New Year’s resolutions are an important tradition of entering into a year with ambition and hope for self-improvement. As everyone waves goodbye to 2024, many reflect on the past year while setting goals for 2025.
Before entering into 2025 and setting New Year’s resolutions, teachers and students feel that it is important to reflect on one’s past achievements and habits to understand what needs improvement.
“The way to develop as a human being is to move forward while learning from what we’ve gained, while not forgetting or taking for granted all of the wonderful experiences we’ve had,” AP English Language teacher Christopher Works said.
Embracing this mindset, many students reflect on their highs and lows of 2024.
“One of my greatest accomplishments of 2024 was probably getting into the pharmacy technician program,” junior Evie Pham said. “It’s a pretty competitive program and the work is challenging, but I think it’s very rewarding in the end.”
Students also take a moment to reflect on the academic opportunities they pursued. Many appreciate all the new academic experiences and knowledge they obtained in 2024.
“During the summer of 2024, I took art history and communication classes,” junior Lexy Kendrick said. “The art class actually allowed me to go visit a museum and do a lot of different assignments that were very creative. It was different from other classes I’ve been taking.”
Other students learned more about themselves and grew more independent through travel in 2024.
“Last summer, I went to visit my friend in Croatia by myself,” junior Siena Jacob said. “I felt like that was a really big step for me, because it was my first time traveling completely alone and having to navigate in a different country. I gained a lot of positive experiences from that and I also learned a lot about myself.”
Many students want to take the positive moments and energy of 2024 into the new year, helping them reach their 2025 goals and resolutions.
“I am entering into 2025 with a very optimistic attitude,” said senior Daniel Loncaric. “I have learned a lot about myself in 2024 and hope that I can use what I learned in 2024 to make 2025 an even better year. ”
Students have high aspirations and goals for 2025. Many are entering into the new year with ambition and hope for the future.
“I learn Indian classical dance, so I’m really focusing on dance and getting better in 2025,” Jacob said. “I am working towards my senior performance which takes a lot of hard work and dedication.”
In addition to very ambitious goals, many students are also setting smaller goals to achieve in 2025.
“In 2025, I want to find some more hobbies and interests that don’t necessarily pertain to school,” Kendrick said. “Just so I can learn more about myself.”
To get 2025 started on the right path, many students are also setting easily obtainable and organizational goals for themselves.
“One of my smaller New Year’s resolutions is to get more storage on my phone,” Pham said. “’I’m going to sit down and remove some photos and clean up my phone storage.”
Whether big or small, New Year’s resolutions are extremely important for self-growth. Many students express that their resolutions have helped them reach their goals in the past and are optimistic about this year’s goals.
“I think that New Year’s resolutions are important because they help me establish what I need to work on, so I really believe in setting goals and resolutions each year,” Jacob said.
