“Five, four, three, two, one” fills the room as crowds of people surround the television screen to witness Times Square drop the new year’s disco ball. People shout, people kiss, people cry and people swear they will follow through with their laundry list of new year’s resolutions.
BYU students and people across the nation ring in the new year with parties. With the new year come new commitments to change one’s ways and turn over a new leaf. Some students believe their resolutions are a means of change, while others see them as a fruitless tradition.
Emmalene Beckstead, an 18-year-old freshman from Grand Junction, Colo., majoring in pre-nursing, said she fulfilled her 2012 resolutions.
“My resolutions were to read the scriptures at least 15 minutes every day, run a marathon and to get accepted to BYU,” Beckstead said.
She has not created her 2013 resolutions, but she said she has a good idea of what they might be. Beckstead tries to keep her resolutions in three categories: spiritual, physical and educational. She said new year’s resolutions can be a great way to measure change, but they are pointless if you forget about them two months later.
Beckstead said she is excited for what the next year has in store. She has begun the process to serve a mission and plans on serving when she turns 19.
Brooke Tait, a 19-year-old freshman from Des Moines, Iowa, majoring in business marketing, said she is also planning on serving a mission in the coming year.
“This next year I am really excited to start my mission papers, and I think my brother will get married when he gets home from his mission,” Tait said. “A lot of new things are happening. I am excited to start a new life in college and see what it’s like.”
Cali Hanson, a 20-year-old junior from San Jose, Calif., majoring in elementary education, said her new year’s resolutions are not formal, mainly a refresher for ones in the past. She said last year she was going to work out every week, but two months in she decided to stop. She said in 2013 she will make this one of her informal resolutions.
Hanson said she believes new year’s resolutions can be accomplished if reasonable goals and steps are set.
“We make new year’s resolutions as a tradition, but just like any other resolution or goal, if you do not make specific steps on how you are going to do it, new year’s resolutions will just become something you make and remake every year,” Hanson said.
