by: Hayley Strahs

Editor-in-Chief

I am a fiend for New Year’s resolutions. Every year, I make a strategic, well-thought-out list of goals to reach over the next 12 months. Usually, I follow through with my resolutions and pick up a new hobby or reorganize my room eight different times that year. Unfortunately, not all of my goals have made it past January, or even Dec. 31st of the preceding year.

For example, the first time I faced failure was at the naive age of ten, when I set a goal of making baked goods more often. If you asked ten-year-old me, I would have told you I loved to bake. I wouldn’t have mentioned that despite my love, I only turned on the family oven every two months because of how much I hated doing the dishes. Before I knew it, I was 11 years old and we were counting down to 2018 without having done as much as put a single cookie in the oven. I still can’t cook (excluding a mean rendition of scrambled eggs), and I still blame my fifth grade self for backing out of what should have been a simple task to achieve.

Flash forward to 2021: the height of the pandemic. My two main resolutions that year were to watch more anime and finish my Minecraft base. If that doesn’t scream 2021, I don’t know what does. I spent January through April binging The Promised Neverland, My Hero Academia, Ouran High School Host Club, and Erased before becoming obsessed with the notably non-animated Jane the Virgin in May. And as for the Minecraft base? My friends and I shut down our realm in late February; the base will forever remain unfinished.

2023 was a throwback to my first ever resolution from 2015: running. It was at the top of my freshman year goals, just like it was in second grade. If walking the mile were a sport, I would be going D1. I’m not talking about the legit sport, racewalking; I’m talking about hauling my overweight middle school self around the Fisher track four times in the span of fifteen minutes. I didn’t want to run a marathon or anything. I just wanted to run one mile straight, and I did…once! Well, three times. I achieved (wait for it) a sub-11 minute mile. I was proud of my accomplishment, but one rude run-in with a classmate brought my attitude regarding sub-par time back to reality. I haven’t run since.

Finally, in the big ‘25, I was going to get rich. Translation: I was going to invest in stocks. I still remember when one of my classmates bought a gaming PC in eighth grade because he took a chance on Radio Shack. My P.O.I. (purchase of interest) wasn’t a computer but a mirrorless camera. The Sony A7iii was calling my name, but my wallet was calling me names for being broke. It should come as no surprise that I still don’t have the camera, nor do I have any stocks. For the fabulous ‘26, I’m shifting my sights: I resolve to get my first credit card. With how important my credit will be in the future, I am hopeful that this resolution won’t fall through like all the others have.