New Year, New Academic Resolutions
Throughout my college career, I made a lot of resolutions. I made resolutions at the beginning of each school year as well as the calendar year, so basically I made a new set of goals/resolutions every semester. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t. In all honesty, many of the same resolutions surfaced at the start of several semesters. What worked? What didn’t?
Make the Dean’s list every semester for the rest of college.
I was very excited to receive a letter at the end of my second semester of college informing me of my place on the elusive Dean’s list. I had no idea what the GPA minimum was or if any other indices of evaluation existed (i.e. number of credits, upper-level coursework, etc). Nevertheless, I put more value on that piece of paper than the actual schoolwork that got me there. I don’t think I ever received another letter even though some semesters I earned the same or better grades—the criteria was never clear and, in reality, it did not make much of a difference in how hard I worked. I was shooting for an external measurement of achievement that ultimately did not hold much relevance to my individual course of study. I think that setting goals for grades can be extremely useful, but they should be made with regard to the student and not directed towards a broad, institutional benchmark.
Eat one meal a day with someone else.
Seems obvious, right? Wrong. By the third week of the semester, classes are in full swing, events and extracurricular projects need planning, and internships eat up time. It’s pretty easy to fall into a pattern of eating on the go or while studying and writing papers. To-go containers are a college student’s best friend, but it’s also useful to actually plan time with your real best friends as well. The first time I actually resolved to sit down to eat with a friend every time, it felt kind of strange and artificial. And no, I didn’t actually fulfill it every single day. Setting the goal, however, meant that I actually made the effort to do so and I’m glad that I did. I was more relaxed on days that I scheduled lunch or brunch or coffee with friends and I didn’t feel like the weeks were flying by quite as fast—one resolution definitely worth keeping.
Go to more events on campus.
This is one regular appearance on my resolutions list that could have used some tweaking. It’s vague. I would intend to go to “more events” without actually thinking through what I meant: Speakers? Career workshops? Performing arts events? It’s no wonder that I ended up skipping most of the campus happenings I jotted all over my day planner. College calendars are chock full of a vast range of opportunities to see authors and experts of all kinds, musical performances, join discussion groups, learn about a certain career, and so much more. There was no way that I was going to hit it all. Eventually I realized that I was more interested in certain speaker series and career workshops than other events, and aiming to attend more of these made this resolution far more feasible.
Read for fun.
If it happens, great. But do yourself a favor and stop stressing about the stack of untouched bestsellers on your bedside table. Reading for fun is supposed to be fun, not a source of more stress!
Does anyone else make academic resolutions at the start of each year or semester? If so, what are they?
