New Year’s Resolutions Through The Ages

Publication Info: Imperial Beach Eagle & Times

Publication Date: January 4, 2019

People have been using the start of the New Year as a chance to better themselves for centuries. New Year’s resolutions are a popular source of motivation for people wanting to make a change in their lives. Some people use them as a way to drastically alter their lives, such as joining a new career field. Others use them to make minor, yet significant, adjustments to their daily living, such as going to the gym more often. Regardless, the New Year is a new beginning for people of all ages, and those in Imperial Beach are taking advantage of it.

Almost everyone has something they want to make better about themselves, even children. Taylor Case is only ten years old, but even she has a goal for the New Year. She said, “I want to hang out with my friends more; they’re always busy so the only time we get to hang out is recess.”

Her six year old little brother Cooper also had something to add. He said, “I personally just want to be a better person.”

When asked what he was going to do to become a better person he laughed and said, “I haven’t really thought of that yet, there are many causes that make me want to join in.”

This just goes to show that no matter your age, there is always something you can do to better yourself.

Students of Mar Vista High School (MVH) also have plenty of goals for 2019. Clara Dackermann is a senior at MVH, and like most high school students, she has plenty of homework. She said, “I’d have to say my New Year’s resolution is to procrastinate less. It can be hard to find a balance between work and play, so this year I want to work first and play later.”

Another student from Mar Vista is sophomore, Charles Bowlby, who has a similar resolution to Dackermann. He said, “I definitely need to work on procrastinating less. I also want to be healthier this year. I plan on exercising more and trying to be more conscious of the different foods I put in my body.”

College is inherently full of change on it’s own. For most teenagers, it’s the first time they’ve lived away from their parents, and it comes with a newfound independence. College students are no exception when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Kaylin Bekish graduated from Mar Vista last year and currently attends UC Santa Barbara where she is double majoring in environmental studies and geography. She said, “My New Year’s resolution is to be more straightforward with people. All too often I end up in situations or arguments that could’ve been easily prevented if I would’ve just said what I wanted to say sooner rather than later. That’s a source of stress in my life that I don’t need on top of transitioning to a college life away from home.”

Niko Figueroa also graduated from Mar Vista last year. He is attending Southwestern College as a psychology major.“My resolution is just to finish everything that I start. I wanted to make it something broad so that I can apply it to anything. For example, let’s say I wanted to read a book or watch a movie, I would commit to fully finishing that task. If I began to write an essay, I would push myself to finish it all the way.”

New Year’s resolutions don’t end when college does, they continue to provide motivation to people into adulthood. When Taylor and Cooper Case described their resolutions, and their father had something to add. Steven Case is a math and computer science teacher at Mar Vista. When asked about his resolution he said, “I just want to continue what I’ve been trying to do for the past few years: be a good math teacher and try to see the positives in everything.”

Lizzette Torres-Mathews, a counselor at Mar Vista, has a very environmentally-conscious resolution. She said, “My 2019 New Years resolution is to live a more sustainable lifestyle by riding my bike to the store instead of driving, using sustainable silverware instead of plastic cutlery, decreasing the amount of plastic bags by using cloth bags when grocery shopping and instead of purchasing sandwich bags, purchasing eco-friendly snack bags for my kids to reuse. In making these changes, I hope that my children and friends can join the effort to live a more sustainable life, not only because it’s better for earth, but because we live in a beach community where all the trash ends up at the ocean! Along with living a clean life, I also hope to advocate for recycling cans at MVH in order to reduce the amount of trash our site produces on a weekly basis!”

This is a great example of how New Year’s resolution not only promote change in one’s personal life, but can motivate lasting change in an entire community.

No matter how old or how young, people are almost always striving to be better versions of themselves. While it’s important to consistently work towards your goals, the New Year provides many with the small push they need to reach their aspirations. All of these people, and many others in Imperial Beach, are taking the chance that the New Year provides to start fresh and improve their quality of living.

What’s your New Year’s resolution?

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