New You

Going into the New Year, many students have been creating goals for second semester, both personal and academic. But how exactly can students keep up with these goals? Students and staff from Hinsdale Central speak about creating and maintaining their goals.

ByAnjika Kumar and Sehan Alam

It’s that time of year again. Reaching the end of the semester, winter break, and the start of a new year. The weather gets colder day by day and you can feel the joy of the holidays, spending time with your family, shopping deals, and annual traditions. As the clock hand inches closer to 12 a.m. you and your family get together with close friends to watch the fireworks light up the sky. You can feel the excitement in the air as everyone starts to count down. 3…cameras are out, 2…the fuses are lit, 1…Happy New Year! Fireworks illuminate the dark sky as everyone laughs and hugs each other. This year is going to be amazing.

New Year’s resolutions are one of the biggest parts of entering the New Year. Students all around the school are preparing their resolutions with the hopes of an improved semester. It is a common trend that students only stick to their goals for a short period of time until they start to drift away from them, but how can students actually stick to these goals?

Senior London Maxwell has made her primary goal in 2023 to complete her work consistently before and during classes so she can enjoy them as much as possible.

“I really enjoy school and learning,” Maxwell said. “The best way to do that is always being on top of my work.”

Junior Blake Rogers is in a similar light and said he wants to focus more on his motivation to complete projects on time during the long term.

“I have always dealt with motivation and focus issues,” Rogers said.

Many students struggle with this issue and the first part of fixing it is recognizing that it is there, and teachers can help.

When it comes to academic goals, students need to learn strategies to stick to them. Teachers and staff help students not only create these goals but also help them stay committed to them.

“I think using check-ins [to stay committed] with yourself [is how to start]; maybe it’s a reminder on your phone, once every week or two weeks, or somewhere where you’re going to see it often,” said Sally Belter, SEL Coach and Spanish teacher Students’ main goals for the new semester is typically to attain an A, but that also comes with the work.

“Kids will say my goal is to get an A, which is great. But how are you going to do it, what are the small steps you’re going to take,” Belter said. “But it’s also not in your control if you’re going to get an A, but it’s in your control to study 10 minutes a day or not miss any assignments.”

In high school, you are preparing for college, but there are also life lessons you may learn, which could potentially be more or equally as important as your education.

“I just think social and emotional learning is the most important thing we do in high school,” Belter said.

As for goals in their personal life, these students have set different sets of goals for themselves. Maxwell wants to focus on making the most out of every opportunity whether it be going to more school football games, going out for the track season, or enjoying time with friends.

Rogers has some similar goals. He wants to meet with his friends more and to not miss any opportunities whenever possible.

“I never really see my friends, so I would like to say hi or go out with them more,” Rogers said.

Alex Marco, freshman, wants to try and spend more time with family in the coming year.

“I find myself not spending time with my family usually,” Marco said.

On top of school and outside of school responsibilities, students have less time to spend with their families. In order to reduce this problem, it is a good idea to seek support to help manage your time better, whether this be in the form of rearranging your schedule or even removing things from it. It’s important to prioritize the most important things in your life.

In addition to instruction, teachers are also here to work with students in a variety of ways. Teachers implement goal setting for their students inside of the classrooms to make students feel better for the new year and semester.

“I try to make sure we check in on them too, that’s the big thing,” Belter said. “A lot of times we’ll have a kid make a goal before they leave winter break and then before spring break hand the goal sheet back and ask how have you done.”

In the past, some of these students have learned from and created some of their own strategies to stick to their goals. Maxwell recommends setting restrictions for yourself and never giving up.

“Don’t give up what you want the most for what you want at the moment,” Maxwell said, citing something her track coach has instilled.

In 2021, Rogers learned a lot about his resolution to branch out more and make new friends.

“I lived in California at the time and I had about three or four friends,” Rogers said. “I moved here over the summer and now I have a lot more friends…and I’m a lot happier here.”

Rogers accomplished his goal by adopting a different mentality of taking more chances and not being as scared when new challenges arise.

The hardest part to a New Year’s resolution is not coming up with it, but rather how to actually commit to them. Instead of forgetting after a few days, create long term goals, but also create short term goals to slowly build up to it.

For example, wanting to go to the gym more. It can be very intimidating and unrealistic to start going every day. A few tips for this particular resolution could be to start off slow: going a few days a week, having your first few workouts being 30 minutes long, or having a friend guide you.

Gaima, an app for improving one’s tranquility, created a “Top 10” tips list for New Year’s resolution commitment. The top 3 consist of: being realistic, planning ahead, and having a proper outline. It’s a very usual predicament to forget about your resolutions so make this the year where you finally stick to them.