Unless you’ve been living in a cyro tube, you know that a new year is coming in just a couple of weeks. New Year resolutions, “new yous,” and fresh optimism are some of the things that greet people when a year begins.

We all know that most, if not all, of resolutions end up getting canned right around March, if not sooner. However, 2017 is coming up. For some of us, things are going to change.

My classmates and I are walking in May. Like it or not, that’s a whole new beginning in less than five months. It’s a scary thought. Thankfully, a lot has to happen before that.

For the rest of us, I’d like to ask a question: how do you approach 2017? I say, forget the resolutions and turning over new leaves. I gave up resolutions a long time ago because I often gave them up, like I said above. Like many of my classmates, I’m excited but also afraid to graduate. We’re going to lose that comfort zone of having everything defined – we always know how each day is going to go with class, club meetings, and maybe the exciting meeting with a significant other.

All of that’s going to be gone for us soon. So, 2017 will start out a certain way but end in December differently. We’ll be in graduate school, working professional jobs, or doing something else.

Instead of resolutions, I like to set goals – things I want to accomplish with my year. For example, one goal I have for 2017 is to not become seriously ill and stick to common colds and the like. Every time I achieve a goal, I check one off and really feel a sense of pride from doing it in the process.

I wanted to focus on this because I’ve seen quite a few over the years confused and wandering around wondering what their year’s going to be like. I’ve been one of them more than a few times, so I put these goals on the table and they’ve really helped me out. I find that I’m a lot more organized and I keep the optimism going through the year no matter what happens.