2016 was rough. We lost a lot of people, had a controversial election, had no new music from Ed Sheeran, and the New Years Rocking Eve performances were perfectly terrible to fit the universal theme of 2016. But 2017 has just begun! What exactly does that mean?

It means we will struggle to write the correct year on the tops of papers in school for like 2 or 3 months. It means that it’s the year that everyone born in 1996 turns 21 (#littymctitty)!!! And it means that for the next few weeks the gym will be packed with people who won’t stick to their resolution past Valentine’s Day. But why do people constantly say things like “new year, new me”? Why do people make resolutions at midnight of January 1^st that they never stick to for more than a month? What’s the point?

The point of this article is not to knock resolutions, hopefully, everyone who wants to be a new person will stick to their guns and make the changes that they want to. The point is actually to encourage people not to wait until January 1^st and quit by February 14^th. The point is to, hopefully, say “if you don’t like something about your life or your body, why wait until January 1^st? Start when you first notice the problem and stick to it!”.

I guess people decide on New Years Day to make a change because of the date change, the year change, the fact that something new has begun so everyone tries to be new too. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, New Years Eve are all over. Holidays are all about eating and drinking and family, a resolution to cut back is the most common and inspired by the fact that Americans have just successfully spent the last 3 months eating enormous amounts of food and candy. But January is cold. Running, biking, swimming, exercise is hard to do in the cold! As a college student, I don’t have the money to pay for a gym membership; and that’s exactly what you need to exercise when the air is so cold it burns your lungs.

When you notice something that you want to change, your physique, your eating habits, your attitude, change when you notice the problem. Don’t wait until January. The number of years since Jesus was born (technically it’s 2017 AD – after Christ’s birth) doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter if it’s the 1990’s or the year 3000, the year shouldn’t affect your actions. You should allow yourself to be motivated when you notice a problem, change your lifestyle when you’re motivated, and hopefully, you’ll stick to your plan…instead of flaking a month later.

New year, new me. Seriously? Why wait? Make a plan and stick to it when you notice something that you’re unhappy with. Don’t let the 4-digit number that we write at the end of the date define what you do, make yourself define what you do. Follow what Nike says; just do it. Oh, and cheers to an epic 2017!!