Everyone always makes New Year's resolutions and a common motto amongst my generation is, "New Year, New Me."
And honestly, I believe this too, but not in the way you'd think. "New Year, New Me," is usually used by millennials to justify putting things off until the new year. You want to start working out? Wait until January 1st. It's only October but you want to try eating healthy? Sorry, "New Year, New Me." Now I personally find all this idiotic. Why put off something you can do now until next year? Does this just mean that if you forget to do it in January, you'll wait a whole other year to do try again? No. If you want to see a change, make the change now. January 1st isn't a magical date where if you try something then, you're guaranteed to succeed in it. That being said, I do set New Year's resolutions, because I believe in the "New Year, New Me," just not in that sense.
The way I see it, you are the same person going into 2017 as you are leaving 2016. But you will become a new person over the course of the new year. 2017 is a clean slate. Sure, you're still bringing in everything that happened in 2016, but 2017 is filled with new opportunities and the potential for new experiences. Who knows what'll happen next year? Maybe you'll finally ask out that person you've had your eye on for months. Maybe they'll ask you out. Maybe you'll decide that what you're currently doing isn't working and you decide to change your major. There's an endless amount of possibilities that you can face in the new year.
I suffer from anxiety so an unknown future is just about my least favorite thing because it makes me so nervous. But I like new years. I like all the possibilities they hold. I also have a bunch of already confirmed things to look forward to as well. I'm starting my second major, I'm an e-board member for an amazing new group starting up on campus, I've made a ton of new friends in the last semester, and I'm extremely excited to rush for a sorority again this coming semester and hopefully join a sisterhood with a bunch of girls that I've become friends with.
The latter half of 2016 was amazing to me, and it makes me that much happier for 2017.