The things we hope to do, the people we aspire to be.

A collection of New Year's Resolutions from Mimp Contributors.

Look Good, Feel Good

By: Nahomy Ortiz

I have never really had a New Year’s resolution, or if I have I’ve never really gone through with it. Due to this being my first official New Year’s resolution I’ve decided to pick something easy to stick with throughout the entirety of 2016. This year I’ve decided to start caring about my appearance a lot more. I’ve noticed that I always try to make my life, style, makeup, schoolwork and everything I do seem very effortless and it has started to rub off on myself. But I honestly feel a lot more content with myself when I actually try with my outfits, makeup, etc. Feeling good about myself it’s a good thing, working hard on projects for school and taking credit for your hard work... it’s good, it doesn’t mean I’m conceited and it doesn't mean that the other girls who don't like worrying about that stuff are cooler. It makes us who we are. I want to stop pretending to be someone that I’m not and know that it’s okay for me to care about “girly” things. People label me as a “nerd” (because I like reading books). I won’t let every other part of me labelled as a “nerd.” I am not just one thing. I am whoever I want to be.

One Day At A Time

By: Heather Taylor-Singh

New Year's Resolutions are never something that I (and many others) don’t go through with. If you do happen to go through with your New Year’s Resolutions, I applaud, and everyone else including myself, envy you.

I’ve decided to have one New Year’s Resolution, instead of having seven that loom over my head. My resolution is simply this: to take things one day at a time. I’m a procrastination queen, and I always leave things to the last minute, intentionally. My problem is I tend to make so many to-do lists with everything that needs to get done, thinking I’m being organized, but I become way too overwhelmed by its length, that I never actually accomplish any of it. It then becomes left to the last possible minute, which just causes so much unneeded anxiety. Hell, I procrastinated typing this resolution!

When I was at the Rookie Yearbook Four Launch, Anne Donahue, an AMAZING Rookie contributor, mentioned that she learned to take things day-by-day, in order to accomplish them. Don’t worry about what you have to get done tomorrow, or next Wednesday. Do what has to be done before you hit the hay tonight. I think this mindset is going to help so much more because instead of writing a long to-do list of things I have to get done in the week, focus on the present. What has to be done today? This method is going to help reduce the amount of stress about what has to be done. Now, I’m going to throw those daunting to-do lists away, and start fresh. One day at a time.

CONFIDENT

Elena M-ski

My New Year’s Resolution is to try to be confident in everything I do. No more thinking that I’m “not good enough” to try something. No more thinking “I could never do that”. I want to be more confident in my attempts, and not just my successes.

New Year, Same Me

By: Samantha Flores

My New Year’s Resolution is to be happy. We take so many things for granted in our lives, especially with what little responsibility we have to manage. This past year has been really hectic, it started off great and then I was hit with my biggest downfall. I was depressed. Everything I was doing was wrong and I got that “feeling”. That feeling of not being good enough and feeling like I was being a bother to everyone. I wasn’t happy because I was trying to please so many people at once. I lost myself in the “resolutions” of making people happy and trying to please everyone. I fell behind in uploading for my channel and I stopped taking care of my few responsibilities; being a writer for this team, a reviewer and a friend...

I let a lot of people down in 2015, especially myself. I write this in hope that I might inspire motivation. And to show you, that it’s okay to NOT be okay sometimes. It is normal. What isn't okay, is to let “sadness” control your life and control who you are as a person. Take it from someone who knows, it’s okay, it’s going to be okay and it’s going to get better. You just have to keep going, embrace the ‘stop worrying about what other people think of you’ cliché and start taking care of yourself. Focus on making you happy. If that means making a bunch of New Year resolutions mid-February, then GO FOR IT. If you’re like me and it just adds unneeded pressure than skip it.

It’s 2016 guys! Time has flown by so quickly, so just remember you’re only young once. Take this time to have fun, laugh, sing, dance and scream. Fall in love before we’re off to start the rest of our lives.

Hope to be Hopeful

By: Maya Cruz

My New Year’s resolution is to be bold and hopeful. Recently, I discovered how little I take risks and decided it was about time to change that. Hope has always been a hard concept to swallow for me. I have never been a person to hope too much. I believe it is a defence mechanism. Anyways, I would like to be more hopeful this coming year.

My Goals/”To-Do” for 2016

By: Shelby August

Drink more water.
Get more involved.
Watch less TV.
Get my Yoga Teacher Certification.
Make a habit of starting every day with lemon water and good music.
Keep vlogs and pictures of each month so I can look back and remember things I did, food, I ate, and people I met.
“CARPE DIEM”. Try something new every day. Whether it’s taking a painting class, trying out kickboxing, going on a hike on a different trail, or tasting a new flavour of ice-cream, I want to experience as much as possible.
Eat good, clean foods (but still enjoy treats every once-in-awhile).
Participate in at LEAST 3 runs for a cause. (like a 5k for Nature Conservancy or a “Run for Haiti” or “Race for the Cure”)
Read for 30 minutes every day. Whether it’s a newspaper, a book, a magazine, or my Bible, I really want to educate myself and learn something every day.
Learn to embrace my curly hair.
Learn to drive stick-shift.
Write a book.
Learn more recipes to cook/Expand my recipe book
Don’t settle.
Finish learning Spanish and start learning Japanese

Emotionally available NanoWriMo Champion!

By: Celene Fraticelli

So, I’ve been asked to write my New Year’s Resolution(s) and to be honest, I haven’t really thought about making any. I used to be really into making resolutions. I spent a whole year as a pescatarian because of a resolution. However, it seems like the older I get the less I really care about the whole thing, which is pretty strange if you think about it. But, since I’m thinking about it, I think that a good New Year’s resolution for me is to try to be more emotionally, available to myself and to others, and to try and be braver. The two go hand and hand for me because, for me, being emotionally available requires a ton of bravery.

I don’t know how well it’s gonna go. I don’t like talking about my feelings outside of my journals but maybe if I try to set a goal for myself (how I would do that is another puzzle altogether) I’ll be able to push back my fear. Also, I guess I should add that I want to be more creative in the New Year. I want to write A LOT more and I want to draw A LOT more. I really want to see how much I can improve my work (and I want to win WriMo).

Yeah, I think those are good resolutions to strive for in the New Year. I think I’ll stick with those.