I was never much of a believer in New Year’s Resolutions. They’re not common in my culture - in China, we traditionally get new clothes for the new year - so I didn’t learn about them until I moved back to the U.S. for high school. From there I watched my peers make them and fail at them, and I thought it was silly to have to wait until a new year to set new goals. Somewhere between then and now, my mentality changed.

There’s something clean and refreshing about the very man-made concept of a New Year. Especially now that I am no longer in school and my life no longer revolves around the September-to-June calendar, January 1st can hold a new type of significance for me, instead of the end of Christmas break.

While I still don’t subscribe to the behavior of waiting until a new year to set a goal, I have become a believer of new year’s resolutions. It took a few tries - I think I tried on and off for a few years but I didn’t properly record my first one until January 1, 2016.