“New year, new me!” is a common phrase in January. Resolutions like going to the gym, eating healthy, spending less money, finding “the one”, and having less drama/stress are among the most common. As far as sticking to those resolutions, very few last more than a couple of days or weeks. It’s one thing to set these resolutions, but another to stick to them. Thankfully, some students have more creative resolutions they plan on sticking to.

“Go outside the country for the first time,” “get a camera and start driving to places and document my adventures,” and “spend a day in Gary, Indiana” are just a couple of Will Lucas’s (12) resolutions for 2016. The idea for these resolutions sparked from the fact that Lucas has never been out of the country.

“This past summer, I went to Georgetown for summer school. There, I met people from all over the globe,” Lucas said. “The culmination of global culture and teen experience in our nation’s capital drove me to explore places outside of our U.S. A good friend of mine, Karl Montoya (senior), went abroad to Germany this past summer. He told me all about how different it was there, and how amazing it was to see a place so different, so new, so unfamiliar. This summer, I want to take a trip to either London or Toronto with him and a few of my friends just to see something new,” said Lucas.

As far as sticking to these resolutions, Lucas said these are just ideas and if he can’t get to them due to cost and planning he is fine waiting until a better time. While the first steps towards these resolutions is making money.

On the health side of things, Daria Potarskaya (12) would like to cut back on her Starbucks consumption from a regular once-a-day to once a week.

“I realized I was spending $8 every single day in the month of November, which rounded out to be over $200 in total, and I felt it was time to cut back a little bit,” said Potarskaya. December was her first step towards her resolution. That month she tried to go the whole month without any Starbucks, but unfortunately she had a slip up on the fourth day.

“Catching a cold in December caused [me] to cut back on coffee, and [I] started drinking more tea, which also caused [me] to cut back a lot,” she said.

To help her stick to her resolution she’s relied on her friends, deleting her Starbucks app, and putting away her credit cards after realizing “how gross it was and the amount of coffee [I] was consuming. It’s really not great for your health, so I think it’s going well so far. I’ve only stuck to only going at least twice a week or so, but hopefully [I] can cut back to once a week and maybe once a month.”

Margeaux Riehm (11) would like to spend 2016 giving more and being more thankful for what she has. This summer her family plans on traveling to Africa and, “[I] realized how fortunate [I] am to be going so [me] and [my] sister are making dresses for girls in orphanage while we are there,” said Riehm. Along with this realization came another of taking things for granted. Riehm felt she under-appreciated a lot of the things her parents have done for her and all the things she has. She would like to resolve this by thanking them more and trying to do more things for them to show her appreciation. Riehm hasn’t had any slip ups that she can think of and hopes to keep it this way throughout the new year.

An ideal 2016 for  Victoria Alper (11) would be spent losing weight, making more friends, and being more positive. Her motivation came from the fact that she’s been working out for awhile now through swimming and water polo, and she wants to work harder on this routine by eating healthier and drinking more water.

“[I] plan on being more positive by looking at the positives out of a negative situation and knowing that not everything is always as bad as it seems. Sometimes it’s hard to take positives out of it but [I] try as much as I can,” said Alper.

Slip up wise Alper said, “[I] have had some days where [I] slip up and eat things I probably shouldn’t but that’s part of being a teenager.”

Through the continuation of being herself and introducing herself to more people,  she plans on making more friends.

According to a study published by the University of Scranton in the Journal of Clinical Psychology,  45% of Americans set resolutions, and only 8% stick to them. Will you be the 8%?