New Year, Same Me

     I experienced a new phenomenon this year in early January. After my brutal ten minutes’ walk from my dorm in Lakeside through the freezing wind, I arrived at the PAC, Furman University’s fitness center. Suddenly, my favorite elliptical was taken as were all the others. Sweaty people filled the treadmills and the stair-masters. Every square inch of the floor in the glass encased room was covered in purple yoga mats. I tried to find a locker for my water bottle and each was taken. Who were these people suddenly obsessed with exercise and fitness?

     Gym attendance had greatly increased from the end of last year, and I realized that these people were the product of recently made New Year’s resolutions. With each additional trip I made to the gym, I noticed a significant exponential drop in gym attendance as people began to fail their resolutions to make 2015 a healthier year.

     I personally have stopped making New Year’s resolutions by abandoning the “New Year, New Me” slogan. I am not so inclined to suppose that I have no faults and that self-improvement is not relevant to me; however, the idea of making changes just because we enter a new year is not appealing to me. The majority of America gets pulled into this cultural sensation, and yet sixty percent of New Year’s resolutions fail (Kliff, Sarah).

     New Year’s Eve is a holiday designed to reflect upon joy and heartbreak, highs and lows, accomplishments and failures, marriages and divorce, and births and deaths of the past year. We remember our laughter and our tears, long road trips and staying up to late, and too much chocolate. We think of the friendship we shared and the tragedies we watched on the news. We reminisce about our favorite moments and perhaps choose a song to represent the year. Or we remember the hours we spent crying over things that do and do not deserve our tears. Maybe we missed our flight or lost a job. Perhaps we should have told someone we loved them. And as the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, we get caught up in this sensation that somehow it all could have been better, and we think that we want to change.

     But I am under the impression that it takes more than this temporary emotional rush to mentally and physically change ourselves. And the gradual dwindling gym participation that I am currently experiencing proves it.

Bibliography:

Kliff, Sarah. "The Science of Actually Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions."Vox. Vox Media, 29 Dec. 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.