Twenty Twenty-Strive: Students consider their new year’s resolutions and how to achieve them
For many people, the new year presents a fresh start, a chance to set goals and strive for them in the following months.
Alex Lacroix, an Algonquin College student in the welding and fabrication techniques program, has not made any new year’s resolutions, but he has a good feeling about 2025.
“This is my year, I say. I don’t have anything set in stone, but 2025 will be my year,” said Lacroix.
Prior to starting his program in May 2024, Lacroix transitioned from life on a reserve to life in the capital of Canada.
“It was hard to make the transition…On my reserve I’m not a minority, nobody considers that at all,” he said. “I guess with everything that I’ve been through, this is where I can see it, like my efforts from trying to go to school and everything.”
Lacroix will graduate this spring.
Marcus Aiello’s new year’s resolution is also focused on overcoming obstacles in his life.
“I’ve had a few injuries, so it’s mainly just trying to hit a certain weight and strength goal for my athletics,” said the bachelor of commerce student. Aiello is determined to get back into rugby stronger than ever and limit his injuries playing the sport.
He said he’s “definitely on the right track so far.”
Some people find new year’s resolutions daunting and often give up because they’ve set goals that are unrealistic or too ambitious.
Algonquin College student Marie-Noé Charbonneau recommends taking a large goal and breaking it down into smaller goals.
“Having different goals either for the month or the year itself, and even having shorter goals, so it can be a week,” she said. “Really having different time frames with it helps, so you don’t get overwhelmed with having to finish it by the end of the year.”
Her goals for the year are to network within her program — bachelor of event, sport, and entertainment management — and find a balance with her personal life and school life.
Rebecca Buschman, a student in the same program as Charbonneau, thinks new year’s resolutions work well for some people, but does not find herself very successful with following through on them.
“I just kind of make goals as I go through my daily life,” she said. “A goal for this summer that I’m really hoping to do is make sure I can get a job that aligns (with) something I’m trying to work for, for my co-op next year.”
How does one go about achieving their goals?
“I do keep an agenda with me to write my goals…for not just the year but also for five years, but what I can do in the year to eventually get to that point in the years to come,” said Charbonneau.
Algonquin College has its own webpage, which features tips for setting and achieving goals, the first of which aligns with Charbonneau’s advice: write it down.
Another one of the school’s tips is to make “SMART” goals: specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented and time-based.
Although Jan. 1 has come and gone, Emma De Varennes, a student in the dental hygiene program, believes it is not too late to set a goal for the end of the year, the end of the month or even the end of the week.
“It being connected with new year’s, I don’t really see the point, if that makes sense,” said De Varennes.
Alex Lacroix agrees.
“I just find it funny that people wait for a day to do something about it,” said Lacroix.
