I love Christmas. Every year, I look forward to wintertime and the multitude of holidays that come with it, but as of recently Christmas seems to be the only one that matters. By the second week of November, Christmas commercials are flooding the airwaves. Christmas fever continues for six long weeks, and when Christmas finally comes around, it’s the biggest event of the year. Christmas is everywhere. Spruces and firs, decked out with lights and ornaments, illuminate houses on every street.

What has New Years come to? Quite literally, everyone stays up until midnight, pops open a bottle of champagne, and watches the year roll over. However, not many people of our age truly give New Years the credit it deserves. For me, New Years is a time of reflection of what went right and wrong over the course of the last 365 days. I think back on the highlights and the struggles. What was done, and what wasn’t? Where could I have improved? And after all of that pondering and reminiscing, I focus on what needs to be done in the coming year, and set goals accordingly. New Year’s resolutions are important, and surely should not be overlooked. Setting incremental goals for the new year is very important. It gives me an outlook towards what I need to accomplish, and what can be worked on. Additionally, there is a level of motivation that accompanies the start of a new year. I feel a new sense of purpose to right my wrongs and fix the issues I experienced in the past year.

The biggest detractor from New Years is the attitude that any sort of resolution or goal will not be achieved. However, these goals can be everyday victories that we can all strive for without reaching for impossible resolutions. For example, while I could potentially set a goal to not use my phone at night every day, I realize that in practice this goal is unattainable. The more effective goal, in my opinion, is limiting the use of my phone at night to only five out of the seven days in the week. This way, the goal is more reachable, and I find that I have more motivation to accomplish it. I encourage all of you to set goals that you can truly achieve, go after, and conquer. A goal that cannot be reached is one that defeats the purpose of creating a better vision for 2017.

After an explosive election season, we all need to reset our minds going into the new year. Take this New Years as an opportunity to do that. A lot has occurred over the past twelve months, so we could all use a little time off to reflect. Regardless of what happened on a larger scale, each of us needs to set priorities for ourselves and get to what is the most important in 2017. If all of us can accomplish that, then everyone will be progressing in the next year.

New Years is simply overlooked by my fellow teenagers. We spend little time reflecting and more time partying until dawn just because the year added a number on the end. New Years is a great time for looking back at how you can be a better version of yourself. It also serves as a platform for creating future commitments and expectations. So this New Year’s, enjoy your time off, peppermint lattes, and holiday music, but keep reminding yourself what a great year you had, and how 2017 will be even greater.