By Hanna Duenkel

With every new year, most people want to make changes in their life, whether it’s to become a better person or to fix other “problems,” and 2015 is no exception.  Students are trying to keep up with their grades and work, all the while making changes to their everyday lifestyles to make the transitions between school, sports, and home, easier.  According to a poll given to 211 Tuscarora students, 51% of Tuscarora’s student population created a New Year’s resolution.  Each side of the poll was asked about their reasoning of why they had created their resolution or why they did not create a resolution.

“My New Year’s resolution is to stay up from sunset to sunrise,” said sophomore Maelyn Beitzel.  “I’m planning to do it in the summer.”

Some popular resolutions among students were maintaining or raising grades, working out, and eating healthier, but what was surprising were the more unique resolutions.  Ballots came back with resolutions to drink more water, to get rid of bad habits such as cursing, or to make plans for college.

After these students create their resolutions, they have to keep up with them in some way.  Several students reported using calendars, their friends and family, cell phones and tablet apps, or Fitbit bands, which connect to a smartphone and track physical activity, in order to manage and hold themselves accountable to their resolutions.  In a search of the Apple App Store, there is an influx of new “reminder” apps, such as an app that sends reminders to a person’s cell phone to drink more water called “Waterlogged,” the calorie counting MyFitnessPal app, and the Fitbit app, which tracks a consumer’s heart rate and burned calories.

But there is the other 49% of students that did not create a new years resolution.  35% of the students against resolutions knew that they would not keep up with their resolution in the new year. Other reasons included not being able to think of a resolution, being too busy, thinking that creating a resolution was “overrated,” and striving to be better everyday without the help of a resolution.

One of the ballots read “[Creating a resolution is] an old, unnecessary tradition.  If you want to change, then do it.”