It's that time of year again. More specifically, the start of a new one. It’s the time of year when we sign up for  gym memberships to finally shed the extra twelve pounds. It's the time of year when we adamantly toss away unopened packs of Marlboros behind our shoulders and vow to never turn back. It's the time of year when we hold the pieces of our lives in one hand, and a hot glue gun in the other. 

What make this time of year so special? Is it the fireworks that light up the sky during the first hour of the new year? Is it the buzzing anthem of "out with the old, in with the new" starting with the 2014 calendar and ending with the piles of junk food? What is it about seeing January 1 on our phone screens that inspires us to become more compassionate, aware, invigorated versions of ourselves?

I can't say that I understand the hubbub that surrounds New Year's resolutions. There is nothing about the knowledge that the Earth has traveled a complete circle around the sun that encourages me to look critically at the way I live my life. The sight of the ball drop in New York City doesn't make me rethink goals and aspirations that were clear to begin with. Because why is the new year a new beginning that requires new resolutions? Why must we see the numbers switch from 2014 to 2015 before we realize we should clean up the messes, mend the friendships, and lose the weight? There is nothing special about New Year's Day that outshines any other day, no difference in the second from 11:59 pm to 12:00 am from any other tick of the clock. Every new day, hour, and moment should be a new resolution, a challenge for us to better ourselves as students, neighbors, friends, and people. And then, maybe one day, we won't call them resolutions anymore. We'll call them habits.