The student news site of Greater Latrobe High School

The High Post

The student news site of Greater Latrobe High School

The High Post

The student news site of Greater Latrobe High School

The High Post

    Bucket List: New Year New Me

    We hear and see it everywhere, “New year, new me!” on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but what does it really mean? Every year as the ball drops, we get out a napkin and grab the closest pen and write down things we think we should improve on and change in our lives. Common solutions: to work out more, to eat more healthy, and to spend more time with friends and family; the truth is, it seems like a good idea at the time, but the resolutions end up never making it to the next year. A New Year’s Resolution should be simple yet concrete and something not completely out of reach. Sure, it would be very beneficial to work out more and eat healthier, who wouldn’t want that? So when you’re making a promise to yourself, just remember you will be keeping it for 365 days.

    I’m was never the type of person to make a New Year’s Resolution, and to be perfectly honest with you, I have always viewed them as another cliche. To me, resolutions were always kind of pointless because no one ends up keeping them anyways, so why waste time even making one?  For example, you hear about people who decide their resolution will be “to lose weight and feel better.” They go to the gym and in a couple of weeks they stop going, they’ve had it. The solution is, you start out with small goals and work to the bigger ones.

    It’s a new year and a good time to try something new. I have decided to make a New Year’s Resolution starting small but realistic. For mine, I have decided to save money because I plan on attending college in the fall and will be paying for it.

    I’m always spending money: clothes, shoes, bags, cds, food, you name it and I buy it. I couldn’t save money if my life depended on it. I’ve been working since I was thirteen-years-old, so since then I have made a sufficient amount, but where does it all go?

    Well, what I can tell you is that probably more than half of my paycheck goes to eating out and the other half goes to the mall with me, which simply put, is frivolous spending. Which again, is why I am setting this goal.

    The blurred line between the comfort of money and the necessity of money is often confused. I told myself to really think about that line the next time I pick something up that I “need” and consider what my money was going towards. Do I really need another bag, a pair of shoes, or jewelry? Why don’t I save that for gas money, car insurance, or bills? I used to spend about thirty to forty dollars a week eating out: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s. The proof can be found from all of the fast food bags and loose, random change in my car. Whether it’s fast food or fine dining, I realized it’s a waste.

    If I saved twenty dollars from each paycheck each week, in a year I could have saved around a thousand dollars, which in retrospect is a lot of money. So my New Year’s Resolution is to watch where my money goes and actually be in control of it. I want to stop buying things that I really don’t need and to be honest I have enough clothes, and shoes, and bags, I just want more.

    It’s been about one month and I am doing better than I had expected. Not only am I saving five times more than my goal, twenty dollars a week, I no longer have the compulsion to spend the way I used to. When I pick something up, I think of where I’ll wear it and how often. When I pass a McDonald’s, I think of how many chicken nuggets I’ve eaten since I was little and think that it would be enough to feed an army.

    Do I need these things? I absolutely do not need them but at some point I wanted them. At another point I reevaluated myself and my paychecks and thought of the important things I could be doing with them, like saving for college and putting gas in my car.

    The important thing I remembered the whole time was to start small and then challenge myself. If I had an initial saving goal of one hundred dollars a week, I would have given up. But I went low and raised it when I had control.

    My point is, when you decide to make a resolution, just make sure it’s what you will want in the long run, and if it is, stick to it. Start small and go big. You should be making goals big enough to be growing into. Decide that today will be the day you will be a better person and always be improving on who you are. You don’t even need to wait until January first. Do it now, because you can. Only you have the power to change what you don’t like about yourself.

    1.Get a second tattoo

    2. See Greenday live in Pittsburgh

    3. Make Industrial Bubbles

    4. Try every cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory

    5. Throw Paint filled eggs at a canvas

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