I know what you're thinking: New Year's resolutions? It's only August! But these resolutions are not for January 1, 2012, they're for early September, when I go back to school. There are quite a few things I want to do differently for my first year of high school.
1. Be more organized.
I'm horrible at organization. My room is a mess, my purse is a mess, my locker has always been a mess. My binders and notebooks are messes as well. Somehow, I still know where everything is, but this year I want there to be zero chance of forgetting anything or losing any papers.
What I'm going to do is clean my room before school starts, go through my purse, and make sure I have enough notebooks and binders with dividers and sections clearly labeled. I will have a place for everything in my locker and I will keep everything in aforementioned places. Hopefully I'll actually follow through this year.
2. Be nicer.
I'm not a very kind person. I'm violent, annoying, close-minded, bossy, and really just not very likable. I want to change that. So I'm going to catch myself before I insult anyone, even my friends. I will not hit anybody more than a playful nudge or a light slap to the arm when they tease me. I don't think I'll be able to change my bossy quality, but I'll just have to keep it in check. I'll annoy people (on purpose) less. I can't do anything about inadvertently annoying somebody.
3. Stand up for myself.
I'll be fine with the occasional teasing from my friends; that's what we do. But if it goes too far, I'll say something. But the main reason for this resolution is my friend from my article "Mean" (Article ID 11709). I won't stand for anything at all, even if she teases me at the same level as my other friends do. I will tell her, "I'm not going to let you insult me this year. If you do, I will just ignore you. I can't avoid you, because we share the same friends, but I will not acknowledge you. If I do, it will be politely. I will not be mean to you. I will merely speak to you as little as possible and I will not deal with you. Because I'm better than you. I will not retaliate. I will walk away and be done with you. You can apologize. If it actually sounds sincere, I will give you another chance. But the second you insult me again, that's it. I already gave you enough chances the last two years. After that, you will not get anymore."
Okay, I won't give her that whole long speech, but I'll tell her the gist of it.
4. Get involved.
This is probably the most difficult of all my resolutions. I need to get involved in extracurricular activities because I want to get into a boarding school that is extremely difficult to get into. If I don't get into that, I'll still need extracurriculars to get into a good college (preferably Stanford, which is a great school and is as far as home as I could get while still staying in the US, excluding Hawaii or Alaska.) So I'll try a club. No sports; I'm horrible at sports. But I will try a club. I'll also spend more time practicing the clarinet.
5. Be more confident.
This one's self-explanatory. I'm working on it already. (See Article ID 12273.)
So, that's it for my main new school-year resolutions. What are yours? I'm considering making a follow-up article with common resolutions if enough people tell me theirs. Either y-mail me or post on the BBS. Be sure to tell me if I can use your username in the article or not. (Even if you say yes, I might decide that it doesn't look good and just end up not using names. I'll have to see.)
Thanks!
~Cassidy
