With the New Year comes the tradition of New Year’s Resolutions. The saying “New Year New Me” has a hashtag on Instagram with over two million posts.

The people included in making these resolutions are students here at Arrowhead. One student, junior Austin Doty, says “I want to switch to a workout routine to get less bulk and more trim. I want to make my workouts longer and less intense so I tone up my body instead of making it more bulky.”

Doty, along with some other students, like junior Nathanael Zabel, plan to spend the new year trying to get more active. “My New Year’s Resolution is to go to the gym more often,” says Zabel. “My once every other week is struggling because that is too infrequent. This year I plan on going with my brother every Monday and alone every other Thursday.”

There are multiple gyms in the Arrowhead area. Anytime Fitness, near Hartbrook Park, has a January-only deal, where anyone can join for $1. The gym is also open twenty-four hours a day. Wisconsin Athletic Club, in Hartland, is a more expensive option. There are seven locations in Wisconsin, membership costing from $52-$70 per month depending on age, according to the website.

Other students, like junior Nikolai Savitskij, make a point to not make New Year’s resolutions at all. “I don’t make new year’s resolutions,” he says. “Most people end up giving up on or forgetting about new year’s resolutions within the first month or so of making them, which completely defeats the purpose of setting a long term goal…”

Savitskij believes that setting goals throughout the year instead of only at the beginning of the year is more effective. “It is much better to keep a continual practice of setting, checking, and accomplishing one’s goals than it is to arbitrarily make goals at one point in the year. If you make it a normalized, continual practice, you are far less likely to forget throughout the year, as you continually set goals rather than only at the new year.”

While Savitskij doesn’t create specific New Year’s resolutions, he elaborates on his own current goals. “Some of my current goals include getting at least a 3.5 GPA for the first semester [of school], getting into a college of my choosing, achieving a black belt in taekwondo, and getting a promotion at work.”

He thinks that it makes more sense to make various goals like this throughout the year. “All of these goals have a very different reasonable time frame, none of which make sense as something to be made at the New Year.”