My New [School] Year Resolutions

September 16, 2026
by Ciara

Living in LA School/Life Balance

As I enter my third year at USC and feel the approaching presence of the start of my grad years, I can’t help but reflect on my time at USC so far. Through classes, organizations, friendships, and jobs I’ve learned so many things that I didn’t know about myself. I came into college with a few basic goals like finding a community and surviving my 8:00am classes, but I feel as I progress more through my college journey I’m discovering new aspects of myself that I want to explore and push myself in. So I decided to set some new [school] year resolutions:

1. Do things I’ve always wanted to do
If I were to describe myself I would proclaim myself as a homebody. I like being comfortable in my room and 9 times out of 10 I’m usually taking a nap or about to take a nap. While I love this aspect of myself, I also don’t want my homebody nature to limit myself from doing things I’ve always wanted to do. I want to work on not overthinking events to the extent that I just decide to spend the night in my room rather than taking the risk and doing something I’ve always wanted to do! Hence, this is one of my new year resolutions that I’ve already started working on. Going into this year I decided to stop overthinking and take on my fear of solo-concerts and consequently got myself tickets to Bruno Mars and Olivia Rodrigo!! Furthermore, my friend and I decided to get last minute tickets (literally an hour before curtain call) to Beauty and the Beast at the Pantages, and I have no regrets!! It was such a fun experience and reminder for why it’s important to treat yourself. I’ve always wanted to go to the theater in LA but I tend to overthink plans so this experience was a great reminder to me on why it’s important to treat myself and be okay with going with the flow.

2. Move my body
For most of my life I’ve been in a sport; from softball, flag football, dance, basketball, gymnastics to allstar cheer. Entering college I intentionally decided to not join any recreational sports and clubs, because I wanted to give my body time to heal from my last years of sports and discover who Ciara is beyond the sports. Now that I have a better idea of who I am and what I enjoy, I am interested in getting back into active activities. Last school year, I took the time to embed Pilates and Yoga into my schedule to see if I enjoyed it, which I thoroughly did! I’m excited to start going to classes and to attend Girls Gains events that will let me explore this resolution more! If you’re a beginner like me, USC offers Hecuba Rising where they open the Village Gym early for an instructor-led workout! 🏃🏾‍♀️

4. Learn to budget
A little bit more of a straightforward goal, but I would like to learn how to properly budget this year. I will be living in Los Angeles year-round soon for my grad portion of the BS-OTD program and would like to prepare myself by learning to budget and progressing my financial literacy. This resolution isn’t something that can be done in a blink of an eye, so I would like to start by using public transport more and eating out less. I’ll start with these two smaller, more measurable goals before working my way up to making a substantial difference in my budget!

4. Explore more of California
Similar to my first resolution, I want to explore more of California. Entering my third year at USC, I still feel like I haven’t explored much of California (the life of a homebody . . . ). Hence, I want to spend my breaks exploring around California rather than having a “stay-cation” in my room this year. I love exploring nature, so beaches are always enjoyable for me to visit but I also want to explore the hidden gems of California! If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

5. Take care of my health
While this is a resolution that is constant every year, it also evolves each year to reflect current challenges or situations I’m going through. This year taking care of my mental health manifests primarily as self care. I usually get so wrapped up in my studies that I forget to take care of myself, primarily with sleep and nutrient-poor meals. Last year I would drink lots of energy drinks — especially around exam season — which would ultimately result in me overworking myself in addition to the energy drinks disrupting my sleep; I would wake up in the middle of the night for days after drinking them. I realized at the start of this year that I wanted to help take care of both my mental and physical health by not drinking energy drinks and being more intentional with my meals. Not drinking energy drinks has proven to not be too hard but as a certified picky eater I still got some work to do on eating more nutritious meals. Sometimes it’s hard to remember there’s life beyond classes which can be quite draining so embedded in this goal also involves taking time to have fun and hang out with friends!

Starting the year with resolutions personally helps me take care of myself better. Like vision boards, they allow me to envision a future sector of my life that I would be proud and happy in. However, it’s good to note that resolutions don’t have to be harshly critical. We, as humans, tend to be our harshest critics so if you’re interested in setting your own new [school] year resolutions, remember that this is a time to make goals for growth and happiness and not a time to knock yourself down a peg! ❤️❤️

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