With the dawning of the new year comes the popular New Year's Resolution. From working out to quitting smoking, these resolutions range from picking up a good habit to dropping a bad one.
These commitments are meant to make a person better in any aspect of life.
The origins of this trendy vow date back to ancient Babylon and have a stake in Caesarian Rome, said Gordon North in his article titled "The Origins of New Year's Resolution."
Having a New Year's Resolution is nothing new for Richard Penaskovic, program director for religious studies.
"I want to pray more faithfully," Penaskovic said. "I am sticking with it fairly well."
He tries to strengthen his prayer habits when the new year rolls around, Penaskovic said.
Not everyone is a seasoned resolution maker, however.
"It's my first time to ever have a New Year's Resolution," said Sarah Simmons, junior in biomedical sciences. "And I'm sticking with it so far!"
When asked why she has been so successful thus far, she said she has plenty of motivation.
"Probably because spring break is right around the corner and getting in shape is the thing to do," Simmons said.
Simmons also said she found it easier to stick with her resolution when she made a detailed schedule.
"My dad recently lost a lot of weight," Simmons said. "So I am going to follow his example and use it as inspiration."
Arguably one of Auburn's strangest New Year's Resolutions came from Cameron Payne, sophomore in engineering.
Payne is avidly playing arcade-style Donkey Kong in an attempt to become the greatest player in the world.
"I just love to game," Payne said.
Steve Wiebe overtook Billy Mitchell as the world's greatest player in arcade-style Donkey Kong with a score of 1,049,100, according to stevewiebe.com. (Later, Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. Here comes Cameron Payne.)
Academically speaking, the new year marks a new semester and a new semester means a clean slate. Cristyn James, freshman in engineering, resolves to make better grades this year.
"I got a 100 on my first history quiz," James said, "so it must be going well so far."
James also said she would like to be more active on campus and in her sorority.
Auburn students and faculty members aren't the only people trying to better their lives and making resolutions this new year.
According to proactivechange.com, 40 to 45 percent of American adults are making one or more resolutions this year.
Only 46 percent of those people make it past six months successfully.
In an effort to combat this extremely low success rate, Maria Thomas suggests making easy resolutions like eating 100 percent fat-free ice cream or pledging to do less work, in her article titled "Humor: New Year's Resolutions."
In a competitive world, self-improvement is a necessity, and undertaking and sticking to a challenging resolution could bring with it rewards in 2010.
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