This is the second in a two-part series in which members of The Hatchet’s opinions section – editors, columnists and writers, representing a range of majors and class years – share what they hope to accomplish in the new year.

We hope you find some of these resolutions, or at least parts of them, applicable to your life. Happy New Year.

Sarah Blugis, a junior majoring in political communication, is The Hatchet’s contributing opinions editor.
In 2015, I’m embracing self love, which is the idea that it’s OK to love everything about yourself. For a lot of people, it’s about positive body image – basically proclaiming, “I’m beautiful/handsome and that’s that.”

My resolution is not only to be body positive, but also to be positive about my own life. In GW’s competitive atmosphere, this means I’ll be proud of my own accomplishments. I’ll stop telling myself I’ll never have an internship as impressive as some others. I’ll stop comparing GPAs. I’ll stop beating myself up. This year, I’m going to try to be as proud of myself as my parents are of me. I’m going to love myself – like a true millennial.

Justin Peligri, a senior majoring in political communication, is a Hatchet senior columnist.
It’s a sad truth what most of us have accepted but hesitate to voice out loud: New Year’s resolutions don’t work. After all, what’s special about this time of year that convinces us the promises we make will be good for anything 12 months from now?

The key, I think, is to make resolutions daily – that is, set attainable goals for ourselves whenever we can and work toward achieving them in the short term. That will yield more reassuring results than setting big goals that are eternally out of reach.

For example, instead of setting my sights on being hired for my dream job come May, I’m focusing on excelling at my internship in the next few months, making well-placed friends and accomplishing daily tasks that will help me earn points in the minds of potential employers. Smaller goals are less daunting: Not only will I feel like I’m accomplishing something, but I actually will be.

If writing down resolutions around this time of year is an annual tradition you cherish, don’t hold back. But we shouldn’t be afraid to admit that our dreams will only become realities if we actually make an effort in the next year. Coming up with resolutions is just the beginning of a 365-day-long journey, not the end. And my resolution this year is to keep that in mind.

Talia Balakirsky, a freshman majoring in journalism, is a Hatchet opinions writer.
After just one semester on campus, I’ve already found that eating at GW is a sport. On numerous occasions, I’ve been forced to race against the clock to get to J Street before it closes at a ridiculously early hour or, worse, for the entire weekend. Other times, I’ve walked blocks just to find a new place that takes GWorld that isn’t Carvings.

Sometimes, with the stress and work that is piled on top of school and numerous extracurricular activities, we forget that we live in the nation’s capital, which offers dining options that are incomparable to both GW’s campus and many other college cities.

With our next semester only a few days away, my resolution is one that fits with my love of food, specifically Mexican cuisine: exploring D.C. to find the best Mexican restaurants. They’re a favorite among GW students, with places like Alero only a short Uber ride away. But it seems most still don’t venture outside of a few-mile radius to eat.

I want to pop the “Foggy Bottom bubble” and explore all the options that many of us don’t know exist. Though the restaurants will likely not take GWorld, nor compare to the five-star dining of J Street, being a little more adventurous can help us all go to bed with full stomachs.

Irene Ly, a freshman majoring in psychology, is a Hatchet opinions writer.
College was surprising in that I found I had more free time than I ever had before. I want to make better use of that time. So in 2015, I want to go outside of my comfort zone and get involved in a student organization that’s totally different from what I did in high school. I also want to make more of an effort to meet new people so they can get to know the silly, loud side of me that only my closest friends from home have seen.

Melissa Holzberg, a freshman majoring in political communication, is a Hatchet opinions writer.
As a freshman in college, my year was full of some of the most quintessential teenage moments of my life. I got into colleges, picked one, went to prom, graduated high school and so on. Looking at my year, it seemed like I couldn’t think of something to improve to make 2015 better.

When I began 2014, I went in with the resolution to be happier, less stressed and more content to go with the flow. To be frank, that did not happen. 2014 was one of the best years of my life as well as one of the most stressful. So for this coming year, I have one wish, one resolution: I want to continue searching for my passions and go after them without fear. This year has been a year of change, and 2015 will be the year of figuring out those changes.

David Meni, a senior majoring in political science, is a Hatchet opinions writer.
My New Year’s resolution is to start smoking. I’m graduating in 2015, and if all goes according to plan, by this time next year, I’ll be living in a 250-square-foot studio with a third-floor fire escape. When I’ve finally slammed open the thrice-painted-over window and contorted myself through the opening to stand on that rickety fire escape, what am I going to do, drink a cup of Earl Grey? No, I’ve got to be chain smoking like a fiend – American Spirits, obviously – and looking out over the cityscape with a brooding squint.

How else will I punctuate my sentences when I’m chatting with my fellow searching 20-somethings? I’ve tried to do that dramatic removal of glasses, but it either comes across as too campy or I poke myself in the eye. So instead, I’ll speak through puffs of a cig as I pontificate on books I’ve mostly read and start sentences like, “When I was an undergrad …”

Meghan Xanthos, a sophomore majoring in English, is a Hatchet opinions writer.
My New Year’s resolution is to go to the gym every day. I would like to become athletic enough that I stop getting winded on my way there. I would also like to go to the gym more so I stop thinking the mannequin in the window is a real person – because that’s terrifying.

Jaggar DeMarco, a junior majoring in political communication, is a Hatchet columnist.
Every New Year’s comes and goes and I usually haven’t kept up with my resolutions. I always think on a wide scale by choosing resolutions that would make a significant change in my life. I say to myself, “You should be more positive.” These types of resolutions are extremely vague and never come to fruition, so this year, I have a new strategy.

Every day or week, I want to make small-scale goals for myself. It can be mundane stuff like “go grocery shopping,” or something more interesting like “go see a foreign language movie,” or even “read for 20 minutes a day” instead of cramming my readings in the night before class.

This strategy allows me to think about what’s important to me as it comes. I don’t know what will happen in a month, in the middle of the summer or even next fall. I don’t need to worry about thinking of some grand resolution that will make my year better.

Instead I’m focusing on the week ahead.

Claude Khalife, a sophomore majoring in international affairs, is a Hatchet opinions writer.
My New Year’s resolution has not changed in three years. One day, when I was a junior in high school, my school’s librarian handed me a printed-out transcript of a commencement speech given by the writer David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College a few years back. Entitled “This is Water,” the speech focused on the incredibly difficult daily task of reminding yourself that you aren’t the center of the universe and of practicing constant, daily empathy even in the most frustrating of times.

Yes, selflessness and humility are values drilled into most of us from our earliest days. Yet in Wallace’s prose, I felt a deep, profound stirring – a near-religious sense of right and wrong that had never truly been roused even during countless hours spent sitting in classes like Biblical Scripture and Christian Thought.

That is not to say that I have by any means mastered the art of, as Wallace says, “being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.” But even as I grow farther away from the boy who read those lines, they still resound deep and strong within my head, a daily challenge to wrench my perspective away from its default, self-centered setting. Here, I once again find my resolution.

Sasha Kobliha, a sophomore majoring in anthropology, is a Hatchet opinions writer.
Resolutions are exhausting. I’m so tired of promising myself, “This year, I’ll definitely go to the gym more,” or “This year, I’m buckling down and focusing on school.” It’s futile. If I couldn’t get my life organized two weeks ago, what magical quality is going to make that possible in the new year?

So for 2015, my resolution is to have no expectations. I want to live in the present and welcome what may come – good and bad. Too often, people fixate on the abstract concept of “the future,” as if it holds this imaginary key to universal happiness.

I’m sick of hearing, “I’m going to make this year the best.” What’s compelling you to wait? Start right now and make this very second the best. Expectation is just hope without active intervention, and I’m done standing by idly while life makes decisions for me. The now is tangible and I’m going to do something with it. I hope all of you will, too.