It’s finally 2018! With the new year comes a new quarter, new classes, new professors, and of course, New Year’s resolutions. Almost everyone considers January an opportunity for personal change — eating healthier, hitting the gym, and building relationships. Students at Foothill are no different.

“What are your New Year’s resolutions?”

I first posed the question to Autumn Gonzalez and her friend, Katherine Morales. Gonzalez’s response was straight to the point:

“I want to get super ripped!”

Her friend, also intent on a healthier lifestyle, reflected the response — “just staying fit,” she agreed, “and eating healthier.” As anyone would expect, most responses involved personal fitness.

“I want to lose weight. That’s it,” commented Sebastian Ugarpe. “Oh, and eat less junk food.”

According to multiple polls, college students aren’t going to be the only ones hitting the gym. 38% of US adults intend to exercise more, eat healthier, and lose weight. In fact, physical health ranks highly in nearly every chart surveying new year’s resolutions in America.

But not every lifestyle change has to be a physical one. Many students at Foothill resolve to enhance their social lives, emotional well being, and relationships.

Leticia Matsubara de Morais, for example, intends to “go out more” and “focus on social life as well as work.” Morand Lau and Hiro Yamato also value building connections. Lau’s goal is to master Japanese; Yamato, an international student from Japan, hopes to improve his English.

Even when it comes to emotional health, data suggests Americans as a whole share Foothill students’ sentiments. USA Today reported that “being a better person” tied with “losing weight” in one survey on 2018 resolutions. “Making new friends” and “focusing on self care” also made it onto several lists.

Of course, not everyone takes a “new year, new me” approach to the arrival of 2018.

“I don’t have any,” Morgan Lambert replied, when asked about her resolutions. Joseph Klause agreed — “I just didn’t think about it.”

Perhaps that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. According to Forbes, only 8% of people actually reach their yearly goals. Losing weight, saving money, making friends — those are all quite ambitious aims. That’s why people are advised to keep their goals simple and realistic. For example, instead of aiming to go to the gym every single morning, resolve to go to the gym once or twice a week. Instead of cutting off all extra expenses, cut out that expensive Starbucks coffee.

One Foothill student had this idea of a measured approach. When prompted, Jason Sunardi contemplated his resolution intensely, before delivering a measured, eloquent, and quite reasonable response: “not dying.”