By Siddarth Tumu

As we welcome the New Year, it is a good time to consider the things that we want to change in our lives. Whether it is getting good grades to trying out new things, one tries to see what they can do to achieve their goals. Wanting to know more about what students at NA wanted to change in their lives. I polled about 30 middle school students, grades 6-8.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were a multitude of goals that middle school students wished to achieve in the New Year. Nine students said that they would like to improve on their grades. They said that they would study harder and find new ways to study in order to improve. Five students stated that they wanted to work out more and get fit by exercising more regularly and not having as much junk food. Three said that they wanted to have better social lives by being better friends, making friends, and being themselves. Three said that they wanted to stop procrastinating by deleting games on their electronic devices and not fooling around and wasting time. There were a few students who came up with some unique resolutions such as getting rid of guns and trying out new things. Three students said that they wanted to get organized by doing simple things such as making their bed every morning. Two people said that they wanted to become less talkative by thinking before they speak. There were 16 people who said that they don’t have New Year’s revolutions. It is possible that these students are constantly working on improving themselves. It is heartening to realize that NA students feel that nobody is perfect, they can always do something that makes them a better person, even if it’s only by a little bit.

Through this survey, one can see that NA middle school students are taking active steps to maintain and improve their lives by not only achieving their goals but also making themselves better people by doing nice things such as community service and making new friends. We hope that these students can reach their goals and then go onto holding themselves to higher standards, thus adding depth to the NA community. I had the pleasure to speak to Mr. Ashburn, the middle school principal, as to what he thought a good resolution for the whole middle school would be. He said that the practical goal would be to clean up after ourselves as the common room and hallways have been very messy lately. He also said that we should continue to be kind to everybody. He doesn’t think that any of us are mean but thinks that it is a good goal to continue being kind. We aim to triumph as a group but first, we must achieve individual success, one person at a time.