by Vicki Li ’18, Staff Writer

When cheering erupts around the world on January 1, you know it’s time to step up your game and make a change in your life. The most common New Year’s resolutions are to be more productive, spend time with family, stay fit and healthy, and to get organized. We can all agree that Newark Academy is a fairly prestigious school; Washington Post ranked it as one of “America’s Most Challenging High Schools,” which basically translates to “We’re fantastic.” You would expect that students from such a great school would have ambitious New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps a junior’s resolution would be to get into an Ivy League college. An athlete’s resolution might be to exercise more in order to break their own personal record. I asked around the NA community, but I didn’t hear any of the resolutions listed above.

Let’s start with a freshman. Jason Amalraj ’19 is a first-year NA student who plays the viola. His math skills are exceptional, landing him in PreCalculus Honors with upperclassmen. Jason’s New Year’s resolution has nothing to do with academics, productivity, or music. “I want to be seven feet tall by the end of this year,” Jason said, shaking his viola bow vigorously in the air. Jason is about five feet tall, which can be rounded down to about two feet tall. I’ve never been one to crush dreams, but growing about five feet in a year seems like a stretch, even for the energetic Amalraj.

His section partner, Truman Ruberti ‘16, had a more realistic New Year’s resolution. He took a bit more time to choose, but Truman decided that he wanted to lose weight, a sign of his commitment to wrestling. Jason begged to differ.

“Truman doesn’t want to lose weight,” Jason corrected. “Truman secretly has a passion for electronic dance music. He aspires to become a DJ despite what his parents tell him.” If Truman actually becomes a DJ, I’m sure Jason will be the first to hear his mixes.

Another Orchestra student, Rebecca Slater ’18, also had a New Year’s resolution. Rebecca is a cheerful and wonderful person if you know her personally, but some of her facial expressions signal otherwise to strangers. She wants to improve her smile so that she looks friendlier. She joked that she also wants to “not be fat,” but considering that she’s a varsity tennis player, I think she’s already achieved that goal.

Sophomores weren’t as excited as Jason about New Year’s Day. I asked an anonymous student about her resolution. After bargaining with her in exchange for her resolution, she told me, “Let me think about it.” After fifty-five minutes, she turned to me and said that her resolution was to make a New Year’s resolution. Mallory Shaw ‘18 also had similar ideas: “My New Year’s resolution is to come up with a better New Year’s resolution next year.” My own resolution was similar to Mallory’s. At first, it was to spend my time more efficiently, but after a whopping ten minutes, I abandoned it. My new resolution is to not make unrealistic New Year’s resolutions.

Michelle Lee ’18 was the last person I interviewed. Michelle is probably the most mysterious person in the sophomore class. We know that this taciturn individual dwells in the library doing undisclosed activities, supposedly never stays up past 11PM, and is an active member of the cults that are Chameleon and the cross-country team. That’s all that was ever revealed to me about Michelle. When I asked her about her resolution, she responded with: “Isn’t it already past New Year’s?”

I couldn’t take that as a real answer, so I asked her again for a serious resolution. At first, she resisted my attempts to wheedle a statement from her, but she finally gave in and said, “Ummm…” I assumed that was her way of saying that her New Year’s Resolution was to find true love. No wonder she watches The Bachelor all the time.