What is it with new years and new beginnings? For example, we like to make New Year’s resolutions. Why can’t we do that during the middle of the year? Why do we have to wait for a new year to come before we say that we have a fresh start?

I’m no exception to the rule; I have made numerous new year’s resolutions I can’t even recall. I made them in the hopes of improving myself, but the only thing I probably need to improve right now is my memory. What little I can remember of my past resolutions just proves that my resolutions have not helped me at all. Not because they were useless or stupid, but because I was not able to follow them. Maybe I started on some of them, but if I did, they have long been abandoned.

One of the resolutions that never fails to make an appearance on my lists is my promise to study harder. When I say study harder, it means I will make a conscious effort to actually read, listen, understand, and remember my lessons. Oh, this line has appeared in my list so many times it should have already been carved in my brain, but to this date I don’t think I have ever fully achieved this goal. It is the ningas kugon mentality—sa simula lang magaling. I am sure many of us are guilty of this—we really make an effort at first, but as time passes we find ourselves going back to our old ways. What happens to those bravely-worded resolutions that made us feel so optimistic and confident at the beginning?

I could probably list down all the things that I would like to change or do during 2014, but people would probably just roll their eyes and say, “This is just another one of those crappy resolutions that gets abandoned faster than you can say, ‘I promise.’” But I guess that is the thing about new years—you get another chance and a fresh start. We all have something to look forward to, something to hold on to. “There’s still next year,” we tell ourselves.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce, a poet, once wrote, “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.”

I know we all could use a fresh start—I know I do. Some previous years have been filled with lots of memories—some good, some not so good, and some downright terrible. We have all had our moments—some we did not want to end, and some we wish had never happened. But it is time to put those bad years to rest, and welcome the new year, with arms wide open.

I wish I could say that this year I have not made another new year’s ‘resolution’, as it would probably be another futile attempt to make a change, but alas, I cannot say that. New resolutions have made it to my list, along with some entries from the previous years. There is no guarantee that they will get done; they could be broken just a few hours before the new year. But I am hoping for the best—who knows, this might be the year I actually follow my list. This might be the year we all make good on our promises. This might be the year we finally take the plunge and swim across the river of resolutions and fight the temptations that hinder us from getting to the other side, which contains better and improved versions of ourselves. The possibilities are endless—after all, we are just getting started on that ‘book’ for the new year. We just have to be smart enough to grab that tricky thing called “Opportunity” when we get the chance.

Ikaw, anong new year’s resolution mo?