By Brianna Campagna

As the clock strikes midnight and the ball drops from Times Square, many feel a sense of relief and the sensation of having a clean slate.

Worldwide, many people ring in the New Year with a resolution, which people create to better oneself.

Senior Chloe Ecklund has begun her resolution by reading The Goal by Elle Kennedy.

“I plan on reading more,” Ecklund said. “[I plan on] doing that by tracking how much I read and finding more books I like.”

Rather than planning on enhancing a skill, sophomore Lexxi Reynolds wants to restore something she once had by rekindling an old friendship.

“My resolution is to become friends with an old friend,” Reynolds said. “It’s been a couple years, but we fell off. Not for any specific reason, there was never a problem, but it was just a nice friendship and I want it back.”

Reynolds has set goals to help the friendship fall back into place.

“I’m going to try to text them first and call them at least once a week just to reconnect with them,” she said.

Others take a different approach on New Year’s resolutions. Rather that setting a goal, some people choose a motto to live by.

“The word of intention is you create a word or think of a word that’s going to make you a better person throughout the whole year,” Health and Physical Education teacher Mrs. Alyssa Lukatch said.

The words of intent that Mrs. Lukatch chose this year are “present and content.”

“I struggle a lot with just being in the present moment,” Lukatch said. “We’re always focused on the future and what’s going to happen and what we should be doing. I want to focus on where I am right now and being content in the moment that I am in right now.”

By the end of the year, everyone wants to have done something that changed their life for the better.

“I think words of intention, for me at least, helped me to focus on a lot of different things that I could positively change in my life,” Lukatch said.