New Year’s Resolutions

Yay! Blog post #2! It’s finally 2010. Yes, I know 2009 has been a tough year, yadda yadda yadda. Enough with the old, I say…can’t wait for the things that lie ahead. Dwelling on the past gets you nowhere. But enough of this faux-philosophizing.

I find it appropriate to start off the new year with some resolutions, at least a few that I will be able to keep throughout 2010. And even if I don’t, hey, at least I tried, right?

1. Get back in shape.

College has not been good to me, health-wise. Three LARGE square meals a day, dessert and ice cream, 2 am food runs, boba every other day, soda every night at 11. Not to mention all the food we get at club events and visiting friends. And I’ve greatly reduced  the amount of exercise I get every week, from one and a half hours PER DAY of swimming to thirty minutes PER WEEK. I’ve tried to find more time. Really. But it’s just so hard when you have other stuff to do, and when the pool keeps on breaking down.

So, my resolution is to eat more healthy and not late at night. Maybe occasionally, I’ll grab food late-night, but I’ll steer clear of doing so every time a group of friends wants to eat late. I plan to swim a bit more – I’m shooting for three times a week as semester starts, and later twice a week as schoolwork picks up, with one hour to one and a half hour sessions on Saturdays.

2. Be a safer driver.

This is a big one for me. Shut up Xavier. Yes, I realize that I do drive fast. Yes, I’ve done stupid stuff. Yes, I’m a growing teenage boy with testosterone that needs to be channeled. But I’ve realized that I can’t be doing this forever. I love to drive, and I just feel at home when I’m behind the wheel. Throughout high school, I was the chauffeur for my friends, and I loved every second of it. But, what if something happens? I know it sounds lame, but when I look back, it’s just not worth the thrill to end up in the hospital, or worse.

So I will slow down a bit, keep a safer following distance, be more patient with slower drivers, and change lanes less. There’s really no need to get everywhere in record time, and I save a few minutes at most. No, I refuse to drive like a seventy-year-old (in his brand spanking new Corvette going sixty on the freeway). But yes, I will try my best to be a safer driver.

3. Help out those in the Berkeley area who are less fortunate than I am.

At Berkeley, where I go to school, there are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of hobos. For the most part, they’re pretty cool and don’t try to rape or rob you, contrary to what a lot of people believe. Yes, quite a few are stoners/crazy, and I think that’s a big reason why I haven’t really been willing to help them out financially. But, as I learned at my church’s winter camp, it’s our duty to help the poor, and that’s what I’m going to try to do. It doesn’t even need to be financial help…I think some would appreciate a person who takes the time to RECOGNIZE that they exist. So, if I do manage to help a Berkeley hobo, I hope I will be able to at least learn his/her story and get to know him/her better as a person. Yes, I will probably end up not following through on this, but it’s just something that I want to at least try.

I will miss you, Baxter. Why does Berkeley parking have to be so expensive?

Visit my blog at randomtidbitsofthought.wordpress.com!