Editorial—Repudiating Resolutions

I always find it interesting when the writers for The Voice Magazine independently come up with a theme for the issue.  Of course, I don’t think anybody would be terribly surprised that the first issue we get this year has a strong theme about New Years’ Resolutions, coming as it does at the start of the new year.

No, what surprising to me is the almost unanimous agreement among the writers that New Year’s Resolutions, well, kind of suck.  They make us feel bad about the year past, they gave us reason to delay necessary changes, and we end up breaking them and just feeling guilty about them anyway.  I have to wonder if this sentiment is somewhat amplified by the year that just passed, one that, for many of us, slowed down what we think of as the progress in our lives.

Regardless, if you’re on board with the refusal of resolutions, you’ll be happy with this issue, whether it’s the Struggling Student urging you to ignore the timing aspect, or the Fly on the Wall wondering if the problem is how the words define and limit both what we can resolve and the expectations of how that resolution can be met.  Or maybe you’ll just take comfort in reading about how you’re not the only one to miss your targets for your new years’ resolutions, as Emily Viggiani confronts perfectionism and the New Year, or Xine Xu’s look at the habits that might help you have a better year, whether or not you have a resolution for it.

But our feature article this week is an interview with fellow student and our own ranting struggling student, Angela Pappas.  If you’ve wondered what drives a struggling student to start doing crazy things like writing for a student magazine about finances, or even just want to hear how a globe-trotting student has come to value AU, then you’ll want to read the Minds We Meet.

Also, I’m very pleased to announce the return of the Course Exam.  This column always has several installments among the most read articles on The Voice Magazine, and we’re rebooting it this week with Karen Lam’s first entry, a look at Math 215.  This is actually a course we looked at before, as it was the first one that our previous Course Exam columnist looked at, but that was almost five years ago, and we thought it seemed appropriate to take a look back, update the column, and see if there’s been any significant changes.

Of course, we also have a selection of student provided advice, recipes, events, scholarships, our round-up of what’s hot that AU students are talking about, and more.  So, if you’ve made a resolution to get more involved with your fellow students, why not start with the latest issue of The Voice Magazine?

Enjoy the read!