We could all be stars. Living in such a beautiful world, in the midst of this wealth of opportunity, our lives could be the stuff of dreams.

Yet, too often we live passively, aimlessly, and apathetically.

We pass time with one eye open and the other closed, blinking half-hearted goodbyes to all the life rushing past us. A speaker is going to give a surely great lecture in Nichols this Wednesday? Eh, it’s our only long lunch of the week. I want to hang out with my friends and finish this homework. Maybe next month. The talent show is coming up? Nah, so many others are going to participate. They don’t need me. Maybe next year. Besides, I could use the auditioning and practice time for something else. An elusive goal, perhaps.

We plop down in front of our computers, open Facebook and AIM, and that “saved” time vanishes.

We know this. We know we don’t live the way we could or should. But we don’t change – we’re too busy. We’ll do it next time.

Well, now a new year is beginning. It’s the perfect time to shed old habits and limitations. A new year is a blank page. Our records are clean, and anything goes.

So let’s start anew. Let’s set some “New School Year’s Resolutions,” long-term goals to guide us at all times. We can aim for that elusive A or earnestly participate in that writing or science competition.

Of course, they don’t have to be traditional goals. We can branch out, explore our horizons, and perhaps discover a passion. We hear this sage advice from Matriculation year after year, but do we ever really take it to heart?

The goals don’t even have to be school- or extracurricular-related. Maybe we could resolve to connect more with our families and truly relish every moment with them before we have to face the world alone after graduation. Or we could try to take pleasure in the day-to-day joys of life. We could stop to appreciate the delicate arch and soft glow of that streetlamp at the corner or the placid watercolor blues of the sky; we could learn to cook and really relish our food.

We should keep these New School Year’s Resolutions in heart and mind every single day, for they’re goals to give us direction and purpose in our lives so that we don’t find ourselves wasting away. How many times in the past have we loitered day after day, simply because we had no true aims, so that one week later, we couldn’t honestly name anything we did that we were proud of? Maybe we halfheartedly did our homework and chores, but we didn’t really do or grow much in any significant or enduring way. We never felt that fulfilling pride and satisfaction that comes with accomplishing something we craved and worked for. But this year, if we remember and constantly strive for these new goals, we won’t feel so empty.

And there should be no excuses for straying from these goals. No I’m still in summer mode, no I’ll do it tomorrow’s, no maybe next time’s, and definitely no it’s too late’s. It’s a new year, a new beginning, and for freshmen especially, it’s the best time to aim higher and farther than ever. For upperclassmen, it’s most definitely not too late. Year after year, seniors try out new activities and classes just to broaden their range of interest; why can’t we? As for lifestyle-related goals, grade is simply irrelevant.

Of course, we’re human and we’re teenagers. We’ll most certainly slip up at times. But if we remember that a mistake is not failure and maintain our continual efforts, eventually, living with a purpose will become a habit.

One of the easiest places for us to go wrong, ironically, is actually when we’re “relaxing.” Time and time again, we say to ourselves that we’ll take a break from homework and hop onto Facebook. After viewing 300 photos of that boyfriend of a cousin of a friend while IMing and texting seven friends, we rub our eyes and glance at the clock. An hour has passed. Yet we’re still just as tired as and not a bit happier than before. On the other hand, going outside and really seeing the world or meeting up at a coffee shop with those seven friends is actually refreshing. Rather than robotically clicking, paradoxically, we should put real life and passion into our leisure.

Mr. Nikoloff said it best last year at graduation: we need to learn to single-task. We’re always so distracted that we never manage to give anything – neither fun nor work – our very best.

Ultimately, we just need to live with passion, direction, and purpose. When working, we can work for an end, not just because we have to and have time to spare. When relaxing, we can give ourselves wholeheartedly to fun.

And above all, we should always take pride in what we do. We should do what we do for ourselves, not for others, and when we say we’re finished, we should know we did all we could. There shouldn’t be any halfhearted twitches of effort.

We have the power to make this year whatever we want. Let’s embrace the new era, not cling desperately to the receding coattails of languid summer and old times past. It’s a fresh start.

Let’s go forth and make this our best year yet.