By Jan Vicente B. Pekas

One of the worst combinations to start off a child’s new year will always be the first day of classes and an extremely cold January. It’s come to the point where even the skin hurts when washing late in the night. Though that itself is a wonderful excuse for those who want to cut corners on hygiene this month. After all, one can barely sweat in the cold January air. Everyone wants to cover themselves with warmth as they get home, not go through another set of hardships in the bathroom with cold water.
It can be a bit harder to start off the new year with cold temperatures such as what we have now. People would rather get a few more minutes of sleep in the morning rather than face off against drowsiness and cold at the same time. This can naturally snowball from a slow start into a discouraged person by mid-year. Again, the cycle would continue for others, a zombie-like state to greet the later months, and not have enough rest to properly start again in the next year.
Like an addict reaching subconsciously for his coveted drug, a person can go back into his routine he swore to change from, all without knowing about it. At this point, it can be good to check ourselves in the mirror, check whether we like what we see or are we just repeating our mistakes from last year. It is all too easy to fall back into our old habits, instead of making progress we would only hinder ourselves.
Instead of reverting to our old habits, we must also muster the courage to try out new things. We already know where we made mistakes from last year. Let’s not go back to them just because we are already comfortable with old mistakes and scared of the new ones we have yet to try.
Having let an opportunity slip by can leave anyone pissed off. In my pursuit of fixing my sleeping schedule from that of a student enjoying his vacation to a student who has gone back to school, the chase is as never-ending as before. Despite having many days as opportunities for an early bedtime, the time on the phone is always still too close to the next day as I go to bed. Frustration can naturally build up upon these repeated failures. Like an addict who will always choose the comfort choice even if that choice is harmful, it can only be frustrating again when looking from the outside. At some point, in a moment of clarity though, fear of going the other way will fade.
Being angry can over power being scared. When the path is divided from a leap of faith on one side and an old mistake that you have gone through time and time again on the other, then it may be time to leap angrily. Perhaps these new and scary choices are just the ones to reveal the correct way forward. Going down the same road will only lead, even the smartest, in circles.