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Wellness > Mental Health

I Need To Cry Less, And Other Things I Should Probably Do This Year

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CU Boulder chapter.

Last year, I kept a cry-count calendar, and then realized I should probably invest that time into something else—maybe a credit card or graduate school research or even something only personally beneficial, like journaling or getting eight hours of sleep per night.

I realized there were many other things I should start to focus on; many other resolutions that need to be done sometime in the coming year. Or sometime in the future. Or perhaps-–despite their importance—they’ll never get done.

My notes app is full of half written, half completed to do lists. Some of them have grocery lists, some have homework assignments with due dates, and some don’t jog even a single memory no matter how hard I concentrate on it. 

Some of them have New Year’s resolutions. 

As I enter a new decade of my life, I’ve started taking New Year’s resolutions more seriously. I did when I was a kid—mainly filled with hopes for good teachers and classes with my friends—but they sort of fell off after I entered middle school and started focusing more on the present and what was sitting right in front of me. 

Though it’s important to not overlook the present, seeing my cry-count calendar and the consistent, daily effort put into a miniscule activity reminded me of my resolutions from years past, both achieved and unachieved. As 2025 grew closer and closer, I started thinking about things I wanted to accomplish in the coming year. And this time, I made them realistic and achievable; not a stretch goal or something that I needed to reach to the stars for. 

For example, rather than shooting for straight A’s this spring, I want to plan to procrastinate less on academic work and put more time and effort into class. Though these goals do not promise my resolution getting accomplished, it puts me in a better position to achieve them and at the very least builds good habits for the future. 

I am beginning to look to the future again, reminding my physical self of my childhood—the motions, the thoughts, the ruminations are all similar to my younger mind. Now, instead of wishing for classes with my elementary friends and the newest models of material items, my resolutions revolve around stability and caring more for those around me. I want to be less selfish, less brash, more compassionate, and more organized. 

It sounds like a lot. It is a lot. But now I know where to start, my hands guided by the baby-soft palms of the ghosts of my past. Again, I look up at the stars and hope to get there someday, and then take a single step forwards—a small but sure advance towards my goals.

Content written by various anonymous CU Boulder writers