Your Yearend To-Do List

New Year Resolutions are quite the cliché. By midnight, our hearts are awake with hope, zealous of the next 365 days of possibilities. We always get overwhelmed with promising beginnings that we disregard the beauty of meaningful endings. They will tell you to start the year right, but have you heard of ending the year triumphantly?

The clock is ticking, and with it, 2022 fades in the background. In the air is the question, “What’s the best thing about 2022?” and then you wonder. You may want to look back on the previous months, you may still have your favorite days. Still, those don’t need to end yet. There’s still time to do more. Let us give you some ideas.

REORGANIZE YOUR STUDY AREA. We don’t want to welcome 2023 with a messy desktop, do we? Before this year ends, rearrange your books and notes. Buy stuff, refill your pen stand, paste affirmations on the wall. Anything that feels right and encouraging. You will have a tough yet amazing year again; brace for it.

VOLUNTEER FOR A CLASS RECIT. I know it’s scary, but imagine the feeling of having that one successful recit before the year ends. You know, something to look back and be proud of. We often pray silently on our seats to be called on a case we read and understood (somehow) but why not raise your hand and get that credit? Take this as a challenge.

HAVE A SELF-DATE. It does not need to be something fancy. You can have a quiet afternoon on a coffee shop or watch the new Avatar movie. You may read that novel you only kept behind your codals simply because you didn’t have the time. Pause everything for a moment. You can even forget you’re a law student for an inkling of a time. Give your mind some rest. Breathe.

REACH OUT TO PEOPLE YOU LOVE. With the hectic schedule of law school and work, we may have our shortcomings with people. However, words are powerful. Say how much your family, friends, and loved ones mean to you. If you’re also looking for a sign to finally say those three words to someone, let this be it. If we don’t say it, how will they know?

FACE THAT DIFFICULT CONVERSATION. When the clock strikes 12 on the 31^st, leave all the unnecessary behind. Drop some of your baggage: the guilt, the regrets, the lost friendship, the unexpected goodbyes. In cases where there are still unfinished conversations with anyone, have it. Easier said than done, but the year’s ending. You should free yourself, too.

REASSURE YOURSELF. Lastly, go back to the beginning. Ask yourself the timeless question, “Why am I here?” and get reminded of that answer. Hold on to it.  It was the very same thing that kept you at bay this year. It will also reassure you that whatever’s waiting for you in 2023, you’re going to be okay.

There you go. Just a short list of randoms. It’s not much, but hopefully, this will help you gain a little ounce of yearend satisfaction. On these remaining days, may 2022 remind you of how strong you held on. May the tears you shed and the silent battles you won be your weapons to push through. 2022 has given us a mix of the good and the bad. Yet, you rose above it all. You triumphed.

Above all these things, celebrate yourself.

You’re the best part of your year. Own it.