The holidays are easily the most stressful time of the year. You have to find the perfect gifts for your friends and family, be constantly peppy and relax at the same time. Not to mention the residual anxiety from finals is still sticking to your soul. So the new year is supposed to be a fresh start — an end to all of that pesky stress and a chance to make yourself better. But that’s not reality. Really, you pretend to do something that will improve yourself, like work out more or procrastinate less, and you may even actually believe it. But then it’s February, and you’re sitting on your couch eating Doritos out of the bag, having completely forgotten what your resolution was. What’s the point of a New Year’s resolution if you don’t have any support because you’re expected to give it up?

First of all, if I have one, my New Year’s resolution is none of your business. Don’t ask me about it, because I will lie to you and feel no regret. New Year’s resolutions are usually about things that we most want to change about ourselves, so they can be related to our greatest insecurities. I don’t want to make small talk about the things I’m most embarrassed about. Also, why is it assumed that everyone else has made New Year’s resolutions? Is the idea that people can be happy with who they are so ridiculous? Stop asking if someone has a New Year’s resolution. It’s invasive and annoying.

And why are we basing this change on one day? Every day is technically the beginning of a new rotation around the sun, so why do I care about Jan. 1? Not to be too pretentious, but time is made up, so I’m not going to base my development on this one day. Plus, New Year’s resolutions have the connotation of something that will be discarded in a few weeks or less. Self-improvement is important and should be something that we are constantly working on. What’s the point of making an effort to improve when I’m expected to fail?

To be frank, New Year’s resolutions are pointless. They seem like a good attempt at getting more people to develop themselves, but all they really do is make people think that trying to be better is an unattainable goal. I’m not saying that we should get rid of New Year’s resolutions, but they shouldn’t be thought of as something that everyone does. If you want to, improve yourself all year, not just when some arbitrary day tells you to.