By: Monica Cho, News Writer

“I decided to quit eating chocolate,” junior Nicholas Lee admitted. On the first day of every year, many across the globe devise New Year’s resolutions to reach certain goals or make a change in their lifestyles. Resolution-making was no exception for members of the GSIS community.

Reflecting upon his resolution for 2013, Chris Lee confessed, “I tried to lose weight. I went on a diet, but I literally failed. I succeeded in the beginning, but then I started to get lazy; I started to eat and became like this.”

Teachers, too, had certain goals and hopes in mind during the year. Ms. Ragsdale desired to help the Bible department develop a scope and sequence for its curriculum, balance both her personal and work life, and travel around South Korea.

As the year quickly draws to a close, with only a month remaining until the dawn of 2014, students and teachers alike have already begun to create a new set of resolutions.

Mr. Montgomery resolved to write more. He hoped to finish his current novel, write more short stories, and contribute periodically to his recent blog, a collection of his teaching experiences.

The majority of students set academic goals. Ron Kim, a junior, aspired to attain a score of 2260 or higher on the SAT in hopes of matriculating at a good college or university.

Won Jin Kim, another junior, claimed, “I want to make more new friends. I want to be a little bit more outgoing instead of being stuck inside and introverted about everything.” She also wanted to “finish strong” for 2013, as there still remains another month fraught with examinations.

When asked to recommend New Year’s Resolutions to others, Mr. Pitkin suggested, “I suppose since the New Year falls on the semester, it would probably be good to get refocused and come back for a stronger second semester. He continued, “they [juniors and seniors] always think that they’re going to have more time later to finish their Extended Essay, Internal Assessments, or whatever…So I guess my suggestion would be that they use the time they have now to get things done ahead of time — It’s tough to do.”

Students, in turn, returned the favor. Amongst them, Allen Kim asked the teachers to pay more attention to students; Kevin Cha advised implementing policies to prevent stealing; Chris Lee proposed that another building be built for additional space.

On the other hand, there were those who did not make any resolutions whatsoever. “Sometimes when you make a resolution, it ends up being like, ‘Okay, this year is going to be different. This is my chance to make a difference.’ But usually, they kind of fade away for some reason,” noted Mr. Jonathan Montgomery.

Other students, such as Kevin Cha, a senior, expressed similar opinions. “I knew that I would be discouraged if I failed to achieve my resolution [to lose weight].” After his initial disappointment, Kevin decided against New Year’s resolutions and instead chose to establish daily or weekly goals.

Fellow senior Ha Eun Choi revealed that, personally, resolutions were more of a psychological matter. “I knew that if I made New Year’s resolutions, they would make me not want to do them even more, so I just avoided them.”

Regardless of what goals or objectives there may be, students generally looked forward to another year of success. Bill Moon anticipated “a beginning to a happy end of my high school year.”