We’ve all been there: gathered around on New Year’s Eve, each exchanging resolutions, describing the person that we wish to miraculously transform into the next morning. But by the time mid-January rolls around, that inspired figure full of hope from just weeks earlier has seemingly vanished. The idea of having resolutions, let alone keeping them, becomes almost laughable. Whether it be exercise, relaxation, or the oh-so-naïve ‘Dry January’, the idea of resolution-making is one that has become a redundant activity (even if we forget this by next New Year’s). However, whilst most have no chance of maintaining such deranged promises, the academic rigour of Oxford makes students even more likely to give up on resolutions before feeling their benefit.
Between last-minute tutorial essay writing and mad rushes between lectures on opposite sides of the city, Oxford really does not leave its students much time for healthy habit-making. Granted, the idea of “not having time” is simply a matter of priorities, but with so much academic pressure it would feel ridiculous to focus our limited energy on small acts of self-improvement rather than our work; I struggle to believe that any tutor would accept an incomplete essay because you simply had to do that online guided meditation. The intellectually challenging environment which we are constantly surrounded by at Oxford is just incompatible with resolutions. How can we aspire to keep healthy habits when 24/7 libraries populate the city and pulling an all-nighter to finish a piece of work is as much an Oxford tradition as matriculation?
This is not to say that welfare is lacking at Oxford, because support for student wellbeing is abundant, reaching a crescendo when the horror of Week Five Blues rolls around. Yet resolutions are supposed to be a preventative method of bettering ourselves, rather than a reactive response to what is going wrong. Instead of dedicating time to our own pursuits of self-improvement, we choose to drown in a crushing workload, using welfare resources as the life ring keeping us afloat.
Even the setup of Oxford life gives us no chance of being well-equipped for resolution keeping. It becomes incredibly easy to fall into laziness when a scout is cleaning your room each week and every meal is catered for. The entire Oxford lifestyle is built so that we as students don’t have to concern ourselves with household tasks in order to maximise working potential, making our lives easier but stunting our ability to take care of ourselves. Every college comes with its own micro-community, a safe haven that seems isolated from the real world, equipped with all the resources you could ever need – making it easy to never leave. But what comes with that sense of familiarity is a lack of drive, meaning that pursuing any kind of self-improvement becomes hopeless.
However, a lack of drive is not necessarily what Oxford students are associated with; some may object to this pessimistic perspective on the promising prospects that a New Year brings. Surely as driven students we can defy the odds and dedicate ourselves to healthy habit-making as well? But as we all well know, dedication and intelligence don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with common sense. Quantum mechanics students using WikiHow to cook pasta; scholars of 19th Century Gothic literature forgetting to separate their laundry and wondering why all of their white t-shirts are mysteriously pale pink. These quirks of Oxford students are plentiful, demonstrating clearly that basic life skills do not correlate with intellect – so what chance do we have to keep any resolutions?
So whilst Oxford students may have met their match when faced with the prospect of resolution-keeping, there is still hope. Resolutions are not restricted to the 31st December, so we can always wake up and try again. Yes, we may fail countless times in this process, and no, we won’t magically wake up one morning as the perfected version of ourselves which we envision. But the course of self-improvement never did run smooth, as Shakespeare (should have) said, so be kind to yourself this January – your resolutions might be broken, but may your spirit never be!
