New Years Resolution
The countdown begins as everyone is ready to jump into not only the new year but into the new decade. It has been a tradition for many of all ages to set personal goals for their upcoming year. Rather it’s changing a diet or picking up a new hobby. Many follow through with it and some tend to drop it part-way through the year.
Setting goals for yourself is a great way to start the beginning of a new year. Not only do you have a mindset goal, but you push yourself to complete that goal.
“ My goal for 2020 is to be more mindful of others and help when needed,” said Kortney Atherton (11).
“A goal I have set for myself is to learn to paint in hopes [that] it will distract my mind from other distractions or help calm me,” said McKenna Peck (10).
Many set goals to help them break a bad habit that has consumed them, such as electronics. By putting your mind into jogging, painting, or even reading it will help take it away from those distractions and throughout the year, you can see how setting this goal helped improve your mental or physical health.
“My goal for last year was to save more money to buy everyone nice Christmas gifts at the end of the year,” Kourtney Atherton (11) said.
“ When Christmas time came around, I wasn’t scrounging for money,” said Atherton. “And I was able to buy everyone nice gifts for the holiday and it made me feel really good that I completed that goal.”
In the beginning of the year when you set a goal, it can be difficult to keep up it. However, if you stick through that goal and reflect back over the year of how that goal helped you improve as an individual.
“My goal for 2019 was to read more. I kept up with it until March, then I slowly forgot,” said Peck. “When I reflected over my year, I was disappointed in myself that I didn’t follow through with that goal, but this year is going to change.”
Many people tend to let go of their goal halfway through the year because everyone gets caught up in different activities. Therefore when you reflect over your year, you tend to get discouraged and disappointed in yourself cause you know you could have completed it.
However there is still hope! 2020 means clear vision. I encourage you to have a clear vision of what you would like to see yourself improve in this upcoming year and hopefully be able to reflect on it at the end.
Black Friday
Black Friday flyers
Lines out the door, hectic drivers, and determined shoppers: you guessed it, it is Black Friday. One of the busiest holidays for everyone across America. Black Friday started in 1961 and became a bigger deal over the years. The most popular local stores to shop at are Kohl’s, Best Buy and the Valley Mall, all which have sales going on top of coupons to make the deals for the shoppers even better while promoting their store.
Due to the busy nature of the day, shoppers tend to have to wait in lines to get the deal of a lifetime. Many think it is pointless and a waste of time, but others think it’s a deal to steal!
“ I waited in line for 40 minutes at Target and to me, it wasn’t worth it. But I did get a $9 pillow!” said Emily Bailey (11).
On this holiday you see the true colors come out in everyone. Everyone wants that 50” TV or new Nike Air Forces and they are willing to run the full mile to have it in their cart. Some shoppers will even extend to getting aggressive with other shoppers.
“It was just catastrophic. People fought over $9 pillows” said Bailey.
A big homerun for many teenagers on Black Friday is clothing. Black Friday is the time to get all your nice popular brands such as Nike, Columbia, and Calvin Klien when it’s all on sale. However due to everyone knowing this, it can be stressful searching for your product because things become sold out quickly.
“ The most stressful thing for me that day was trying to find clothing in my size.. It was normally sold out.” stated Bailey.
The shoppers always think that they may have it rough, however it wouldn’t be made possible without the workers who were brave enough to work on the busiest day in shopping history. Cashiers work as fast as they can to make sure the lines move fast and swift. Garrett Working (11) who is a cashier at Marshalls in Hagerstown worked during the aftermath of Black Friday.
“ It wasn’t too bad when I got there, but it was definitely messy,” said Working. “Everything was thrown around and out of order.”
The cashiers worked quickly to move people through the line and to also answer customer questions while the rest of the workers worked to keep their store looking presentable for the upcoming days.
“I worked to help clean up the store for the following day” said Working. “They continue their sales and call it ‘Black Saturday.'”
Ending another year of a successful Black Friday shopping for both shoppers and workers. Until next year!
