We hope you all had some kind of a chance to rest over break, even if you had a job (or two) to work at while at home.

Some of you are probably excited to see your friends after returning after all these weeks. Maybe some of you are even looking forward to your new classes and moving one step forward to graduation. Others might be dreading this return back to campus, with having to juggle full class loads, work and their personal lives once again.

No matter how you feel about coming back to Eastern, it is important to keep in mind that with a new semester comes new chances for everyone. Our editorial board does not mean this in a “new year, new me” kind of way, where people make broad, unattainable goals at the beginning of the year that they do not follow through with or that they end up forgetting. We also do not think it is necessarily a good idea to broadly announce these goals on social media or for everyone you know to hear. The goals and “resolutions” you make should be for yourself, not for other people. As rewarding as it can be to impress others, self-improvement should be just that—for one’s self. You do not need other people’s validation to feel good about what you have achieved. The goals you set at the beginning of the year should not be an unnecessary source of stress.

Instead, they should be a guiding force for the rest of the year.

As we go into this new semester, remember: Even some progress is better than no progress, and it is never too late to start over. There might be a little extra pressure since it is a “new year” and a “new semester,” but even if you slip up early when trying to get better grades or exercise more, there is still time to do better. It is never too late to try again, even if it is a few months into 2018. Instead of beating yourself up and dwelling on your mistakes, take this time to refresh and analyze, logically, where you went wrong and how to improve. In fact, these goals we set at the beginning of the year should not just be for New Year’s. Instead, we should always try to better ourselves and evaluate how we could improve in all areas of our lives. Though it can be scary, a good, hard look at ourselves could really make a difference as we get into the right frame of mind coming back after break.