By Nicole Collins, MTS ’24
Editor’s Note: In this post, the HDS Admissions Graduate Assistants share their 2023 New Year’s Resolutions.
With 2022 several weeks in the rearview mirror, the HDS Admissions GAs share their New Year’s resolutions for 2023.
Nicole Collins, MTS ’24
Image Description: A page of Gilles Deleuze’s Spinoza: Practical Philosophy with the word “God” underlined and “Hegel?” written next to it.
This might seem like a small thing—and I promise I really do live my own life outside of academia—but my New Year’s resolution is to annotate books more. I’ve always treated books as some fragile, almost sublime otherworldly being in which I wouldn’t deign to even dogear a page. Last semester, as I started to find my academic footing a little bit more, I began very lightly and nervously underlining single words in some of my books. This year, as I’m continuing to become more familiar and acquainted with my own academic subfield(s), I hope to keep up this practice of getting out of my comfort zone by marking, interrogating, and graphically interrupting my books as a way of actualizing the kind of queer and trans scholarly work I hope to do, writ large, here at Harvard.
Maggie Helmick, MTS ’23
Image Description: Maggie sits at a table outdoors and looks at the camera. She has brown hair and is wearing a ring and bracelet.
I’m not typically one for New Year’s resolutions, but this year I’ve opted for a New Year’s intention: to live this year peaceably and with ease. In parallel, I plan to frequently pause to ask myself if my thoughts and actions are in support of that intention—each time giving myself an opportunity to choose again if I find they are not.
Samirah Jaigirdar, MTS ’24
Image Description: An assortment of pineberries laid out in a plastic container. They look like thin, yellow-tan strawberries.
This year, I have two resolutions. First, to be kinder to myself. One thing I have learned in my first semester of graduate school is that it is important to give myself grace as I figure out how to make this degree work best for me and my goals. My second resolution is to eat more fruit (pictured: pineberries)!
Kat Woodard, MDiv ’25
Image Description: Kat has dark blonde hair and fair skin. She is wearing a long sleeve, cream-colored dress. In the center of the photo, Kat is softly smiling and sitting in front of a large, tan column.
This year, I’m hoping to live life with more margin. HDS has so many wonderful opportunities to offer, and last semester I tried to take advantage of as many of them as possible. As a result, I found myself rushing from one activity to the next, with little time in between to absorb the knowledge I had just gained. This calendar year, I’m planning to structure my schedule in a way that allows me to decompress between activities. I want to prioritize slowing down, reflecting, and internalizing the wisdom that’s being shared with me here.
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