We woke up to a new year, new life, and we officially have arrived in 2019. With that arrival, we must also dispose of the bad habits that we have and leave it in 2018. This will lead to a wonderful year filled with new things and new people that come into our lives, as we take our dull moments, decisions, and terminology and leave it at the metal detector before you officially cross the bridge to the next year.

At the top of the list is Hating, a jealous peeve that students and people have on others who have success, or something they don’t have. This major problem leads to controversy within people. Hating can come from jealousy and insecurity from that person who is committing that feeling, which causes them to hate in the first place. You should just be grateful for what you have and not what others have; be happy for someone else it doesn’t always have to be about you!

Second is the Gucci/Versace/Supreme trend that everyone keeps wearing around school to get attention from the students surrounding them. Then, they pitch the stores against each other, competing against each other as if one isn’t the same as the other. This includes the “ice on my wrist” trend, where everyone thinks that having diamonds on your wrist makes you “rich” and better than someone else. This also is attention seeking, and brings exclusionary to others who can’t afford it, and it just irritates people due to the fact that some may buy those inexpensive Gucci.

Third on the list: Horoscopes. There are thousands of websites, YouTube videos, and social media posts about my or your zodiac sign. You may be asking why does this need to go? Well, I don’t need to watch a 10-minute video about someone telling me about my sign like they really know me or my sign. Some people feel like they don’t portray the characteristics of their zodiac sign, or neither do they agree with their zodiac sign. It’s not bad to tell someone about their zodiac sign, but this information is, in the end, made up and often doesn’t apply to a person of that sign. For example, Cancer is supposed to be an overly sensitive sign that “cries” when someone talks about them or says something offensive to them. This is false because I don’t care what people say about me and I’m a Cancer myself.

Fourth is the Apple trend (Airpods, IPhone X) which has been accelerating since Christmas. Everyone came back to school with the new iPhones and new Airpods in their ears. Both of those devices that came out last year and they were out for a long time. Now everyone wants to buy them for some reason even though they had months to buy them and stick them in their ears like the Gucci clothing that they put on as well. This is a problem mainly because people are again exclusionary to those who don’t have them and it causes drama. (I hope I’m not hating)

Fifth on this list is Cringe Culture, the slang “Cringe” is another word for disgust, or fear of something. This word is used to describe terrifying, weird things that people see or do. This is frequently used to describe musical.ly and Tik Tok videos that people make. You don’t have to say cringe to explain something that is unusual or weird…just use another vocabulary term.

Sixth at this list is Vaping/Drugs, this is a big problem in high school because people feel that they’re cool when they inhale all of the nicotine and chemicals that come out of their mouth. Then it also affects a student reputation because they come to school with the aroma of a drug. Vaping is even worse. According to Truth, an anti-smoking campaign, “One JULL pod contains 20 cigarettes worth of Nicotine.” We need to stop vaping not only for the sake of our health but for the sake of non-smokers’ noses.

Seventh at the list is Not Thinking Before You Speak. This is a significant and one of the most important list of this topic. This is significant because we already started 2019 and probably the dullest moments have been happening already. Things like “Not to be racist or anything but why do black communities have more crime than others,” or like “Chicago doesn’t have a beach” etc. These quotes are significant to me, mainly because I am African American and I lived in Chicago for quite a while, but these quotes are reasons to think before you speak and just not saying something that might offend someone or make someone call you out for being naïve.

Eight at this list is TIK TOK. This app overall is just bad, it is the main reason why “Cringe culture” exists in the first place. From little children, kids my age, and probably some millennials, everyone is on it. The app that is somehow a trend is inappropriate for younger viewers, though this app is a “friendly” app but their users don’t necessarily meet the stipulations. Yes, musical.ly died and this same company decided to make another app after musical.ly had inappropriate things on it and people like “Ricegum” a YouTuber that called them out on that kind of behavior. This app should have died last year, they should have kept it in 2018, but now the app has turned from a fun-loving app to an app full of what people would say “Cringey Videos”.

Every year has its trendy moments that we need to leave behind, and 2018 was no different. Let’s have a great year full of green metal detectors, but mostly let’s be ourselves and find ourselves and not these dull moments in our life. In order to make 2019 a beautiful year, we need a more beautiful new life “okayyyy;” see, I’m already starting the new year, now it’s time for you to do the same as well.