It’s that time of year again. Holiday shopping, wrapping, cooking, partying and family gatherings are over. We’ve begun to catch our breath, and we’re immersed in “Best of” and “Reviewing the Year” in all of the media. And, inevitably, we begin to turn our attention to 2023.

Some of us make resolutions. Fewer of us keep those resolutions. Some of us choose a Word of the Year (WOTY). Some of us just hope for the best, and some of us just move ahead – perhaps feeling the optimism of a fresh start or just continuing as usual. How we deal with the close of one year and the opening of another is a very personal thing.

Here at College Parent Central we’ve taken different approaches over the years (and yes, there have been a lot of years by now.) In the past we’ve offered some resolution suggestions for college parents and students. We’ve offered some suggestions for high school parents and students. We’ve thought about what makes a good resolution.  We’ve suggested activities for the new year, people to thank, and even offered a few “one-and-done” resolutions. Last year we suggested some options for the WOTY approach. There’s no shortage of plans that we can all make. You might enjoy going back and checking out some of our earlier suggestions.

This year we’re taking the WOTY approach one step further and suggesting a specific word both you and your student might adopt. The choice of this word is based on what so many of us are feeling, and also on what we’ve observed over the past year in the students we’ve worked with.

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It’s that time of year when just about everyone, every publication, organization and media outlet is doing a “Year in Review” or “Best Of.” Taking stock is often a good thing. Reflecting is always a good exercise before moving forward. Looking at how we’ve come to where we are often helps us set some goals and find our direction for the future.

So before we look ahead, make plans, make resolutions we probably won’t keep, or set goals for 2023, we’d like to take a moment to look back at 2022.

We invite you to take a few minutes to reflect with us, and to think about how you view your role as college parent. How have you grown into the role over the past year or how have you prepared for the role?  Where might you and your college student go next year?

We continue to grow

Numbers certainly don’t tell the whole story, but sometimes they’re a reasonable place to start.

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