With each passing year, people aspire to better themselves and the environment around them. They also theorize what the new year will bring and it’s become almost a tradition to do so. It can be tailored to your own niche interests or foreseen about a global event. It’s unfurled throughout social media, spread through word of mouth, and broadcast to the masses, but we rarely see it within our own community: New Year’s predictions. 

This year, Junior Jet Hazen’s predictions mainly revolve around popular entertainment. He’s enthusiastic about sports, especially soccer, and has bold forecasts for the current international season. 

“I’ll say Manchester City will win the Premier League,” Hazen said. 

Hazen also cites Olivia Rodrigo as a possible emergence in popular music this year and emphasizes its likely success. 

“I’ll predict Olivia Rodrigo comes out with a new album,” Hazen said. “It’d be pretty popular. People [would be] interested in the album, and you know, she’s famous.” 

According to Hazen, something that he wishes the New Year doesn’t bring is more irritating social media trends. 

“There are some TikTok trends that are pretty annoying,” Hazen said. 

Zach Beardsley, a junior, has predictions that similarly align with the anticipated release of entertainment items. He also envisions that the restrictions and regulations associated with the last three years will begin to cease, and students will overcome the information lost with the onset of online learning. 

“I think that the coronavirus will probably start to finish wearing off and school will return to pre-coronavirus norms,” Beardsley said. “Students will have probably regained most of the gap in knowledge that happened over the year[s].” 

Beardsley enjoys the Half-Life video game series and hopes for the highly speculated third installment’s release in 2023. 

“There’s been a bunch of speculation. The last one was released a decade and a half ago, so I was thinking ‘It’s gonna get released this year, definitely’,” Beardsley said. 

Beardsley observed the stolen bathroom items that were so characteristic of school shenanigans last year, and expressed how he hoped the behaviors didn’t return. 

“Definitely people trashing the bathrooms a lot. That was kind of unpleasant,” Beardsley said. 

Beardsley doesn’t appreciate the slow movement that seems to be so consistent in the hallways. 

“A prediction that I hope would happen is that people would start walking in the hallways more normally and stop standing,” Beardsley said.