I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions.

It always seemed odd to me to make large lifestyle changes based on the changing of one year to the next.

At age 32, I can’t recall making even one New Year’s resolution.

This year is different though.

In March, my wife is scheduled to give birth to our first child. The doctors tell us it will be a girl. We’ve decided to name her Lucy.

Lucy May Haupert. It sounds strange saying it in my head right now.

Prior to my wife getting pregnant, I never had a strong desire to have children. I wasn’t against it either. For people who know me, that might not come as much of a surprise. I’m a roll-with-the-punches type of guy.

But seeing my wife’s eyes light up and the smile stretch across her face when the pregnancy test came back positive made me feel good too.

It’s hard to believe it’s a little more than two months away. It might sound cliché, but it really does feel like yesterday that we got our first ultrasound and saw the small image of our baby on the computer screen.

People say your life changes immediately when you have your first child. For me, it happened as soon as I put my hand on my wife’s growing stomach and felt Lucy kick for the first time.

It was a moment I will never forget. It made me think about myself, the type of life I am leading and the type of person I want to become.

I think I’m an all-right guy now, but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement.

So, that brings me back to New Year’s resolutions. I’m going to make a few this year.

I think I’ll start easy though, since I’m new to this sort of thing.

I’ve always been a physically fit person. I like to workout and I participate in the occasional 5K run.

This year, however, I will challenge myself to finish a 10K run.

I’ll also push myself to eat better, maybe cut the frozen pizzas out of my regular diet.

I could also do a better job of saving money. That might come in handy as I hear babies can be quite expensive.

With a little luck, I think I can do it. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve placed my resolutions in the paper for all to see. That certainly adds an extra amount of incentive.

So if you see me out and about, ask me how I’m doing on my resolutions. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you I’m keeping them.

After all, I want to set a good example for my soon-to-be new member of the family.

 

Craig Haupert is the community editor for the Niles Daily Star.