Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” before her 20th birthday. At 23, Mark Zuckerberg is the ruler of the billion dollar Facebook empire. Mozart played three instruments and began composing before the ripe age of 5. And at ages between 18 and 23, we college students are back after winter break? Not the most impressive achievement.

Yep, I’m talking about the “rest of us.” While we haven’t really done anything that amazing with our lives so to speak, we haven’t done anything horrible either.

Days have come and days have gone, and now it’s 2008. Before it hit us, another year had ticked away. Now, let’s be honest, we’re not getting any younger. What are you, 19? Twenty? Twenty-one? Yikes, that’s a heartbeat away from being yesterday’s long, forgotten news.

But before we go and wipe our tears on this page, there may be something we haven’t noticed. It is Jan. 18, 2008. No matter who we are, it’s a new year, a new semester and a fresh start. It’s time to right wrongs and do something we can be proud of.

So let’s wake up, because it’s not only the first Friday of the semester, but it’s the first Friday of the rest of our lives.

Uggh.

No one said this was going to be easy. The road to redemption is more like a trek up Mount Everest. But fear not, this time we’re in this together. We are family, I got all my brothers and sisters with me. Or something like that.

Illness, one of most common pitfalls of the season, doesn’t stand a chance against us. No cold, cough, fever, nausea, heartburn, upset stomach, diarrhea is going to get in our way this year. What’s that? More than 3 million people in the United Kingdom alone are suffering from a vomit-inducing virus? Wow, those statistics are freakishly high and frankly I’m a little disturbed.

Hmmm, there were many students sniffling and hacking up a lung during the first few days of class, that can’t be a good sign. Come to think of it, my nose has been running nonstop and my eyes have been watering without control as I write this.

Perhaps we’ll come back to fighting sickness later.

On to a more formidable foe of this new year, the not-so-dynamic duo of laziness and boredom. No longer will we sit in class and let our minds wander to a place of happier times. We will focus every ounce of our intellect on the knowledge that our professors so kindly share with us. As I sit in class writing this, I feel as though I’m concentrating more than ever before, it’s rejuvenating, liberating and enlightening.

What about the class I’m in? It’s still going on, I’ll pay attention right after I write this. She’s going over syllabus stuff, I’m pretty sure. I think the professor is a woman?

Uh oh, don’t tell me you’re reading this while in class. Maybe we’re not really ready to attack boredom and laziness just yet.

This isn’t going too well for us. 2008 was supposed to be a year of redemption. Eighteen days in, it doesn’t feel as though we’re making any progress.

Then again, it seems as though every year is a year of redemption, and every year we fall short. Maybe we college students shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves. Maybe we shouldn’t base our outlook on whether or not we achieved the previous year’s goals, and instead just face challenges as they come.

Or maybe we should take the advice of the band Kansas, and join our fellow collegians as we “rock out” with a plastic guitar and our PlayStation 2:

Carry on my wayward son

There’ll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don’t you cry no more

Sujay is a junior in biochemistry and on the list of importance in society, he falls somewhere far above John “Uncle Jesse” Stamos of “Full House,” but far, far below Amanda Bynes.