Every New Year, we plan to make some changes to our lives. As much as we think of changing our ways, in reality, we hate the idea. I personally always think of the changes I want to make, but I think of those new changes as motivation to start my year off right. Making New Year's resolutions is probably the hardest thing to do. For this upcoming year, what I’m really looking forward to is a fresh start. 2016 most definitely contained an immense amount of highs and lows, but it would be best to look back on all of the things that happened during the good times as well as the bad ones.

To start off, I hope to have great relationships. I think it's important to have a good connection with people. We all know that if we have great people in our lives it makes us happier-- that's just human nature. Besides having good relationships, it's also important to have good health. Thankfully, my health has been pretty good, as well as my family's, and that's all that matters.

To continue with my New Year's resolutions, one of the most important to me is working on myself. Although most people just think of their physical health, I think it's also important to work on yourself in every aspect. Something that has always stood out to me is mind over matter. This became very important to me last year. Let's talk about 2016 for a moment because I grew a lot this past year.

I finally took a look in the mirror and realized that there is so much more potential in myself than I could ever imagine. I achieved many milestones and met several of my goals. Not only this, but I let go of my demons that inhibited my personal growth and let go of the people and external factors that kept me from reaching my goals. I finally opened my eyes to who I could be, rather than trying to chase this image of my old self that I held in such high regard.

When I look back at previous years, 2016 will probably be the year I look at and say to myself, "I turned the corner." Being confident has always been hard-- I don't mean in the way of my physical being, but my personal growth as a person. Sometimes it's hard for me to be okay with what's thrown at me.

Especially now that I'm at college, adjusting to being just as average as everyone else is hard for me. I have always done very well in school. I've always feared that if I'm not doing my best, I'm doing something wrong, and I always have to be better than everyone else. Not in the way that makes me think I'm better than everyone else, but the satisfaction that I'm meeting my goals. I work really hard for everything that I do, but I'd rather go above what I'm capable of rather than just being "good enough."