As I look back on 2016 all I can think is wow.
I am a completely different person now than I was in the beginning of the year last year, and that's okay. Too often do we look reflect on the year we have had and think to ourselves I cant believe I didn't accomplish the goals that I set for myself or maybe it's more general and sounds something like this is not where I thought I would be at this point in my life.
I've been there before, but honestly when I look back at this year I see so many things. I can see chapters of my life ending and doors closing and days where I didn't know about anything in my life. I see friendships and relationships ending and high school finishing and so many more things that I didn't think I was prepared for, but when I look a little closer I see so much more than that in this past year.
When I look closer at 2016 I see beauty. I see growth in so many different places. I can see new beginning and fresh starts and chapters of my life opening up that I had no idea would even exist. 2016 was a year of "new". I made new relationships and friendships with so many different people from all over, started at a new school and have completely fallen in love with it, moved into a new town that now feels like home, and found a new church family that I truly feel part of and so much more.
What seemed at first glance to be a rough year actually might have been my most successful one yet. It is so easy to look back and reflect on the negative, even when the positive is right in front of your face. Sometimes we are so caught up in our own everyday life drama that we forget to reflect all together. We forget that this wasn't just another year.
You are not the same person that you were in January of last year, and that's okay. There is something marvelous and magical about personal growth and changing who you are. You might not realize it, you might say you're exactly the same, but I can assure you. You are not, 2016 has changed you and impacted you. So with that being said here's to the new year of 2017. A year that will change and form us into completely different individuals, in an absolutely beautiful way, all over again.
