"New year, new me"

"New year, new hair."

"New year, new friends."

Just a few of the things we hear every year around this time. As we approach 2018, I urge you to think about what will actually be new this year.

What about 2017 or even 2016 was not the way you wanted it to be?

Was there a toxic friendship or relationship? Was there a bad final grade? Was there too much drama? Too much sadness?

What about this year should be better?

Should you focus more on you? Should you focus more on others? Should you get fit? Should you spend more time with family?

Why should 2018 be better than any year before?

Because 2018 is a year that is not like any other. Just like all the other years, it will bring new challenges, new heartaches, new joys, new memories, new everything, but why should you make this year special?

This year you should learn how to love you the most.

You should learn how to love your friends the best way you can.

You should laugh more in 2018 then you did in 2017.

You should be enjoying your time so much that you forget to take pictures with a camera.

You should make such good grades that you surprise yourself.

You should be bold.

Live this year differently than you have all the others because odds are at the end of each year you weren't happy with how it turned out. So why not make 2018 the year you look back and say "this year I was genuinely pleased with how I lived."

Be happy about where you end up at the end of this year even if it wasn't where you planned to end up.

Be excited about might who might be in your life and even the people who might leave it this year.

You do need to know that with this new year, even though you should try to make it your best year yet you do need to prepare for the fact that it may also be your worst year yet.

No matter how hard to try to make your life perfect, you never know what could be thrown your way. You might hit rock bottom after being on the highest mountaintop of your life. You might fall down the stairs walking to class. You might fail your first test. You could even break up with your long-term significant other.

Aim for this year to be good, but know that this year might be bad too.

Let your resolution be making sure that you end the year content with what happened throughout 2018.