This year, a lot of things happened in my life that have changed me for the better. There were some things that happened in my life that I never thought I would have to experience. I feel like this year has really opened my eyes as to who I really am. It has showed me what I am really worth and the situations that I should never put up with. Not only that but it has showed me that sometimes with all the bad there is always a good thing. Throughout all the bad things that occurred in my life this year, there were some pretty amazing things that happened that I never thought would happened and I am very thankful for it. 2016 has given me some good life lessons that I will carry going into the New Year.

1. Love Yourself

For a long time, I have struggled so much to love who I was. I always have some of the closest people come up to me and ask me, “How can you not love who you are?” When they ask me, most of the time I don’t respond because I honestly do not know what to say. At a young age, I did not love who I was because I was so focused on what society wanted us to be. I was so focused on being “perfect” I did not realize that I was perfectly imperfect the way I was. This year has showed me to love who I am despite the flaws and scars that you have. Everyone is beautiful and unique in their own special way.

2. Be Happy

For the most part, everyone sees me as the person who is always happy and positive. But what no one knows is that under that smile, I go through things like every other human being. At the start of 2016, I was going through something no one should ever go through. During that time, I was miserable and depressed and did not understand why things happened the way they did. I remember moments where I did not speak to my friends and just shut myself down and stayed locked in my room. Within the months I struggled through this, I had some amazing people help me through it and without them, I would not be where I am today. It may have taken awhile but I realized that they are lesson learned and that what I can take from it is that it is not the end of the world. Instead, use it as an experience and let it help you grow as a person. Live your life to the fullest and do not let it bring you down like it did.

3. You Will Find Love Again

At the beginning of 2016, I lost someone who I thought meant so much to me. I can honestly say that I did love him. From the moment I lost him, I never thought I could find someone like him ever again. Despite the arguments and the bumpy roads we had, I was madly in love with this person. I remember there were days where I would sit in my room and cry for hours because of him and how I would ask myself, “What did I do to deserve this?” Now I’ve realized that I was just not the right person for him. I would rather have him be with someone else who makes him happy than to have him be stuck with me and be miserable. I just was not for him and that’s okay because if he is happy with her, then I am happy for him. Throughout all the bad, there is always a good to it. A few months later, a miracle came into my life. He understood everything I was going through and accepted me for who I was. Not only did he do that but he has done nothing but support me in everything that has went on my life, has given me so much love, has cared for me so much, and has done nothing but to make me happy. I can honestly say that I love this person more than anything and that I enjoy all the adventures we have together. Despite all I went through, I managed to love again even when I thought I never was going to love ever again. You will find the person that will change the way you see things and make you see your actual worth.

4. Not Everything Will Go As Planned. It’s Okay.

On a personal level, this is one of the biggest things I’ve learned this year. I remember the moment when I started realizing that the major I was in (Math) was not something I wanted to do, I started to panic. I had everything planned out as to how I was going to take this career and as to where I wanted to teach at. I struggled at first realizing that I was hating it more than I was loving it. I knew even before then that education is the route I wanted to take. The only thing that was holding me back was deciding to change the plans I had set up. It was a big challenge for me. But I found something that did make me happy and it was working with elementary school students. I taught a couple of lessons to them the beginning of my freshmen year of college and I ended up loving it so much more than what I had expected to. That is when I realized I wanted to change my major to Early Childhood Education. Since then, I have been so much happier with this major and even though I am not graduating at the time I am supposed to, I finally found something that I know is the right field for me. It’s okay to make changes. It’s okay to not know what you want to do or not have everything planned. That is what life is about. Life is about finding about yourself and exploring new opportunities that may arise.