Every year on December 31st we stand by the television, watching some of our favorite celebrities perform, and waiting for the shining silvery ball to drop at midnight. We may spend that night with our most intimate friends, or stuck in the crowd at Times Square, but nevertheless it’s a tradition. We stand to celebrate a new year because it means we get to start something new — So hello 2017.

We’ve made it. Last year may have been a hard one, but now we get to start a brand new chapter. This chapter is only beginning, and it’s full of new opportunities and adventures. 2017 will allow us to grow, and to falter, but also to find ourselves and work toward our future goals.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t set a resolution this year. There is so much to look back on during this New Year, that I wasn’t even sure where to begin. This year I want to be happy, to meet new people, and to find hidden places, which is an awful lot. If I had to choose, the one thing I want to focus this year on is success. I don’t quite yet know what success will be for me, but I can’t wait to find out.

Like all of you, I’m beginning this new year in the hopes of forgetting all the negativity set forth in 2016. While this is a good mindset, I also believe it’s important to accept the negativity that is ahead of us. Although I’d love to say that 2017 will be my greatest year yet, I don’t know what may happen three months from now. I’ve accepted the fact that there will be pain, and there will be heartache. All good things come with time, and it may take a few steps backward to lead to one leap forward.

For instance, early into 2016, I lost my first childhood dog. I was a dog lover from the very beginning, as my mother likes to say, and practically begged my family to rescue her when I was in second grade. We never knew her actual age, but she was about 18 when she passed. One morning, we knew her time had come. As crazy as it sounds, this was my first real loss. Many of my family members passed before I was born, and many others I had never met. My heart broke for my dog, and for myself knowing that she wouldn’t be there nudging my feet to pet her belly while I was watching television. While this was one of the hardest moments in my life thus far, the rest of 2016 was nothing short of amazing, and that’s what got me through the pain.

With that said, we must accept all that is to come this year – both the bad and the good. Our expectations are high on this first of January, and our resolutions are set, but we must not dwell on the negative experiences that take place in the twelve months to come. We must accept that this negativity will make us stronger. This year, we will all grow up and move on to bigger and better things, but those things won’t come easy. If you haven’t yet set a resolution, maybe it should be this: to work hard, to persevere, to be both hopeful and accepting, but most of all to seek happiness through every experience.

So here’s to a new chapter. Happy New Year.