2017 is no longer some distant, far off, futuristic fantasy world. 2017 is here. As 2016 closes, we all look back at our year and reflect. As I look back at my year, and the past twenty-two years that are my life, I notice I don't have as many memories as I'd like.

Okay, that's a strange way to put it, but what I mean is, I can't look back and remember every day I've lived and what made that day worth living.

I had a rough year, so naturally, when I think about 2016, I think of all of the bad things that happened. I think of the worst days in the hospital, the seizures, the pain, the dizziness, I think of sickness. And these days will continue to aid in shaping who I am and who I become, but what I would prefer to remember is the good days.

The bad days are outshining the good days in my memory.

I think this happens to all of us, whether it's moments, days, months, years that we are reflecting upon. Too easily we let one bad moment ruin a whole day of good ones. A small coffee spill will be remembered first before the smile on your dog's face when you woke up that morning. The day that you were dumped will be remembered more clearly than the day you fell in love. The week of your last period will be remembered as the week of your last period, not as the week you woke up on time for work every single morning.

I'd like something good to happen each day, even in the worst of days. I think the only way to achieve this is to enter each day living in the moment.

To live in the moment is to be grateful for every second you find yourself still breathing. And to be grateful for every second you have alive is to never waste a single one.

In not wasting a moment this year, for me, means that I will make sure that I make the best of each day.

Now, most of my resolutions fade away within the first weeks of the new year, but this is a something I would like to stick. For the rest of the time that I am alive, I would like to continue to live in the moment and really appreciate each day, even when it seems like the worst day ever, or the worst week in history.

So for 2017 I will reflect on each day and write down my favorite moment. I want this to be a hard thing to do, and not because it was such a bad day that there was no good moment, but because there were so many good moments that I can't decide which was my favorite.

I want to have to write down six different things that happened that make me smile as I bring the pen to the paper.

All of these moments will go into a jar that at the end of the year will hold just 365 little, or big, memories of 2017 that I thoroughly enjoyed.

And maybe I won't continue to scrawl down silly things that I did every day for the rest of my life, but I will continue to create those silly moments. By living in the moment, I think I will learn to appreciate life for what it is and to create more memories that will help me to remember that whatever my life is, I only get one.

I'm not saying I want to dwell in the past, but just that I want to have a past that is worth dwelling on!

So by the end of 2017, if I'm still struggling to live moment by moment, I'll have 365 days to read about and look back on, and to remind myself to do just that, because every day is precious. And we'll see how I do and I hope I do well because it'll be 2018 and about time I learn to live.