It's the most wonderful time of the year... or so it says in all of the Christmas songs coming through your car radio. You may be stressing about work, or about schoolwork and finals. Relationships with friends or your S.O. may not be going the way that you wanted, and it's starting to get to you. As you drive home the storm raging in your mind is more violent than the one outside of your car.

To be blunt, sometimes life sucks. There will be moments when you feel so miserably sad, moments when you cry harder than ever before, and times when you can't even recognize what it is that you're feeling. I've been there. We've all been there at some point.

But, life can also be so mysteriously enchanting. There will be moments when we are left breathless, like when a mother sees her new born baby for the first time. There will be moments when we cannot contain tears of joy, like when a sister sees her brother for the first time in a year. There will be small moments of peace, like watching a small child smile so innocently.

With the approach of New Years, I have a proposition for you. While I am not necessarily a fond believer in New Years Resolutions, I ask that you do something slightly similar to that. My request?

Start over.

This past year may have been hard on you, and you may feel hopeless. But I'm here to tell you that there is hope even in the darkest moments of our lives. We just have to be strong enough to accept what we cannot change, and to embrace the chance we always have to start over.

It's time that you, start taking care of you. If you're anything like me, you care more about others than yourself. While it feels good to put others before you, sometimes it can become too much weight for one person to carry on their shoulders. Lately, my shoulders have grown so weak that I couldn't support those I care about most, because I was crumbling. I felt broken and alone. I was so horrified at how low I had felt. And then something in me clicked, one night as I sat in my room, wondering when I'd let myself get to a certain point. I'd put others upon a pedestal that I was trying to hold up all on my own, and I knew that I couldn't hold it any longer before they came crashing down with me. I came to the realization that I am truly the only person who will understand how I am feeling. While we can try to "walk in another person's shoes," we will never really be able to grasp just what it is that they are feeling.

So, this is where you need to stick up for yourself. Get rid of the things that are holding you back and let yourself roam free. Start making time for yourself. Take yourself out on dates and start doing the things that you really enjoy. I understand that your friends, your S.O., your family... they all need you at times. But you will always need you. No one else will ever be you. That is why it is so crucial for us to love ourselves, especially before we love anyone else. No, this is not an act of greed. It is simply taking care of our own beautiful individualistic souls that deserve to be free from hatred and fear, sadness and guilt. We as humans were made for so much more than we will ever know. We will always have purpose, even if we do not know what that purpose is yet.

Please, I ask of you, take care of yourself. Learn to love yourself first, and loving others will eventually come naturally. If there is something you are passionate about, pursue that passion. If there is something you don't like about yourself, learn to find the beauty in it. If you feel sad and feel alone, reach out to someone. Do not let yourself get as low as I did, because once you find yourself in that trench, it can feel so impossible to get out.

You were given a life to live in this world for a reason. It is beautifully yours, and no one else's. Don't you ever waste that gift.

Learn to love yourself, first.