2016.
What an incredibly amazing and earth-shattering year, chock-full of life-lessons and hard ones. I reckon you could say that this was the year of Hard Knocks, for me personally, at any rate. I learned a useful thing or two for my individual quest for bettering myself as a person.
Lesson One: I learned to say "No"
I once found it difficult to tell my friends "no" when I didn't want to do something or go somewhere. I think it was because I wanted to be liked too much to refuse my friends something they wanted. Perhaps standing up in a room of 50+ guys and vehemently decrying the obscene and, quite frankly, insane notion of what makes a brotherhood is what gave me the nerve I needed to finally say "no" to my friends and peer group.
Lesson Two: I didn't abandon my morals
In dealing with all the personal and educational aspects of my life that plagued me this year, I learned that in dealing with all things, maintaining one's personal morals and values, even if they somehow usurp the status quo, cannot be anything but the most important thing to do as one searches for betterment and success. Your morals are who you are, they govern how you act and live; in short, they determine whether you are a good person or not. Sacrificing those values to please a peer group was abhorrent to me, and I did not envision myself abandoning that which has given me the determination to succeed.
Lesson Three: I finally learned time management
Welp. It's halfway through my senior year. I failed a class. I have to retake it in the spring in order to graduate. You can bet your bottom dollar that I've learned my lesson, unfortunately, though, too little, too late.
Lesson Four: I learned to identify and appreciate the friends who loved me for me
Over the course of the year, I gained a plethora of friends, an inevitable aspect of Greek life. However, the use of the word "friend" to describe them all seems quite superfluous now, considering the fact that most, if not all, of them dropped me like a hot potato. In the wake of their loss, I felt tremendous betrayal and pain, for I thought of many of them as my own flesh and blood. A sentiment they apparently did not share. But, to my surprise, those friends whom I had neglected for my newfound peer group, my true friends showed up and were there for me. I was, and continue to be, humbled by their show of true friendship even though I had taken them for granted in the past. Not only were my oldest, closest friends there for me when I needed true friends, I gained a few as well. They took me in and made me feel like part of the gang, something I have not felt since freshman year and the original circle of people I perpetually hung out with. Never forsake those whom have always stood by you.
Lesson Five: I learned to stand tall and proud, unashamed
In 2016, the biggest challenge for me was to piece my broken life back together after my devastating break-up last October. It took me a while to reconfigure my life trajectory in the direction which I wanted it going. In that process, I learned all of my strengths, all of my weaknesses and all the ways in which my strengths overcome my weaknesses. I learned who I am as a human being, and I learned how to stand on my own two feet again, planted firmly in the sod. I learned that being who I am, always, is something worth preserving, even if the rest of the world jeers and mocks me.
Lesson Six: I learned to never forsake my dreams
People may laugh, strangers may doubt that I am capable of achieving the things I want most in life. It took me a long time to learn that I don't have to prove my potential to others, but the answer is really quite simple: They just don't understand.
2016 was a year of unprecedented personal growth and achievement, but also a year of renewal and learning. It taught me some valuable lessons that will assist me in all my future endeavors.
I can only hope that 2017 will be equally as beneficial as 2016 has been for me.
