When 2010 began, I was eleven years old and in the middle of fifth grade. I hadn't yet graduated from middle school, met my niece and nephew, become a teenager, went to my first prom, gotten my driver's license, or started college. I hadn't encountered any of my now best friends or discovered many of my passions.

It's easy to look around from day to day and feel like you haven't accomplished a lot, but when you realize how much you've experienced and grown in the last ten years, it truly puts things into perspective.

So, to the next decade.

I hope you provide me with endless new experiences. I can't wait for new jobs, new people, and new memories. I hope to learn so many new things so that in ten more years, I can look back and once again see how far I've come.

At the start of the next decade, I'll be thirty, and I pray that the ten years between now and then allow me to find a career I love, delve deeper into who I am, and provide me with the opportunity to chase my dreams.

I hope you allow me to travel, to invest more time in the things and people I cherish, and to create projects that I'm proud of. It would be amazing to look back in ten years and see that I've been able to publish a novel or a book of poetry. I'd also love to recount all the countries I'd visited, the different cultures I'd experienced, and the lessons I'd learned.

More than anything, I hope that the next decade continues to bring me happiness. I hope I continue to find the joy in every day, love the people around me, and strive to be a better version of myself with each passing year.

So, here's to the next ten years. May they be full of great moments.