It's the beginning of the semester and all that my mind is swimming with is the thought of how I ended the last one. People often say to focus on what is ahead and try to move past what has already happened. This is definitely easier said than done. There were classes that I had skipped, exams that I didn't study hard enough for, and even friends that, at the time, that I didn't make a priority.

Looking back, 2016 wasn't my best year. I wasn't as motivated as I usually am. I remember the days that I would really be in a slump. I would go to school, then work, and have a huge smile on my face. I made myself be happy when in all reality I wasn't.

Now it is 2017 and I'm starting to realize that it's not too late. It's not too late to do what you said you would. It's not too late to make up for past mistakes or make better choices in the future. It's not too late to become the person that you have always wanted to be.

I had a Mass Comm class last semester with this girl that I had never seen on campus before. She was super nice and we helped each other out a lot. She would always tell me that she wanted to move to Paris. In my mind, I thought that was really cool. Who doesn't want to move away to a place that's exotic and touristy? I want to move to New York, so hearing her dream was pretty neat to me because I could relate. A few months later, she ran up to me in class and told me that she was moving to Paris. She was going to live with some relatives that she would often stay with during vacations. I have never been so shocked. In my mind, we all have a dream, but achieving it isn't something that I hear about every day.

In that moment, I realized that it's never too late. It's never too late to make a change in your life. We live in this constant state of pleasing others and following rules. We go with the status quo and live our day to day lives in what is often considered the "norm" for where we live. We don't take that leap because in that exact moment life doesn't feel as short as it actually is. We think we will be young forever until we're old, looking in the mirror, wondering where all the time went to do the things that we said we would.

I went from being a carefree little kid driving around in my Barbie Jeep to a nineteen year old full time college student working as many shifts as I could get at my job. If you would've stopped me in that Barbie Jeep and asked me what I would be thirteen years from then, I would've said happy. The rest would not have mattered. So instead of wishing for my dream body, dreaming about moving to New York, or even praying that one day I will have my life together, I am going to decide to be happy, because it's never too late to be who, how, or what you want to be.