This year, will be the year of a new me. A year that when I look back on, I’ll say was the year I made a change for the better. It will be a year, the year, that marks the beginning of a new me; and not just a new me that sticks around just long enough into the new year, a new me that will grow as I grow.

This is what I told myself at the beginning of 2017. That this would be the year that I would focus on myself, the relationship I have with myself, and my overall happiness and well-being. I promised myself that this upcoming year would be better than any other one I have had before. And even though we’re only a month into the new year, I already know it's going to be amazing; I know this year is going to be my best so far. You might be asking what makes me so sure or why I even made such big and seemingly impossible “resolutions” or “goals” at the beginning of the year and the answer is that this year is my year of you.

In all honesty, I first heard about "year of you" from someone I watched on Youtube, a girl named MarissaLace. She created "year of you" in 2016 and talked all about how it was a year of finding, loving, and working on your happiest and fullest self. I never really got into it or followed what she was doing until the end of last year when I knew I wanted a change for the new year. I noticed how happy she was and how much she grew over the course of a year, and after watching some of the stuff she put up about her year of you, I decided that I was going to make 2017 a year dedicated to myself.

The whole reason I decided to make this year a year focused on self-love is because in the past, I found myself putting too much energy and effort into other people that didn’t appreciate it, only to be disappointed when I wasn’t receiving what I had always gave. I realized that I couldn’t give all of myself to others and have nothing left for me. I had to focus on the relationship with myself first before my relationship with anyone else. I had to channel that energy into not only the relationship I had with myself, but with the people that were truly appreciative and that cared because those are the people that are worth it in the end.

Everyone’s year of you is different, you don’t have to do certain things or follow a certain schedule. That’s the beauty of it, the whole journey is custom to your life and what you want as the end result. You are finding all the things that fill your soul and make your heart happy, and constantly doing those things. You are working on the relationship you have with yourself, and becoming comfortable in your own skin. You are becoming independent and looking for your happiness within yourself, not in others. Personally, this year I am going to not only continue to do the things I know I love and enjoy, I am going to find time to explore new things and take in new experiences and do the things I have always wanted to do but never did, because now is a better time than ever.

It’s not selfish to devote time all to yourself, whether it’s a couple hours or a whole year. You deserve to be loved and happy, and there is no better person to depend on those feelings for than yourself. When you love yourself and find yourself to be complete, the other relationships you have in life will benefit from the great relationship you have with yourself. You’ll surround yourself with people that compliment you instead of searching for people that complete you.

When I say that this is the year of a new me, I don’t mean a completely different person than the one I have been creating for the past 18 years. I mean a new and improved version of the person I already am, shedding light on all the good parts and working on all the parts I wish were different. I am so ready to make this year a genuinely good year; a year of motivation, balance, shine, happiness, light, and self-love.

A year of me.