One of the highlights of my 2018 was beginning my freshman year of college at the University of Maryland. I was (and still am) beyond excited to be accepted and have the means to attend my dream school. While I succeeded in my first semester academically, other areas of my life began to falter a bit and many of those are going to be my focus of improving during 2019.

For starters, I am a very social and talkative person by nature. I enjoy meeting new people and I receive my energy from interactions with others. However, I feel that with all the change I was confronted with at the beginning of college, I didn't truly allow myself to branch out socially like I hoped I would be able to. At times, I was often too in my head about being my authentic self in fear of social rejection. One of my resolutions for 2019 is to tap into my authentic self and embrace it in social situations, which will undoubtedly lead to more social fulfillment.

Along with being my authentic self socially, I want to establish a better balance between maintaining schoolwork, talking to family, staying in contact with friends from home, and having fun at college with friends. At times, when I felt I was sufficiently managing one area, the other areas would be suffering. My goal for myself is to establish a more cohesive life balance and to integrate these parts of my life into my daily and weekly habits.

Along with the change in environment and academics, my activity levels changed as well in the latter half of 2018. I went from working 6 hours a day in the summertime to being in class, studying, or doing coursework. I also began going to the gym, a habit which I felt invigorated about in the beginning, but quickly lost motivation to maintain my efforts by my second or third month in school. However, during December, I was itching to get back into the gym and felt a definite lapse in my physical health. I was invited by a few of my friends to join them at a workout class, and I enjoyed myself so much! I've decided to put a concerted effort into attending at least one workout class per week and adding more if time and workload allows.

Among many other residual goals, one of my last resolutions for 2019 is to engage in the activities that bring me happiness or that I feel drawn to. No more are the days of going to events on campus "because I feel like I should" or neglecting to communicate my disinterest in things that involved myself in before I was aware of how I felt about it. At the end of the day, I owe myself the opportunity to shuffle my involvements to what best serves me. I deserve the right to willingly partake in activities that contribute to what I envision myself doing in the future and get me closer to that future, and to decline those that don't.

These resolutions won't be easy, but they are definitely attainable. I know that if I shift my focus and concentrate on these goals, my 2019 will not only be great, but it'll set me up for even more success and development in the future as I continue to evolve.