As the year of 2016 comes to a close and 2017 slowly, but surely, approaches, individuals like myself cannot help but to reflect on the previous year. In particular, I graduated high school and moved away from home on a quest to earn a degree at college. If I may say so myself in the most un-cliché way as possible, 2016 was the year where teachers were slowly preparing my high school classmates and myself for as we continued onward from grades throughout the years. We were constantly reminded on how 2016 was the year that we would move on from classmates that we have been sitting next to in classes since kindergarten, and I couldn't be any happier.

Although 2016 may seem to some individuals as a year that had more bad days than good, this is surely not the case. As a matter of fact, I am sure that there have been multiple good days out of the 365 that were forgotten somewhere along the lines. There are numerous times when I come across posts on social media stating that, "I cannot wait for the new year to make extreme changes to my lifestyle," "I am leaving so many people behind in 2017 from 2016" or even my personal favorite, "page 1 of page 365." These posts are irritating because one should not make alterations to their lives only because a new year has occurred. And yes, there are 365 days in a year, but your life is not a book and this year is not another chapter in it.

Before you ring in the New Year by watching the ball drop on New Year's Eve or making a New Year's resolution to start your new year off right, just remember that a new year should not determine your happiness to make alterations to it. Whether that resolution is changing the individuals that you interact with or applying for that gym membership that you told yourself that you would buy four months earlier, remember that you determine how to live your life each day and a new year is simply another year onward in your life.