As an intelligent, emotional, complex human being I'm always changing. Day after day I experience things that influence me and shape me into the person that I am. For the rest of my life, I'm going to experience loss, passion, heartbreak, love, friendship, learning and failure. With each of these journeys comes wisdom as I develop bits and pieces of the "me" that I’m meant to be.

Now, am I saying that I shouldn’t strive for greatness? Nope. Each day that I wake up I should set a goal to learn at least one thing, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Am I saying that I should leave my conscious behind and make irrational decisions? No way. I should always be respectful of others and more importantly, myself, by doing things that inspire me to live my life in the best way possible. I’m definitely not saying that I’m going to let life pass me by because nothing worth having is going to be given to me (except the wonderful family I was blessed with.) Even then, I have to work to build and maintain my relationship with them.

I've always thought these crazy claims that New Years Day brings a new “me" is absolutely ridiculous. There are a few things that I think we should all learn this year, but I think you should remain the same amazing person you are, with a few small improvements that come naturally with experiencing life.

Compassionate people have a curse. We put everyone else’s needs before our own and we need to learn to say no. If you’re like me, you don’t know how to say no to the people you care about. For the most part, you put others needs before yours and you do it with a smile. You do it because you care. Well you need to stop. Don’t get me wrong, the last thing I'm suggesting is to stop being a good friend and you definitely don’t need to stop being there for the ones you love, but you need to stop letting your life suffer for the benefit of others. Don’t put studying aside to go pick someone up from the airport. They can find another ride. Don’t take off work to celebrate someone’s birthday when you know you won’t make rent. You can take them out next month once you get that good paycheck. I promise, if these friends love you as much as you love them, they will understand the legitimate reasons that you can’t help out or hang out.

Do everything you want to do this year. Try to do as many things on your bucket list as possible and step out of your comfort zone. Experience something that really lights you up inside and gives you that feeling of being alive, whether its starting graduate school, going skydiving or just learning to cook for your significant other for a change. Choose to live within every day and be as selfish as you need to be, because every day you are investing in your future self and your future life. Don’t put yourself second to anyone or anything because in the long run, they won’t be there.

I need to learn to be present in the present. I'm always constantly trying to plan the future, as far as next week or even next year. I'm a dreamer and an over-thinker and sometimes my mind goes wild with all of the opportunities out there. During these times, I'm not present in the moment. I'm dreaming of the future or over-analyzing things that have already happened, but I'm not aware of my surroundings or the experiences I'm living. Sometimes, just taking a minute to see things around you, or hear the wind blowing through your window is enough to really take in the world around you.

Bottom line is we should all strive to make every year "our year," not just on New Years Eve when we make our resolutions and claim to be an infinitely better person than we were last year. We are constantly changing, so we should be actively work towards being the best version of ourselves. You don't even need New Year's Eve; there's no better time to start than now.