2016. A year of realizing things. HA. But really, though. 2016 taught me a lot about myself and how I wanted to live my life. I finally understood that you are the only thing that is in charge of your own happiness. No one else, nothing else, just you. While other people and things do give us happiness, they are not the most important. This took me a long time to figure out. I relied on other people to make myself happy, but as people come and go, you are stuck with yourself. Sometimes people going out of our lives gives us the opportunity to take a step back and instead of being sad, be glad. Glad that everyone in your life is there for a reason and their being teaches you something about yourself. It may be big; it may be small. I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing people in my life. While 2016 was full of friendships starting and friendships ending, they have all been incredible.

Going into 2017, my one goal is continuing with this attitude; you are in charge of your own happiness. While this year has been tough for me, the new year will be better. It will be better due to my new attitude towards myself and life. With this realization, I found things that I really enjoy and try and take all the toxic things out of my life. I started getting into poetry, I haven’t written any yet, but just reading it makes me genuinely happy. The way only a few words can have such a huge message is incredible. Life is not all about the big things, but all the little things too, that make up life. Just like poetry, the little things can have a huge impact on your life. Like doing something more for yourself, loving yourself, realizing that you are amazing. So this year, I hope everyone can realize these things. And I hope I can keep believing the thoughts I had in 2016. Cheers to the new year.