Every year people say the same thing about themselves, "New Year, New Me". This phrase has been around for about as long as I can remember. The phrase basically means that once midnight hits on January 1st, they automatically become a different person. They think differently, they act differently, they approach things differently, they may surround themselves with a different crowd, whatever the case may be. By then doing that, they become new people, hence the phrase, "New Year, New Me". Although it may sound good, but do they actually stick to it?

So with 2017, I've noticed a lot of people make preparations for the new year. Such as: there are people who've noticed themselves fail at something in 2016 so they are going to try again in 2017. Some people are taking different stances on their health for 2017. There are actually people, church-going people, who are doing the Daniel Fast on January 8th to start the new year off right. The Daniel Fast is by far one of the hardest fasting that anyone could do, so I've heard. Some are really trying to stick to the vision boards that they have been making every year. For anyone that is still in school, grades are the biggest thing that they would work on during 2017. Of their grades were not where they should've been in 2016, then throughout 2017 they will do some things differently. There are people who decided they won't associate with certain people because the friendship wasn't working out throughout 2016. But the question is, will they stick to it?

I'm pretty sure people have noticed the number of deaths throughout 2016. 2016 was the year of death in my eyes, only because not only were people dying everyday, the nation lost many legends all in one year. It got to the point where there was a mother who was trying to plan for her daughters funeral and the mother ended up passing away while making funeral arrangements. The story I'm referring to is the death of Carrie Fisher (daughter) and Debbie Reynolds (mother). The story itself is crazy because this isn't the only mother daughter death that happened. Whitney Houston passed away a couple of years back and the Bobbi Christina (daughter) couldn't take it so she passed away. 2016 was the worst year for Hollywood because people, who weren't even that old, were dying left and right. Since there were so many deaths, there were people tweeting the question, "How come Donald Trump is still alive?". One of the worst things anyone could possibly do is wish death on someone. So throughout the course of many well-known people that were dying, people were asking why hasn't these people died yet? It got to the point where some people got mad and was tweeting that person all kinds of things. The tweet I'm referring to is Charlie Sheen's tweet, he received so many hateful responses but anyone could tell he didn't care.

Whether you partied, went to church, or went to New York, it doesn't matter, as long as you brought in the New Year with the people love and genuinely care about. As for my family, we went to church. The church we went to is well-known church who delivers wonderful messages every week, CityGate Church in Mason, Ohio. But this particular sermon was probably one of the best sermons ever because many people could relate to it. The pastor of the church, Pastor Eric, delivered a sermon talking about how every year has their seasons and you basically just have to get through it. You may have to leave some things behind but that's okay! There's a reason for every season, you just have to be dressed for where you're going. If you was there you would understand. He ended the sermon with the meaning of 17, according to the Bible it means "Overcoming the enemy and complete victory". Just let that sink in.

Since it's finally 2017, this year needs to be the year of change. Do something different that you've never done before in the past years. Stick to whatever resolution that you planned for yourself. If this helps, keep a notebook full of the things you plan on doing differently this year and just check off what you've done. I'm going to end this with a quote from Pastor Eric, "Everything you needed, you may have been sitting on it the whole time! The change that you needed to happen, you may have been sitting on it the whole time!" So I challenge everyone to make that change so it could really be "New Year, New You."