Words have a way of impacting people. They can make us realize things we never had thought of. They can get us through tough times. They can even simply be an escape from the real world.

Being a twenty-something college student who is balancing (well trying to balance) school, work, a decent amount of sleep, and a social life, it is hard to fit in activities or passions that would be good for us. Reading is one of those things.

However, we live in a day and age where you don’t need to pick up a book in order to find profound and impactful messages.

(And no, I am not dismissing reading a book. If you have the time, read. I prefer a good book, even the smell of a new crisp book calms me down.)

We see quotes everyday. We see quotes with pretty backgrounds on Instagram as we scroll through lying in our beds and ignoring our alarms. We see tweets that have been retweeted thousands of times on our newsfeed everyday.

I know, not everyone is a literature and word lover like I am. I do know that we scroll right passed quotes that could change the way you view the world. We don’t take the time to read that Instagram post because it is ‘boring’ and our best friend or boyfriend didn’t post it -- so we don’t really care.

I encourage you to take the extra few seconds it takes to read that quote you scrolled past. If it says who wrote the quote, look at that too. It’s so important we continually expand our knowledge and stimulate our thoughts.

Since we are in the spirit of reading it is only fair I tell you my New Year’s resolution.

I made one of my resolutions (and really the only one I have kept) to write the same quote, somewhere and somehow everyday.

“Not everyone has the same heart as you.”

That’s it. Sometimes I write it on the top of the notes I am taking in class (oops), sometimes I text it to my friends. Other times I just write it in my planner.

This quote has helped me love and understand myself better as well as others. It also keeps me from being so disappointed when life gets a little messy or when people don’t handle situations the same way I would. Everyone is different and that is such a beautiful thing.