With 2018 being right around the corner, I can not help myself but to focus on the past 12 months. Whether I am looking back with happiness, angst about decisions, or what 2018 may bring, I am focused on the fact that as soon as the clock hits midnight on January 31st, 2017 is in the past. Clearly, it's the eternal optimist in me looking towards the future.

This is the year like all the others to try harder, try again, and or start over. Change can honestly happen at any point, however. It can happen at any day at any week at any point in this new year. We have a new ability to do all the things we wanted to do last year at the start of the new 2018 calendar year.

I am all for reflection so let's start there. I would like to reflect on my past 12 months. I can reflect on the good and point out that I became closer with my family and friends. I also learned more about myself as a person. I learned i'm a hopeless romantic who has a new love for writing and nutrition. I also can reflect on the good our world has done in the past 12 months: Religious communities coming together, Jackie Robinson getting his own museum, and the solar eclipse, just to name a few. Sadly, I can also reflect on the bad: A heartbreak, a shot of antibiotics in my ass in Mexico, and transferring universities due to unhappiness. Trump was also elected president.

Bringing in the new year also means setting goals. New and improved goals. Self love of course. Each year more and more things happen in which define who I am as a person and something I am constantly reminding myself is to love me and all of the change while it is happening. Work harder. Obviously, as a sophomore in college, I could obviously study a little more and although I set this as a goal every year, I think I might actually commit to it this year.

With the start of the new year there is also the problematic issue of social media and comparison that rises for me. I am clearly in a generation that uses facebook and instagram as a platform for promotion but also bragging. I am guilty of this however, hope to see a new year where I do things for myself and no one else.

Writing a list of all that I have achieved in 2017 and want to achieve in 2018 has clearly indicated what I value in life. Although I base my achievements on milestones in the year to year, I hope 2018 is filled with just as much chaos and spontaneity as the last.

I plan to measure my success in 2018 by my own list of things I want and want to do. A year to focus on what I want and not what society and norms tell me.That sounds like a guaranteed better year already ;)