Last year, I truly felt 20 was a big birthday. I was no longer a teenager and was entering into "the best years of my life"...said, everyone. They were right. November 17th of last year, I wished for an everchanging year. I prayed to God that my year would be filled with change, challenges, and guidance to help me discover the version of myself I wanted to become. He truly did throw a lot at me last year and I couldn't be more grateful.

I have dealt with living on my own, family struggles, relationships endings, the stress of school, money, a new city, living away from home, missing my friends and on and on and on. That sounds like a lot of complaining and struggle. I would take it all on again to live the year I was gifted at the age of 20. All of that noise I would call it was covered up by the strength of powerful friendships, an amazing family, a beautiful world that I was able to discover, surprising new people, a fun new city, a new passion for a career, connections, and more. I have never been more challenged in my entire life and I couldn't be more proud of the outcome.

I wished for a year of guidance, I have found my path.

I wished for a year of change, I have never been more dependant on my relationship with God to guide my vastly changing life.

I finally wished to start the process of figuring out the person I want to be, and I can proudly say I am on the right track.

So, as of November 17th of this year, I am turning the big 21. A new year coming in full swing and I couldn't be more excited, anxious, nervous, and ready. It is funny to me that everyone calls these years, "20 fun". They are fun but they also are the most life-changing years of our lives that comes with difficult decisions, finding our own paths, working on ourselves and with others, working on what we want to be, who we want to be, and more.

For this upcoming year, I feel it is always important to make goals so we can reflect on them over the year and look back at what was important to us then vs now. I always want to be a person of growth and work towards bettering myself and my relationships.

What do I want of 21?

This year I want to focus on love.

Love for myself, love for my passions, love for others and love for my faith.

Last year, I felt I made a lot of goals about myself. I wanted to travel the world, have a huge internship and discover the person I want to be. All important but from my experiences this past year, I have learned that what is most important to me is my relationships and the love I can give. This year, I am going to try not to focus on physical things and success but try to build myself up to hopefully create a person who is strong when success comes around. I want to devote time to putting love into my passions like writing and giving myself more time to explore my creativity. I have found I really have the best friends and relationships. I have had an abundance of support from my family and friends and I want to spend this year giving back to them for what they gave me this past year. I want to work to grow these relationships so wherever I am in the world, I know I have amazing people by my side. Lastly, my relationship with God has blossomed this year on a personal level and I want to continue to put my everyday love into an everlasting love. He will treat me with a year of learning and hope if I put my heart and love into Him.

Each year is an opportunity to grow and change. We need change and we need growth. It can be hard and some days can feel like too much, but I promise, next year we will look back at who we were and be so thankful for the path it lead us down.