Each year is an opportunity for reflection. An opportunity to create change in the form of dreams, plans, and ideas. These are not so much resolutions as they are thoughts, gazing back across the hills and the valleys of the past year and perhaps the previous year to help shape the coming year. These make it possible to discern how you might live life to the fullest. We can reflect on what worked well and what held us back in the past year and adjust accordingly. If we had a tough time managing stress in the past year, what can be done to make certain that it won’t be so in the following 365 days?

For me, I wish to do even better in my spring semester and make the most of my J-term. I want to workout even more and practice my music and my art even more, so I can get even better and set the bar even higher for myself. I want to challenge myself to write more and do more projects incorporating my multiple art forms and participate in more frequent collaborations with other artists.

I want to push myself further beyond the boundaries of what I can fathom as possible for me to accomplish and excel in ways I never imagined possible. I want to be as social as I can, to stop hiding from the world and just learn to accept and even more than that, to love myself completely. I want to be able to say screw you to my physical appearance-directed perception of my own worth and focus on the things that actually make me worthy. I want to continue in my pursuit of becoming bilingual and keep making others smile.

I want to make memories that will last a lifetime and spend the whole year surrounding myself with the company of everyone I care about.

There is not a lack of pursuits I have for myself to persist toward in 2018, but none of these pursuits must be entirely grand, so much as I can reflect again at this time next year and be proud of my accomplishments I will be more than content.

To speak any more of my aspirations for 2018 requires me to gaze back on what I wanted out of 2017 or rather what I learned from 2017, which is not to underestimate my own abilities. In 2017, I accomplished so many things I never imagined possible for myself. You are bound to hear, especially if you are a frequent internet-user, how awful each year is every December as a new year approaches.

Everyone appears to hinder themselves entirely on the negatives from the previous year as if every year is deserving of the ‘worst year of my life’ title. It is my hope that this article is successful in aiding you to widen your perception of what it means to make a resolution, hopefully you can ponder and reflect on the positives of this year and hopefully they can help you set realistic and positive plans for yourself in the new year that will allow you to view how exceptional you are and how the sole thing getting in your way: is you.