It's 2018 and I am twenty-three years old. Yeah, there might be things that I'm supposed to be doing to satisfy society that I'm not. I'm single, still living with my mom, and I have a part-time job that isn't even in my field. It took me a little longer to graduate college and I still didn't even walk across the stage. I do that in May but, regardless I'm very proud of myself.

I have a great big Italian family. We fight sometimes but that just makes the good times a lot sweeter. My parents are divorced, they have been since I was sixteen. It used to bother me that I saw everyone else's parents be happy together. I would honestly resent my friends that had families like that. It wasn't fair to them because I was just mad. Now, I realize there is a reason for everything and that they are happier apart. I wouldn't trade my family for anything.

I'm not the best director, producer, writer, etc. However, I try the best I can and I have fun doing it. I also learn something new every single time. I've always been the kind of person that does better with hands-on experience. Yeah, my family and friends deserve awards for pretending to like some of my work. I'm not embarrassed about it. Everyone makes mistakes, I just don't care anymore.

I'm also single. I've been single for awhile now and I learned a lot about myself in the process. There are so many petty things that got to me in 2017 regarding boys. Realizing that I can't change people for the better no matter how much I try really helped. You can only help someone if they want to be helped.

I have a huge heart and that is not always a good thing. I tend to feel things very deeply and I'm way too empathetic sometimes. This causes me to take on other people's problems and make them my own. I've been working on this because it wasn't fair being hurt all the time.

Not caring also helped with my confidence. There are tons of things I've done this month that I wouldn't have done last year. I just stopped that voice in my head that used to tell me that I wasn't good enough. So what if they don't like you? If you're not hurting anyone else or yourself then what's the harm?

I don't think I'm where I need to be with my career. I wake up every morning to apply to seventeen careers only to get denial replies two weeks later. I do all of this work and then nothing happens. I woke up on January 1st with a whole different attitude and I'm a lot more stress-free.

The truth is, you can't bring your degree to heaven. Material things are somewhat important yes but I just don't care as much about them anymore. What really matters is human connection.

Now, I'm not saying I'm completely giving up on everything. There's a huge difference between being lazy and not caring. When you stop caring you will feel better. The right people start to surround you. You learn about the things that you really love and most importantly you fall in love with just being alive.

So here's to 2018: