We were walking hand in hand down the Las Vegas Strip, the constant noise of people milling about, music, and traffic eventually becoming a background hum as we explored the city.

Lights from bright signs flash all around us, and my boyfriend and I smile at each other, taking it all in. I distinctly remember thinking, life is good.

We begin to walk down the stairs to cross the street over to the Bellagio fountains before we were to head to dinner, laughing over something insignificant, when my boyfriend pulls me back up onto the sidewalk above the stairs suddenly.

A car pulls up on the sidewalk and continues to plow through the crowded sidewalk, hitting pedestrians as the driver speeds on.

We stood in what seemed to be a slow-motion scene, witnessing it all. We watched as the car intentionally aimed itself at innocent tourists and then continued to veer back onto the crowded Strip as other witnesses who narrowly missed becoming a victim themselves beat on the driver window, trying to get the car to stop.

We saw people get hit and saw others dive out of the way. It is now impossible to get the sound of bodies hitting the car. The chaos following is barely remembered, as shock set in.

If the car had chosen to drive up on the sidewalk 10 seconds later or if I hadn’t left my coat in the theater we had just left, we would’ve been on that sidewalk.

The accident on the Strip left one person dead and 37 others injured.

Witnessing something on that scale, as clichéd as it may sound, has made me look at life in a different perspective and reconsider how I wanted to live my life every day.

This life is beautiful and though absolutely horrific things like this happen, I’ve come to realize that there is also much greatness.

This has been put into a stark perspective with the New Year so close and the talks of so-called resolutions. Now that this year is over, we will start working to better ourselves.

New Year's resolutions typically become post-holiday traditions in which we all trick ourselves into believing that this’ll be the year we will actually go to the gym, finish that diet, get good grades, and become better, stronger, happier, more productive people.

This idea of setting these goals is fantastic, but why do we only have the ambition to set them at the end of the year, then very rarely follow through? We shouldn’t wait until the end of the year to try to better ourselves and our lives, when life can be short and unexpected.

We should want that ambition that comes up with these New Year's resolutions every day of the year and shouldn’t wait until the new year to work hard to become better versions of ourselves.

We should ring in the new year in a mode of being absolutely present and positive about how great it’s going to be. We should live every day with such ambition of setting goals, achieving them, and shouldn’t have to follow the cliché of New Year's resolutions to improve ourselves.

Let’s enter into 2016 with zero pressure of setting unrealistic goals that we abandon early on into January, and be open-minded to positive change that comes with us wanting to better our lives every day, no matter the time of year.

Empty your glass, and truly live every day trying to be the best version of yourself, and work for happiness, whatever that may be for you. If it feeds your soul, do it, for we never know what may happen in the next year.

Life is good. We shouldn’t wait until the end of the year to make it better.

Love fully, laugh openly, and live every day as if it’s your last.