As 2016 is swiftly coming to a close and as we all declare that 2017 will be so much better there are many people proclaiming on social media the cliché “NEW YEAR NEW ME”; however, when does this talk become action. 2017 is that year for me… for YOU…

“Wake up early tomorrow. Eat a good breakfast. Do your hair and make-up and put on a kick-ass outfit. Buy your cup of coffee and enjoy every sip of it. Go to work, make that money, and learn something new in the process. Nourish. Grow. Inspire. Self-destruction is not an option. And let every choice you make be a brick in the foundation rebuilding yourself.”

I came across this quote in a post as I scrolled mindlessly through twitter one extremely stressful night. Nothing in a long time has hit me with such ferocious passion. I realized as I read it that 2017 needs to be like this quote above. It needs to be rebuilding. This year needs to be selfish, self-concerning, egotistical, or any other synonym that fits the bill. 2016 has brought new and removed old people from my life while gifting me with more knowledge about pretty much everything. I have cherished each moment. Cried a lot, yelled a little, laughed endlessly (because it’s been one big joke), and smiled in every situation regardless of whether or not I wanted to.

Staying strong has been a motto I had for the most of 2016; however, it is time I move on from that. It’s time I encourage everyone else to do the same. It is time you grow and you move on from the hurt, pain, sadness or anything that drags you down. 2017 is the year to pick your head up and to pick up the bricks to relay your foundation. As I implied in the paragraph above people have come in and out of my life in 2016, also in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and so on. It’s just the way life works and the cycle in which it operates. Although this upcoming year I am choosing not to focus on those losses. The loss of friendships, the loss of respect, the loss of people. Instead this year is about my foundation and the identity in which I am laying.

I say selfish, I say egotistical, and I know those words carry a lot of heavy weight normally negative. But what I mean by those words is that 2017 is the year for you, it is the year for me, and it is what you make it. It is about self-discovery and self-acceptance. It is primarily about growth and how you go about this growth. It is also about self accomplishment, and for me it is about what I want to accomplish in my 2017 and the goals in which I make. One in which directly deals with leaning how important my identity is.

For quite a while I, like most insecure teenage and even young adult women, have searched for my identity. I've looked for it everywhere and in everything. We attempt to find it in what we look like, what others think, who we are, and even who we are surrounded by. However, I am calling myself out and calling my insecurity a quits. I am no longer allowing myself this type of insecure acceptable self-destruction. 2017 is the year I am declaring to be the year of me. The year of my identity being found in me. My confidence and my self-love. To leave the negativity and to promote an encouraging positive behavior that each individual should exude exponentially.

Now, I call on you. The people that will make up 2017. To do as I and probably better than I. To be the light. To show and spread positivity and to be selfish for yourself. Not allowing your identity to be determined by people or circumstance, but to live every moment as beautifully as the last one. Cheers to a new year. Cheers to a “new” self. And more so cheers to living a beautiful and empowering life that is founded upon your own self-love.