Dear 2017,

As 2017 comes to a close I'd like to extend a letter of gratitude to say thank you for all that you have presented over the last twelve months. Thank you for all that you have gifted me with and removed from my life. If prompted to select a word to characterize the year of 2017 I would most likely select growth because following every season and trial growth accompanied it. 2017 taught me how to recognize even the ugliest of times as bittersweet rather than just bitter.

Relationships in which I thought were solid were tested to the point of breaking.2017 taught me that control is an illusion that my fingertips can never fully grapple and that's okay. My fall semester was the hardest semester of my academic career, but I survived. Through all of the challenges brought forth in 2017, I thought it would nice to acknowledge each of the lessons learned along the way.

1. Closed doors don’t equal my inadequacy.

While yes we can all fall short, often times when someone says no it isn’t that we aren’t good enough, but rather not the right fit for them. This goes for jobs, relationships, and numerous other endeavors. When we’ve done everything we could possibly do and things don’t work out the way we’ve planned it’s important to not beat ourselves up. It does us no good to tie our self-worth to accolades or credentials.

2. Closure is a fallacy that's nice but not necessary in order to move on.

Very rarely do any endings in our lives play out in a similar fashion to that of a short story. They're rarely black and white, but often very grey, blue, orange, and green.The what if games that we play in our heads can lead to an eternity of self-doubt. 2017 taught me that if something was supposed to work out it would have.

3. Walking away isn’t always a loss.

Often walking away from atmospheres that no longer feed you require more courage than attempting to stick it out. Leaving a job or a relationship doesn't make you a quitter or any less tenacious. The ability to decipher what or where is worth investing is key to protecting your time, space, and energy.

4. People are going to let you down.

No matter how much they care about you or love you even the best of the best people have the capability of disappointing you because they’re growing and attempting to figure out life just as you are. This was probably the most difficult lesson to learn. Since most of us live in our heads, when someone hurts us in the moment hard it's difficult to see why or understand why someone would want to hurt us. Most of the times when people hurt us it's never intentional. Once we realize this it makes the road toward forgiveness that much easier.