Dear 2017,

Or rather, dear me who is entering 2017. You have to start this year with your head held high and with an overwhelming amount of optimism—and make sure that this mentality carries out through the next 365 days and not just for the month of January. A new year brings the promise of a new beginning and a new hope, which then sparks a sometimes faux sense of motivation. Take advantage of that motivation, take it and meld it into your own will and your own mind until it becomes a permanent resident.

With this motivation, don’t just make a list of the same new year’s resolutions that you abandon by mid-February, be a new year’s resolution. Be kinder, be more organized, be more confident, be more selfish. Be the dental floss that you need in order to floss your teeth (because you really need to start flossing your teeth). Yes, it’s important to be kind and to be selfless, but not to the point where you are being consumed with said kindness. Remember that this year, and every year after this one, it is okay to put yourself first. It’s okay to tell your friends that you want to stay in today without an explanation, and it’s okay to call out of work because you have flu-like symptoms. You need to put yourself first, before there’s no more you to put first.

Most importantly though, be more outgoing, be more ambitious, live your life. Take that French class you desperately want to take even though you don’t know anyone in it. Plan that trip to Europe for the spring of 2018. Go out that Thursday night. Email that professor about the available job opening in his lab. Go to the library every day and read that biochemistry textbook. Ask that cute boy out to lunch. You have to go out and make your memories and grab your dreams because they won’t come to you as you sit in your room and wait. Life doesn’t wait for you. 2017 won’t wait for you.

You are the one that has to write 2017's chapter for your autobiography. Right now, the pages are blank, leaving an array of possibilities for you. Walk into 2017 with an open mind and an open heart, with curiosity and the willingness to make mistakes and learn. Go out there and find the most interesting, the most exciting, the most heartwarming, and the most successful things to write about. Make 2017 a chapter you will be proud of, a part of your life that you will always want to go back to.

Remember, a year is only as good as you make it out to be, and should you strive with everything you have to make 2017 one of the best years of your life.

Sincerely,

You