I guess we hear it more often than not, “what are your goals for the new year?” Tt seems prior to the arrival of the new year, none of us can escape this question. Our friends, our family, our significant other, our ex-significant other, they all want to know. The question is, why share? Or even more importantly, why not? Is it the goals that we set that define us for this upcoming new year, or is it the arrival of the new year that gives us the courage to face these goals that we are bound to achieve? Whatever or however we look at the impending days ahead, these days cannot be stopped from coming, so why do we stop achieving what we sought after? Many questions surround the new year, but in the same sense, many questions surround the present.

Personally, I find that we set these personal achievements to give ourselves comfort. We tell ourselves so frequently that with the new year comes a new me. Incorrect. We are our same selves no matter the year, it's just that we age. With age comes a new sense of knowledge. The trials and the tribulations that we face, they are not a goodbye. A new date does not extinguish what has harmed us or brought us joy. We look at the new year because we look to forget what hurt us. Whether that be a person, an event, a fear, or anything else that has occurred. We take for granted our sense of strength at times. We more often than not forget that these events that have caused us such grief and such pain, in the same sense shaped us with more courage and knowledge than ever before. How is it that we expect to go through life wanting to forget the moments that made us who we are? It doesn’t really matter what we went through in the past years, it matters that we got past it. This is the side of the record that nobody flips over, and this is what we need to visualize more.

2017 brings a sense of excitement. It brings us hope and other emotions that are unique to us all. No matter what sense of self the new year brings us, let us not forget that our goals and aspirations for the new year are at times a reflection of past aversions. It's cliché to say, but instead of waiting for the new year to be upon us, why not start now? Fulfilling something that has been wanted for a long period of time has its own feeling. It’s a feeling other than a ball dropping in New York city, and kissing the one you love at midnight.

Maybe the new year isn’t necessarily about finding out who we are, maybe it's more about reflecting on where we came from to welcome where we’re going. Things change, and as with the year so do we. It's hard to forget, but overlooked time and time again.

So although I welcome the new year with open arms, I also remember the feeling of self I get with my age continuing to grow. We are who we shape ourselves, not what a year's numbers are.