Dear me,

Its the start of new year, but that doesn't mean that its a start to a new you. Theres so much to look forward to with the beginning of 2017. 2016 you learned how to love yourself, take care of yourself, and open your heart and mind to all kinds of opportunities and possibilities, and it only gets better from this point on.

Let's talk about 2016 for a moment because you grew a lot this past year. Firstly, you finally took a look in the mirror and realized that there is so much more potential in yourself than you could ever imagine. A lot of that is probably due to the long break you took because of the downtime waiting to see where you would get accepted for college. I mean, you didn't just want to be a bum and just lie around did you? No, and I don't expect you to do that moving forward either. You achieved many milestones and met several of your goals. You got accepted into your number one choice in terms of universities you applied to. You loss a lot of the physical weight you carried in prior years. You let go of your demons that inhibited your personal growth and let go of the people and external factors that kept you from reaching your goals. You finally opened your eyes to who you could be rather than trying to chase this image of your old-self that you held in such high regard. In the future when you're looking back at previous years, 2016 will probably be the year you look at and say to yourself, "I turned the corner".

2017 has just begun and although there are a lot of uncertainties going into the new year, there are a couple of things that I want to point out to you.

1. Its okay to be scared and uncertain of things. Fear is one of those things that make you human. Nobody goes about life without some sense of fear. Theres only so much that you could do as a person, but as long as you're trying and putting forth your best effort, what more could you ask for?

2. Don't forget your loved ones. You spent a majority of your time working on yourself, which is great, but you lost sight of your friends and family for a short time along the way. You don't have to do everything alone and just because you believe that your problems are solely your problems, open yourself to others because they just want to help. Yes, a lot those problems that you dealt with were very personal, but you can't expect to get through life by yourself. Life's too short and difficult to go about it alone.

3. Continue to count your blessings, but also critically criticize your downfalls and mistakes. You're extremely blessed to be in the position that you are in life right now, but please make sure you take advantage of those things moving forward. Nothing in life in just given to you. You're going to have to work hard and struggle to get to where you want in the future. You're going to make mistakes moving forward, and I want you to acknowledge that. I don't want you to throw blame on others because at the end of the day, you're the one making your decisions, so I want you to look at those mistakes and understand what you did and how to avoid them.

4. Love yourself. Love yourself. Love yourself. I can't stress this enough. You have people and friends that love you for you, but no love is more important than self love. You're worth it. You're important. You're the best thing that can possibly happen to yourself. Don't revert back to looking at the things that aren't going right in your life and blaming yourself. Really, its not healthy. Some things are out of your control and you could only do so much. With the things that you have control of, adjust accordingly. But please, don't carry a negative mindset. Stay positive, stay optimistic, be happy.

Come back to this letter at the end of 2017 and see if you're following these points. If you are, then you're doing what I think is best for you. If not, think about why things changed. 2017 could be a great year, but its about whether or not you make the most out of it.

- Ryan