As my birthday passes, more and more I am paying attention to the careful factor that ultimately governs everything in the universe: time. I look forward to the future and my future plans and aspirations, as well as the many mysteries it holds. I say happy in my present, content with how things are going, and ready to change them if I am not. However, I also look back to the past. I once heard a quote that said something like, "only look to the past to learn from it, or to see how far you have come." I do just that, because with every year we grow older, comes more wisdom and experience.

Growth. Over the course of my life I continually am taught the lesson of how important growth is. We see it physically all the time, aging is something we cannot avoid, but personal mental growth is what really makes a great difference. It is key to growing and learning in our lives. To adapting to things we cannot change, and understanding the best we can from each experience. Often times when we reflect on our growth, we see how much is really going on behind the scenes in our minds. How each struggle lead us to a new, better beginning where we had a strong mind, and newfound wisdom in our hearts.

Struggles. No matter how old we get or how far we progress in this grand scheme of life, we will always have struggles that weigh us down. They are never convenient, and are always testing what we know and a new part of our brain. But we get a glimpse of true pleasure when we find it in us to overcome these struggles, and realize what we learned from them. To see struggles as opportunities to learn and gain something we did not previously have. These struggles we are hit with are not problems, they are mysteries waiting to be understood.

Understanding. I learned the importance of understanding. Whether it be problems around us, people, feelings, even situations or events, they are all able to be understood. When we strive to understand the world around us, we see how we can better understand who we are within, and vice-versa. Our feelings come to us for a reason, holding an important message meant to be decoded by us.

Success. There are many who do not want to see you succeed, and since my last birthday, I have witnessed this firsthand personally many times. People either want to see you held back for their own personal reasons, or they simply do not believe in whatever it is you are striving to achieve. Regardless of their reasoning, what is important is your reaction to it. You can let it bring you down, or you can choose to ignore it and use it as motivation to empower you even more. What matters is what YOU believe.

Happiness. People seem to embark on this 'journey to happiness', but really it is right inside of you to unlock. Along with success, people will try to take this away. Life itself will try to take this away with the many roadblocks and challenges you encounter, but once more it is precisely your reaction that makes the difference in your own emotional outcome. Happiness is a choice.

Peace. Just like happiness, we must strive to manifest this within. We wish for peace in the world, but peace does not fall from the sky, we must find it, or in some circumstances, create it within.

The journey. I share this one personally. Lately I see my birthday as a time of reflection, to look back on what I learned in the last year I have been on this Earth. My last birthday seems as though it was just yesterday, yet since then I have learned so much in this life. I remember all I could think about last birthday was 'my journey continues'. Indeed it does, and it is a journey I would not give up for anything. 17 years ago, the journey began, and I cannot wait to see where it takes me, -Hunter Jones