2016 has been a whirlwind of a year. The New Year is a great excuse for many to find motivation and create resolutions of what they hope to achieve in the following year. Many people have similar ideas of what they hope to achieve: happiness, good health, to excel in school, or to lose weight. They look to the New Year with great hope and want to make a change for the better in the coming year.

I have made many promises to myself year after year, and although I try, at so point it seems the energy I once had towards my newfound resolutions had vanished. This year I would like to try something new. Instead of making a list of empty promises, and continuing to hold myself to high standards, I want to focus on what I am doing right.

Resolutions are used as tools to help guide us into the New Year. Many set their standards too high and end up getting discouraged halfway through the year. For the past 5 years or so, I have made resolution lists. Each year, the lists would vary based on my age and what I found to be of importance. One idea I found to a recurring theme was my overzealous promises to myself. I remember writing them down at the start to each year, and halfway through the year, I would forget the majority of the resolutions I had worked so hard to create.

Two years ago I came up with an idea. I started to write down moments through the year that brought smiles to my face. I would keep them in a jar and then open them on January 1^st of the following year. It has been sort of a tradition, trying to see what made me happy or was interesting enough to write down and put in my jar. It is a way of realizing what was important to me in the past year, so that way I can continue to learn and grow. The other day I looked through my old journal entries, the earliest entry dating to 2009. I spoke of what I wanted for my future. Reading it now, I wonder where the time has gone. I truly remember writing down every wish, hope, and dream believing that if it was etched into my paper then it was sealed in my fate. I needed to learn, however, to make steady plans in hopes of turning my dreams into action.

That was the change that created a sparked in me, the determination to set goals and achieve them. A quote from the movie dazed and confused describes this, “I would like to quit thinking of the present as some insignificant preamble to something else, and try to live in the moment." That is what the coming year will consist of: living in the moment and appreciating all the opportunities that I have been given. Make 2017 the best year yet!