Birthdays have always been a time of reflection in my life. Ever since I was little, on my birthday I’ve always made an overarching goal that I would try to stick to throughout the year. In elementary school, I’d hope for things like getting straight A’s, and in middle school I hoped to make the girls’ basketball team, but as I’ve gotten older and my future has become more vague and unknown, my goals have become broader. Last year, when I turned 18, I made it my goal for the year to do what made me happy.

This past year has easily been one of the happiest years of my life, however, as crazy as it sounds, this past week I turned 19, and my goal is no longer to strive for happiness.

This year, my goal is not to do what makes me happy, but to do what makes me better.

One thing I have learned in my short 19 years of life is that striving for happiness can only get you so far. Happiness is too simple of a concept to build your life around. Lying in bed all day watching Netflix, taking easy classes, going out with my friends every night, shopping until I max out my credit card, those are things that will make me “happy,” at least in the short term.

However, if I’m not challenging myself then how will I know if I’ve reached my full potential? If I don’t put in the work now, how will I be able to live a life I am proud of later?

Being a student is all about pushing yourself, putting yourself in unfamiliar, and even uncomfortable situations, and learning from it all. Striving to be happy can lead to a life of comfort, but if you are challenging yourselves, you may discover happiness in places you never thought possible. I am a huge advocate for following your passions and partaking in activities that make you happy, but I also believe that doing things that challenge you is essential to growing as a person and learning more about yourself.

This year, I’m going to push myself to do some of the things that don’t make me “happy.” While staying in on some nights to finish my finite homework, waking up early to go to the gym, or introducing myself to a stranger might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but it will make me better in the long run.

Living in a generation obsessed with instant gratification, the pull to do what makes me happy in the moment can be hard to resist. However, I am learning that the true key to happiness is choosing to do the hard things that will make you better in the future and improve who you are as a person. Here’s to a year of doing the hard things. Doing my math homework (yes, all of it), going to the gym, introducing myself to new people, getting out of my comfort zone. A year to find happiness in challenging myself. Here’s to a year on the pursuit of self-improvement.