The ball is about to drop from Times Square in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"New year, new me"--so that means that you have to keep promises and set goals about how you are going to become a new and better person just because it is a new year, right? All because of a new year we must strive to become new people when it is only that first day of the new year?

So why not instead of just setting "New Year's resolutions" we can set "life resolutions?" Because I believe that everyone should strive to be new and better people every day instead of just on one specific day in a new year. For example, instead of just promising to yourself on January 1st that you will lose 15 pounds, you can set that goal for yourself on a random day in the middle of June and keep pushing yourself to lose those 15 pounds from that random day in June and on. Instead of promoting less money for a new diet on January 1st, companies should promote discounts for losing weight every day so that their customers will know every day is an opportunity to lose weight because it is.

There shouldn't be one specific day where we have the capability to improve ourselves because every day is a gift and every day is a new day. We should embrace every single day that we are healthy, happy, and safe and continue to push ourselves for us to become even healthier, happier, and safer in the end. I don't believe that enough of us appreciate how lucky we are to be alive. How lucky we are to have food, water, shelter, technology, clothes, and people who love us and support us while there are people out there in this world who have none of what we have. That's why I try my best to live every day and every moment to the fullest by absorbing every second of breathing fresh air, spending time with my friends and family, forgiving and forgetting the little speed bumps that cause me to fall down, and continuing to move forward with whatever life hits me with. Because every day is a gift and therefore we must not take them for granted.

The ending of one of the greatest movies of all time, "Dead Poet's Society,"has taught me the phrase: "Carpe Diem." I live by the phrase "carpe diem" (which means to seize the day in Latin) every day because a new day means that we can all make new mistakes, new memories, new friends, new opportunities, new goals, and of course, new improvements on ourselves.