36 Things 2016 Taught Me That I’ll Take Into The New Year

1. This year taught me that just as quickly as someone can come into my life and change things for the better that’s how fast they can leave.

2. But it taught me to appreciate even knowing them.

3. This year taught me that you can’t keep staring at the door they exited hoping they’ll come back.

4. This year taught me the art of mending my own heart and learning how to put the pieces back together.

5. It taught me a relationship won’t define happiness, if I haven’t first built a strong relationship with myself.

6. This year taught me those same people who were cheering me on once upon a time, can be the same ones pulling the rug out from under me and hoping I fail.

7. This year taught me the number one people I can rely on are my family.

8. This year taught me about forgiving not just other people but learning to forgive myself, for the person I was and the moments I wasn’t proud of who I became.

9. This year taught me about taking risks and sometimes those things I feared most were the exact things I needed. The type of excitement that sent shivers down my spine.

10. This year taught me at any moment I can just get up and leave and go anywhere. It taught me I’m the one writing this story.

11. This year taught me the only people I should listen to aren’t the ones judging a story they don’t understand, based on assumptions but rather the one’s in my corner supporting me.

12. This year gave me confidence to stand up for myself and trust the choices I made.

13. This year taught me sometimes we are our own worst enemies and even the people who love us deeply can’t save us from ourselves .

14. This year taught me to be my own hero.

15. This year taught me about owning up to my mistakes. To admit when I’m wrong and try to make it right. But more than that move forward and learn from it.

16. This year taught me not all ghosts from my past should be welcomed into my future.

17. It taught me that everyone does come back eventually even those people who swore they wouldn’t.

18. This year taught me about forgiving. While there are many things I wish I could take back, I know each deterrent was really a blessing in disguise.

19. This year taught me about risks and how sometimes the scariest things to say are the words that matter most.

20. It taught me to say exactly how I felt and not feel bad about it. Because looking someone in the eyes and telling them you care, that’s what this life is about and hoping and praying to God they feel the same way.

21. But this year also taught me there is a time for silence and a time for waiting your turn. There is a time to say, ‘I love you’ and a time where you know those feelings won’t go away, so you choose silence and wait patiently.

22. This year taught me about opening up to people and how being vulnerable isn’t a sign of weakness but rather what connects me to others on a human level.

23. It taught me who my true friends were while teaching me to let new people enter my lives and make new memories.

24. It taught me to have strength in moments I feel weak and have faith when I’m confused.

25. This year taught me exactly how much I can handle and what one truly is capable of accomplishing in those moments I thought I was going to fall apart.

26. This year I learned to be my own best friend. Because when I’m wide awake, staring at the ceiling alone, I realized the only person I have is me.

27. This year taught me to never settle and it gave me strength to walk away in the moments I did.

28. This year taught me the importance of taking care of myself and that it’s not selfish to make yourself the top priority.

29. This year taught me to not be so hard on myself and lighten up when I’m my own worst critic.

30. But above all this year taught me how much can change in a calendar year.

31. It taught me about the person I want to be. I could only have known that had I become someone I didn’t.

32. This year taught me in that moment I looked at my reflection and I saw someone I didn’t recognize, it was only then I had the strength to change. But change doesn’t happen over night but gradually.

33. It taught me to let go of people who were draining me even though I loved them dearly.

34. But above all this year taught it’s okay to not have it all figured out.

35. It’s okay to be confused.

36. It’s okay to feel like you’re not on the right path and it might feel like everyone has it all together. It’s okay to not be there yet.

So as this year ends and everyone makes resolutions of things they won’t follow through with, my only resolution into the New Year is take everything I’ve learned in the past 365 days and strive to be better than I was.

My resolution isn’t one about weight loss or eating healthy all the time or going to the gym every day. I know those things are unrealistic, every day.

My only resolution is to simply try to be the best version of myself. My resolution is to be happy. To forgive my past and not worry about my future but simply live in the moment.