On 2015


There’s something utterly irresistible about New Year’s Eve. About being on the fringes of time with one foot crossing the next chapter. About saying goodbye to bad choices and worse memories. For me, it’s probably the influx of glitter and possibility of change.

We want something magical to happen in the moments between 11:59 PM and midnight, even though we know that a new year doesn’t really bring a new us. I mean, what makes us think that we are more likely to stick with a new diet, drink less soda, or read more books if we start January 1st? Truthfully, I don’t know and I won’t pretend I do. I’m under the same spell you are.

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On 2014

In spirit of all things blogging and writing more honestly, I knew I would write a post reflecting this past year, but I didn’t know what to say. A lot of really big things happened: I graduated high school, had my first serious relationship, started college, lived away from home, fell in love. I know these are major milestones, but even now I feel pretty neutral about all of the changes. Almost as if they had happened to me, not that I had accomplished them. I know that’s silly. I have worked hard and earned my spot to be where I am today. After creating an adolescence dependent on a generally cynical overview of the world and myself, I began 2014 with barely healed wounds of the past and newfound optimism to improve myself.

And now, after another trip around the Sun, I’ve realized that I can’t just switch off my negative mindset and blindly dedicate myself to positive choices and self-affirmation. Because underneath that pessimistic shell is a core of a person I’m really quite unfamiliar with. As desperately as I tried to distance myself from the past, I again and again found that you can move on and move forward, but it won’t be seamless and it won’t be easy. 2014 was a sort of grey area for my personal development; it’s hard to find a middle ground between fresh starts and being dominated by the past. Are there even such things as “fresh starts”? I moved out, started college – hell, I even cut all my hair off. But there’s no changing what has happened before and there’s no stopping the influence it will have on your future. This year I learned that all we can do is choose how we react to it.

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