Two Thousand Seventeen

Sitting here thinking how I'm already writing "2018" on all my papers and filing documents away under this new year is unbelievable. 2017 went by in a flash and was filled with major milestones for me. From living my childhood dream of graduating college and finding a big kid job in the city (Manhattan), to moving out to my own place and even removing my braces (finally!).Perhaps it's the old saying that once you reach 21, the years will fly. Your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life right? Or is it your thirties? People need to make up their minds. For my sake, let's agree that every year holds something special, thus making it the best in its own special way.

Two thousand seventeen was a year of personal growth for me. I took a step back from the world of social media for a bit, minus the occasional Instagram updates. Hey, a girl has to find some creative outlet. I even took a step back from a lot of my older relationships to focus on newer and more recent ones. Kind of a detox. Now a lot of people might look at this as me cutting them out of my life because they're not worth my time, but are those really the types of friends and relationships that you want to invest in? Now I'm no relationship expert but I think the relationships that are worth investing in are those who don't look at the negatives to create drama in their life, but who will be understanding. And at the end of 2017 I was grateful to know which individuals in my life didn't merely look at me as simply a character in their story to give them attention.

Every type of relationship is important. From the ones you build with your family, friends, co-workers and your significant other. As clichè as it is, time is precious. You saw how fast 2017 flew by. Make sure every bit of it counts. Because you, too, need to set aside some time to focus on the relationship you build with yourself. 

One reason why I've decided to pick up blogging again after a hiatus of about a year and a half is to actually improve my writing and communication skills. For all of my life starting from Kindergarten to the end of college, I've always had some kind of writing class. Whether writing was the focus of it or not, I still had to take the time to spill my thoughts onto paper. If you've been keeping up with me or have done an "A+" job at stalking me within the last hour, you'll know that one of the only times that I've done some type of writing--outside of work--is writing Yelp reviews.

As I've grown up, I realized there was no administered rule that on January 1st of every year, I had to have list of new year's resolutions ready to go otherwise I would be a screw-up for the rest of the year. I used to write a checklist and post it on my bedroom wall to constantly remind myself  of the goals I was expected to accomplish by the end of the year. Any boxes left unchecked got carried over to next year's list and so forth. 2017 was the first year I retired the list myth and decided to give each year, going forward, a theme or concept to aim for like taking better care of myself or being more available for my family, friends and loved ones.

Entering 2017 I didn't know what to expect. I just graduated college the past December, didn't have a signed job offer and my family relationship was at its all-time lowest. All I knew was that I wanted to make the people around me proud and that started with me picking myself up.

Surround yourself with people who love and support you! It's a simple lesson to tell someone but it's one that I've come to learn the power of this past year. I won't get into the nitty-gritty details because my goal for this post was not to have your eyes glued to the screen for hours on end. Let's just say that I'm forever grateful for the individuals who have stuck by my side through the whole year and not just for the best parts. Thank you and I look forward to taking on 2018 and all it has to offer.