1. To be more grateful. Everyday is truly a gift. Don’t take life and people for granted.
2. To check on myself often. It’s easy to set our ideals/standards on other people— unaware that we, ourselves, fall short of them.
3. To love more intensely. To work through our differences and to strive harder and make temporary sacrifices for a permanent future with the love of my life. To learn how to see past through mistakes, forgiving fully and intently—understanding that to be human is to be imperfect. Acknowledging that love is a constant decision to keep and to take action.
4. To say how I really feel. Speaking up has taught me that it’s okay to communicate. People who truly care about you will be there to listen and reason with you.
5. To deepen relationships. The people you let in could either make or break you. Surrounding yourself with the right people can help you make better decisions. True connections are hard to find. If you have people in mind while reading this, consider yourself one of the lucky few.
6. To be more present. I’ve been stuck on my phone a little too much for the past year, mindlessly scrolling and scrolling that I sometimes forget to live in the moment.
7. To love and accept myself more. Everyday is a conscious effort to remind myself that I am capable and enough. When we struggle with loving and accepting ourselves, we try to search for that in the wrong places. Loving and accepting oneself is a constant choice that we ought to make. The journey may be long and tough but the rewards of self-discovery are worth a lifetime.
8. To deepen my spirituality. This year, I found myself at a really low place. I felt like I was walking through a never-ending valley, falling through a bottomless pit, fully losing control of my life. I’m so grateful that God picked me out of that very dark place and showed me that although I am faithless, He is faithful. Indeed, we learn our greatest lessons not when we’ve reached the top of the mountain but when we were once stuck in the depths of the valley.
