A lot can happen in a year. It's cliche, but it is incredibly true. On a basic level, time goes by, seasons change, trends are created (or ended), and you may become a little taller. In a larger sense, you evolve as an individual. The past experience of the year has matured you. Each and every day you wake up as a new person, whether you recognize it or not. In 2016, I learned a lot of new things about myself.
I learned to never let go of my people.
Sometimes the most important lessons are the hardest ones to learn. I lost one of my people and it made me realize that I need to make the conscious effort of surrounding myself with my people as much as I can. I need to soak up every beautiful smile, belly laugh, crazy night, and beautiful day that I can have with my people. One day, they will not be in my life. They will not be there as a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand, a beacon of wisdom. So love them, live with them, and cherish them while you have them. As morbid as it sounds, it is true. See the love that surrounds you and do not let it go unnoticed.
I learned to dance in the rain, theoretically and literally.
Let lose. I have learned to try and forget about what I cannot control and live out the things that I can. Life is full of surprises and even when I think I am at my worst, I know I will get through it. Embrace what life throws at you, revel in your mistakes and accomplishments, love yourself. When it rains, I dance.
I learned to give my all.
Everyones life is full of ups and downs, it is inevitable. I cannot fully control my fate like I thought I could a year ago. Whether that means I cannot predict when I will hit one of my downs, or whether it means I cannot control when I will achieve greatness, my fate is in the hands of someone else. Yes, I can study hard, put in the hours, do the best that I can do, but that is all I can do. Doing my best and putting in every ounce of myself into life is the only thing that I can do, the rest is all up to fate.
I learned to live.
I'm sure I'll look back on this years from now and laugh about how naive and young I was, but thats just it. At this point in time, I am as present in my life as I will ever be. Wishing it away, looking into the future, living in the past, whatever it may be, is not living, and thats what 2016 has taught me. 2016 has taught me to live each moment to the fullest, to make the extra effort, to spread that positivity, and attempt to create a better world than it was yesterday.
To the people who..
the people that make me smile;
the people that make me laugh till I cry;
the people who bring light into the smallest aspects of my life:
the people who I want to dance at my wedding and cry at my funeral;
the people who I could not imagine my life without,
Thank you.
Xoxo,
Salut Sophie