Darlings, Let’s Have A Happy New Year

New Years has always been my favorite holiday of the year. It’s a holiday that marks the end of one year and the start of the next. It seems that with the end of every year comes nostalgia, while with the beginning of every new year welcomes infinite possibilities—and I think that is definitely something worth celebrating as long as we respect the holiday for what it truly is.

Around this time of the year, I always find myself mentally conducting a t-chart of what went right, what went wrong, and what resolutions I need to make in order to fix my wrongs for the upcoming year. I fully believe that everyone should evaluate their past every now and then, but in no means to the point of tarnishing your past altogether.

If there is anything I’ve learned this year, it is that you may sometimes find yourself in the least likely place you would have ever imagined. From the start of 2013 to now, I have found myself with: several new jobs, new friends, a new family, and a new home—practically a whole new life. So clearly, some aspects of this year were definitely impossible to have predicted. However, I have also found myself in situations I could have easily seen coming, like making silly mistakes as clumsy as my coordination, which if you know me at all is slightly concerning…

But I realize now that there’s no need to trip over all these could have, would have, and should have beens from this year. So what if this year didn’t align with how I envisioned it? Maybe this is not the present I imagined for myself, but if I live in the present constantly critiquing the results of my past, my future will disappear before I know it.

There are certainly some aspects about this year that went above and beyond my expectations. For example, this was the first year, that from start to end, I was single. And as the end of this year draws near, I refuse to host a single girl pity party. Because ironically enough, this year my single-self was taken by much more than a guy.

This year, I became a writer for Literally, Darling. I also landed an internship with a fashion boutique. And as it turns out, a high-fashion magazine editor from New York City was taken by my writing when she tweeted at me congratulating me for simply being me! So maybe there’s no guy I can share this year with, but I’m anything but alone.

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with acknowledging how your year played out, whether it met your expectations, for the better or worse, and what you would like to do for the new year. In fact, that’s probably why New Years is my favorite holiday of all. I just think that our time is too precious to waste obsessing over how we’ve spent it. Maybe we might find that we have made mistakes this year, but we shouldn’t allow whatever we consider our mishaps to diminish what we have accomplished.

Darlings, seriously—let’s celebrate!

Here’s to having a happy new year, but let’s also be happy about our past years that, good memories or bad, we are so lucky to have had.