My Hopes for You in 2017 (Also Mentioned: Unicorns, Glitter, and Pink Recycling Bins)

                January first has always felt like a day to approach with vigor, enthusiasm, and unbridled expectations. For many years, I would carefully select a new notebook with colorful designs on the color. Pen in hand (because pens signify a true level of commitment), I would scribble lists of resolutions, goals, hopes, and dreams for the coming year. This was going to be the year anything could happen, so some of my goals may have been more realistic than others.
                I’ve shifted away from the two page lists of expectations and towards choosing a word to embrace and focus on for the year. However, I am still in love with the beauty of possibilities that the feeling of a new year brings, the hopes to cling to freely for both myself and for you. Here are some wishes and dreams I have for you for 2017:
               
An Ocean of Possibilities
I hope you grow. Growth can be painful, messy, and unpleasant. These past few years have been some of the hardest I have known so far. However, reflecting back upon them, I realize that this has been where the most growth has occurred. I’ve been reading a lot lately about how sea glass is formed (because that is clearly a fantastic use of my time), and it first has to be swept through the waves. Growth cannot occur in stagnant circumstances.
You are an ocean of possibilities. Don’t settle for the shore. Please don’t let “someday” end up meaning the same thing as “never” because you may find that while you were sitting back, waiting for your life to begin it already has. Sometimes, the biggest limitations that we face are the ones we place upon ourselves.

Grace Upon Grace
Standards of perfection are impossible to reach, and it’s exhausting to keep on jumping only to realize you’ll never be able to jump high enough. I hope you allow your mistakes to be refining but not defining. There is grace upon grace for you.
               
                Fiercely Love
I hope you have the opportunity to fiercely love others. Everybody has a unique story, and, so often, we only see a few pages of it, an incomplete picture. Love anyways, despite that. Because of that. Be intentional about discovering opportunities to enrich somebody’s day because you just may be enriching their life as well. There is pain, heartache. People carry things that nobody should ever have to carry. You may not be able to take their load away from them, but we can walk alongside them, sharing the weight. We need each other. The power of human connection is both breathtaking and life changing.

Embrace
When I was in my Taylor Swift phase in high school, I was obsessed with her lyrics, “Don’t you worry your pretty little mind, people throw rocks at things that shine.” Social pressures and insecurities often force us to bury the things we feel passionate about or parts of who we are. Embrace the aspects of you that you think you’ve forgotten. It’s tempting to give into the urge to apologize for talking too much about something you feel strongly about or enjoy. “I’m sorry; I just really like (insert topic of interest…in my case it would be educational policy, unicorns, glitter, and pink recycling bins). Your voice and your interests matter.


Here’s to a 2017 full of loving, living, growing, and embracing!

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