New Year, Same Me

            Another year has come and gone. Less than two weeks ago, the whole world said good-bye to 2014 and warmly welcomed 2015. Every December people begin preparing their New Year Resolutions, and come January 1 the frenzy begins. You see posts plastered all over Facebook like "It's a New Year, a New Me!" While I applaud people for making goals for personal health, I can't help but almost cringe at that statement. A girl I used to work with at camp put my feelings into words the other day when she wrote "I like to think that we all have the ambition inside of us all along, it's just a final push that helps bring it out of us! It's not a 'new you', it's the you that no longer let's anything hold yourself back from what you want!" It may be a New Year, but I am still the same me. No matter how many changes I make in my life, I am still the same woman I was 3 weeks ago. I am the exact person who God made me to be. I may change over the next year, but I would like to think that it is just me growing into more of who I really am. I hope that I become more of myself by not holding myself back from doing the things that I love, the things that make me happy and the things that allow my true self to shine. So it is not a "New Year, and a New Me". It a New Year, and I am just the same me. Just Elizabeth.

          I, for one, am not the best with New Year Resolutions. Every year I make all these resolutions like working out every day (like that could ever happen) and eating healthy, and every year they last for maybe a few months before I almost forget about them. This year, instead of making the same old typical resolutions that I always do, I decided to make my resolutions things that actually make me happy. I wanted a list of resolutions that I would not dread doing. So, this year I included things like reading a new book every month, taking a day every month just for me to relax and do things that make me happy, and exploring this new city that I call my home now.

          So, I challenge you (whoever you may be) to make your New Year Resolutions for you. Make them things that make you happy, things that bring out the you that you may be hiding inside. And remember, it's not a New Year, New You. It's the you that you are no longer holding back.