My 2016

Highlights of my 2015
-Finished my Freshman year of College
-My best friend flew to Virginia for my birthday and to drive home with me
-Sent my best friend on a mission
-Went to Disney World and a Cruise
-Parasailed
-Swam with Dolphins
-Read all of Harry Potter in a summer
-Saw Laura Osnes perform twice
-Saw Newsies with amazing friends
-Became an RA
-Made some new wonderful friends at SVU
-Spent a day in Roanoke with one of my best friends
-Had a very relaxing Christmas break (complete with a Tardis bluetooth speaker)

Now, stop everything and watch this wonderful 3 minute and 8 second video! 

Every year I think we all look back and say, "That was the hardest year yet!" "That was the most fun I've had in one year." "I sure learned a lot last year." Etc....

I don't doubt that this is the truth. Every year the world grows more difficult to live in. New and harder challenges come our way. We meet new people, experience different job opportunities, have many different trials; no wonder each year is the toughest, most fun, and biggest learning experience. I for one am quite grateful for this. Wouldn't life be so boring if it was the same monotonous thing over and over again?

My 2016 is kicking off with my second semester as a Sophomore at good ol' SVU. I am more than thrilled with this start to my year! But I do know that this will also be a challenging semester. I have much harder classes than ever before. I have more responsibilities as an RA (which I wouldn't exchange in the entire world!). I have a calling that I want to be better at. I have friendships that are so important to keep strengthening.

I want this to be an amazing semester. 

So....
I got thinking.

Every New Year people around the world set goals. I have always loved the idea of goal setting, but never seem to follow through on very many of them. This semester, if I am going to be focused and get the most out of all my opportunities, I am going to have to set and stick to some 2016 goals. Goals for fun, religious goals, friendship goals, just to name a few.

One thing is for sure, I can't set very many goals or I will get very frustrated and confused! 

Now... I am not going to share my new goals with you. They are my secrets and I don't feel like sharing them is the important thing. 
What's important is that I have set them. Have you? I think asking the question that Larry R. Lawrence talked about in the October 2015 conference, "What Lack I Yet?", is the perfect place to start when setting goals for the new year. 

Now back to the video at the top. Some of my favorite lines for the video above are, "You can't go back. So you might as well live foreword in the best way you can." And "Everyday is the beginning of a new year, and its the first day, literally the first day of the rest of your life."

Now, it could be the English major inside of me, but I love the analogy of writing our own lives. Life is our very own personal story. My own adventure story, love story, travel journal, fantasy, and isn't that the best? We would't every book to have the same story over and over again, so why would we want to live the same story? 

I am grateful for everyone that has been apart of my story so far. My life would be a sad novel without all these wonderful characters. It would be like Old Man and the Sea-part two. 
(It's still a great book and many valuable lessons can be taken from it!)

Now a friend of mine shared a quote with me on in the first hour of the New Years. Dieter F. Uchtodorf said, "In His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings." They pointed out that we get new beginnings not just every year, but every Sunday. Goals and new beginnings don't just come once a year. 

So if one of your goals is a complete fail by week two, don't give up. Continue to adapt and change and make new goals. The most important thing is that you are accessing the potential that you have inside of you to become the person you are suppose to become.

So here's to another year, another chapter, another page.

And personalizing one of my favorite quotes from Dieter F Uchtdorf:
"I am a princess, destined to become a queen.My own wondrous story has already begun. My "once upon a time" is now."