The coming of the new year tends to provide a comforting time to really reflect on yourself and your environment.  

During these times, I love to sit back and put deep thought into the goodness that the past year beheld, what I can do to improve myself and what I can do to improve the lives of those around me.  

Although self-reflection is a difficult task for many people, it is the first and possibly most important step of building a better world for yourself.      

2021 had its ups and downs. At the beginning of the year, I was living in Seattle, dealing with a lot of mental health problems that had a major impact on my attitude, my grades, and my relationships with my friends. Before summer, everything fell apart and so did all my friendships.  

My family decided to move back to our hometown in Puyallup in July. I finally got to see my childhood friends again and got to go to all the places I went as a child. I got to spend quality time with the people who were the most important to me.              

In terms of self-improvement, I now have more time and resources to live a better, happier life. I’ve surrounded myself with people who are kind and supportive of me, my teachers genuinely care about and understand me, which makes it easier for me to keep decent grades, my head is lighter because of my mental health getting better.  

To further improve myself, I believe I could try to get better at putting the time I have to use, maybe indulge in a hobby that requires time and patience like gardening. I believe I could also work on the organization skills that I don’t have. Perhaps I’d buy more binders and a planner so I could keep track of everything without mess. These are the major things I need to work on. 

To make the lives of those around me better, I can work on my tendency to back off and stay silent when someone is getting hurt in hopes that someone who’s louder and more confident than me would take that stand. I’m a person who’s fully capable of making a positive change in someone’s life and if I’m given that chance, I should take it by the wings and fly. By working on helping others, I can make people in my life feel safer and happier, and maybe even inspire those people to do better too. 

With the new year, there comes a chance to take time and figure out who you want to be. Don’t try to change everything at once, as that is the best way to make yourself give up and revert to things that harm you and hold you back from being the type of person you want to be. Think hard, cut things out of your life if you need to, find ways to make stressful things fun and never be afraid to ask for help, no matter how stupid you think the matter may be, someone will care.