The New Year

14 THINGS TO "TRY" TO DO THIS YEAR 

The New Year comes with new expectations, goals, and hopes, all of which are about as attainable as my hopes of a 4.0 GPA. But still, the cliche of a new beginning holds true and it's never too late to start fresh. 

1. Try New Foods

Culture often lies in food and sometimes to broaden one's scope of the world is simply to try and appreciate another country's cuisine. Just as your palette is (technically speaking) able to taste multitudes and layers of life, so to is your mind. 

2. Don't Force Love

Love isn't something that is sought in the same way one might look for a dog or car. But it also doesn't just plop itself on your doorstep waiting for you to open the door and find it. Sometimes, it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Of course, this doesn't mean to stop texting that person you have a crush on or flirting with that person in your 11 a.m. lecture, but don't hold expectations. Maybe you'll find someone worth your love this year...or maybe you won't - and that's perfectly fine too. 

3. Laugh In Private 

True happiness can be found in the comfort of your own room. How often it feels as if laughter is the proof to others that you're having a good time. Try laughing by yourself and prove to yourself just what a good time you're having in life - you just may surprise yourself by how many good memories you truly have. 

4. Listen to Music 

We all listen to music in these day and ages, but are we actually listening or is it becoming background music? Take time to enjoy music like they used to by staying still with no distractions. The next time you hear your favourite song may be a slightly new experience. 

5. Eat Healthy For Health's Sake

Forget the gimmicks to lose weight or achieve a toned stomach. Try eating healthy foods because that will make you live healthier and longer. It's that simple of a reason.  

6. Spend an Hour in Silence 

Each day, spend an hour in silence, meaning no distractions of phones, television, computers, technology, and people - just yourself. This can be during a commute to work or for the busy college student, during breakfast or the time encompassing your shower, night routine, and bedtime. It's surprising how much time is spent on communicating with people you will probably see in/have seen in ten minutes or on Instagram fueling internally major  "FOMO". The beauty of silence is that it allows for thoughts, be them uncomfortable, sad, or happy, to be surfaced. Don't be afraid of these thoughts; after all, they're what make you- you. 

7. Wear What You Want 

Taken from the musings of another. Now is the time to wear whatever the hell you want. Despite you're belief in your physical shortcomings, we all need to face it - this is probably the best our body will look before the wrinkles, sagginess, and bagginess. If you have short legs and think you can't rock the booties, try them anyway. If you want to wear leggings or a skirt, don't try and justify a reason - just wear it. Experiment with trends before it's just too late for you to be forgiven for your fashion faux paus. 

8. Drink More Wine

Enough said.

9. Save Money

Oh for practical's sake. It may seem lame now, but you just never know when your money will be needed for bigger things than that $200 Lilly Pulitzer dress. 

10. Call Home 

There's nothing that parents love more than a phone call from their children. Your reassurance to them that all is well, despite your reckless nights of drunkenness and missed Chemistry lectures, means more to them than a scholarship of $10,000... though it may not seem that way. There's always time to call home. If you have time to pee, you have time to call. Actually though. 

11. Write Letters 

Being old-fashioned is never out of fashion. There's something far more romantic, personal, and special about seeing a person's handwritten thoughts to you than an email or voice-mail. 


12. Write Fake Letters 
Before this is taken the wrong way, let me explain. This letter is for the person to whom you wish to tell a million things, your sentiments, your feelings. Take time to write a letter to that ex and never send it. One day you can read that letter and realize how time has distanced you from him/her and what a different person you are- you've loved, lost, and learned. Or maybe by fated circumstances, you've been brought together and he/she is actually the love of your life and the letter becomes part your lovely history. Or perhaps, write a letter to yourself. Put it somewhere safe and open it one day. You'll realize how much you've changed, for better or worse. 

13. Change a Lightbulb
Sometimes we forget the true genius behind the most mundane things in life.


14. Use Lotion
Simply because I always forget and regret it.