CAMMIE BAGLEY Executive Director & News Editor

2016 is soon coming to an end, and with that comes a new year, which means a new start. While extremely cliché, the “new year, new me” phrase reminds me that we all get a new slate when the calendar changes over, and that doesn’t sound too bad.

Personally, 2016 has been one of the hardest years of my life. It’s tested my ability to bounce back from things that made me feel like I couldn’t go on any longer. It’s forced me to find the will and motivation to finish things that I started and accept when it’s time to let things, or people, go. It’s shown me that in the blink of an eye, our lives can change for the better or the worse, so it’s important to never take anything for granted. And more than anything, it’s shown me how incredibly hard it can be to take the high road and be the bigger person, but that in the long run, that’s the route to go.

Just because it was a rough year, doesn’t mean that 2016 wasn’t important in my life. It taught me lessons for my future that will set me up for the person that I’m going to be in the coming years. Because of that, 2017 is an opportunity for me to become a happier and more positive person. It’s a chance to leave behind all of the negativity in the past and look ahead to my future.

It’s the year that I’ll graduate from college. It’s the year that I’ll hopefully get my first real job and move away from home all on my own. It’s the year that I’ll get the chance to show the world what I have to offer it and find out what it has to offer me.

I hope that when this year ends, everyone reading this will join me in making the choice to leave behind the bad and move forward to better things. I hope that, like me, everyone can take the lessons learned from this past year, whether they came from good or bad situations, and apply them to the future.

May the upcoming year bring us all adventure, laughter, success and most importantly, happiness.