This year:

I want to learn to embrace the parts of myself that often make me feel alone, that often make me want to isolate myself further. This does not accomplish anything. So, this year, I want to let myself be seen. I want to give people the option to love me, exactly as I am. If I can learn to embrace the pieces of myself that are usually kept under lock and key, perhaps the rest of the world can to.

I want to take risks. Big ones. I want to challenge myself beyond belief. I want to set goals and chase them, not for any other reason but because I am willing and able, because I have the utmost belief that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.

I want to love fully. This encompasses myself and others. I want to experience an entirely new dimension to love, the kind that is freely given, and wholly received. The kind that does not judge or question, but lives with arms flung open. Not out of desperation or convenience, but solely based on a true and deep connection.

I want to build relationships with new people. I want to build better relationships with people I already know. Strangers. Family. Acquaintances. Co-workers. Neighbors. People that challenge me, people that stir excitement in my belly, people that understand the place that I am in and the place that I want to work towards.

I want to find peace. I want to feel contentment in the pit of my stomach when I close my eyes at night. I want to feel so utterly complete that there is nothing that can deter me from the path ahead of me.

I want to help others achieve this peace as well, which is to say, I want to spend the year encouraging and uplifting those around me. I want to make sure that, at the end of the day, I am helping to nurture kindness in all of the people around me, and in turn, nurturing that kindness in myself.

2017. I am ready for you. Bring on all of your detours, all of the inevitable challenges, all of the sleepless nights, and whirlwind days.

I am turning all of my wants into plans. I want but I also plan to do. And this year, that will make all of the difference.

Alison Malee is a poet and the author of the book Shifting Bone.

Shifting Bone is available as a physical and electronic book. You can buy it here.