Lauren Jarvis-Gibson

Let 2017 be the year you surprise yourself. Let it be the year you put one step forward instead of taking three steps back. Let it be the year you sprint instead of stumble. And let it be the year you go for your goals instead of turning your head away from them. Let it be the year you get up off of your ass, and start putting your life back together.

Here is to all that you haven’t discovered yet. Here’s to the beginnings that haven’t begun. Here’s to the endings that will break you and here’s to the beginnings that will build you right back up again.

Dear 2017, Please grant us with the strength we need when we are deep into despair. And please grant us with the hope we need when we are close to giving up.

Someday, maybe a year from now or five years down the road, we will meet again. You will stutter and shuffle your feet across the gravel, and I will smile and ask you how you have been. And on that day, you will want to tell me that you’re not ok, and that you’re sorry, and that you want me back. But when that someday happens, I will be gone before you can say a word.

Forgive yourself for causing your own heart pain. For ever telling yourself that you weren’t worthy and for ever causing your heart to break. Forgive yourself for treating yourself in a way that you would never treat anyone else. And forgive yourself for being human.

Let 2017 be the time in your life where you can look at your past and acknowledge that you can’t take anything back, no matter how much you want to. Let your goodbye with him be final. Let your story end. Let it be.

Stop worrying about things you can’t ever change. There is no use worrying so much about things you will never be able to take back or change. Instead, focus on today and do your best. That is all anyone can ask of you.

We say we are only human, and that we are weak because we are breakable. But my dear, we all break sometimes, but we always can find a way to be reborn. We always can find a way to keep going.

As I say a goodbye to 2016, I will say goodbye to you too. You, the man who changed my life. You, the man who changed my heart. You, the man who showed me how to love.

Let 2017 be the year you stop telling yourself you can’t do it. The year you stop telling yourself that you aren’t worth that job, or that boy, or that life. Let 2017 be the year you decide that you are worthy.

2017, I pray you are the year that everything changes. The year that the hopeless can hope, the year that the unlovable can love, and the year the lonely can finally find company.

The way they smile at you, will make everything ok again. The way they speak to you, will make you realize how much a part of you has missed being truly looked at. The way they laugh at your casual conversation will make you want to see the world from a different light.

Just let yourself be. Let yourself feel. Let yourself die and be reborn over and over again. Let yourself change. Let yourself realize that you will never be the same. Let yourself grow. Let yourself adapt to life without this person. Let yourself miss the hell out of them. Hope they miss you too.

You have thoughts about your future at least once a day, and can’t seem to calm down about what’s next for you. You feel like your life is this one giant race where you have to finish everything in time, and you put so much pressure on yourself to hit all the right marks.

Anxiety is not a joke. Anxiety is not funny. Anxiety is not something to ever laugh at. Period.

It’s a bittersweet symphony. Finding great love. Falling in love. Giving your heart to someone. Seeing a future with them, and having kids to call your own. You see a picture of how your life could be. And you see it with them.

Life is made for falling in love. For the tender touch of a hand that you want to hold for the rest of your life. Life is made for messed up sheets and delicious touches that send fireworks up your spine. Life is made for saying ‘I love you’ and not being scared of the response you’ll get back.

You get intense hot flashes. Because the anxiety can be so intense, you sometimes will feel like every bone in your body is on fire.