365 Days.
8,760 Hours.
525,600 Minutes.
31,536,000 Seconds.
That’s how long you have each and every year. That’s how long you have to make decisions and to change your mind. That’s how long you have to fall in love and to be broken hearted. That’s how long you have to go back to school, to finally call your parents, to make new friends, to find your happiness.
You have 31,536,000 seconds in one year to do absolutely anything.
When you think about it, New Year’s can bring a lot of pressure… I mean, every year on January 1st you make all these resolutions and set expectations that are meant to make this your “best year yet.” But, you know, sometimes the New Year doesn’t leave all of your old problems at the door step; it doesn’t always manage to forget about everything that happened before midnight on the 1st. But despite it all, we always look forward to the New Year because it does feel like a brand new beginning. It does feel like everything we hated about the year before is swept under the rug and we begin anew. But what I don’t really get is why do you have to wait until the first day of January in order to have a happy year? How come when something disappointing happens, we feel as though our whole year is ruined and we just have to hope next year will be better? Why do we always let a few specific events turn our entire year (OUR ENTIRE 365 DAYS!!!) into a “good” or “bad” year?
I’ll be honest (and incredibly cliche), 2014 was no piece of cake. Before I really sat down and thought about it, I probably would have told you that this was a bad year… a bad year with a few good moments, granted, but overall a bad year for sure. The more I thought about it, though, I came to understand the falsehood in that statement. In 2014, there have been way too many amazing things [many of which I’m guilty of rarely stopping to be thankful for] to call it a “bad year.” Am I, overall, a healthy 17-year-old girl? Yes. Do I get to wake up in my comfy bed every morning? Yes. Do I get to have dinner with my parents who love me every single night? Do I have a brand new car to drive to school and wherever else I need to go? Do I get to worship Jesus Christ anywhere and anytime I want to without the fear of consequence? Yes, yes, and yes.
Okay, I know what you may be thinking, “yeah… that’s great and all, but, there have just been way too many bad things this year… the good stuff just can’t outweigh it all…” I know you may feel that way because I’ve totally been there. There were moments in this past year {heck, even in just the past 6 months…} that I felt as though my world had fallen apart. There were moments I felt so unbelievably broken that I just knew there was no way I could put myself back together… But here I am. There may be a few cracks, but the glue seems to have held pretty well.
When it comes down to it, I can pretty much guarantee that crappy days will never stop existing. There will be days that it just seems way too hard to even get out of bed. There will be days when you feel like you’re on the entire world’s bad side. There will be days when it rains, you spill your coffee [which happens to me at least once a week, no lie], you argue with your best friend, your dog runs away, your boyfriend breaks up with you, whatever. You name it, there are days when it could definitely happen. Crappy days will never stop existing.
But did you know that if you have one bad day out of the entire year it means that only .0027% of your year is “bad”? Okay, I know having only one bad day probably isn’t likely, but in order for the bad to ultimately overcome the good, you would have to have 183 bad days. And yes, I know there are exceptions to everything, but for many of us, 183 truly bad days just aren’t that likely.
So I challenge you as we approach this new year that is not yet marred with bad days; I challenge you to really, really cherish the good days. I challenge you to realize that there are literally hundreds of good days surrounding all of the bad ones. I challenge you to do your best to be genuinely thankful for the life you’ve been given to lead… even on days when you spill your coffee.
Have a safe and fabulous New Year!
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| Here’s to a year full of beautiful sunsets and a wonderful camera to capture them with! |
Samantha Reynolds 
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