Senior year has shown me a lot, and I’ve been able to experience so many things. But, still, I am holding on to a lot of things that have held me back and down. So, for my one-word resolution, I’m challenging myself to simply: grow.

As the new year approaches, I’ve come to face realities of the future – college, moving away from home and saying goodbye to all my friends. It’s been something I’ve been dreading to face, and, while I still have time, I feel like I can use this break as an opportunity to reset, start new for next semester and become a better version of myself.

Thankfully, I’m surrounded by those that encourage me to become better. Without the support and love of those I care about, I wouldn’t want to. My family, newspaper staff, teachers and friends are inspirations for me. I value all their talents, and want myself to grow to be a bigger asset and help for them.

With growth, I can be a better writer, student, sister and daughter.

When I talk about growth, there’s a few things I want to focus on: setting better boundaries, expressing how I feel more and letting myself value what’s in the moment.

Being someone with high expectations, I often let myself take on more than I need, which can diminish the value of my work if I do a bunch of work. Now, I’m putting quality over quantity. A part of the growth that I want to work for is going to need more living in the moment, which will also help with making sure I’m not overworking myself. I’m always looking toward the future – but, sometimes you just have to breathe, enjoy what’s around you and let that be enough.

While I’ve only been talking about myself, I want to take a moment to thank my family for their love and constant support, the amazing people I’m on staff with for helping me develop and setting an example that helps me lead my section, my friends for always being there for me and you, the viewer, for your reads and my motivation to keep publishing, and to put out stories that I feel need to be told.

Growing doesn’t mean changing everything that I am, but allowing myself to work on my weaknesses in order to fully shine.