By Lilianne Walker

My opinion of the New Year has changed drastically each year. With both optimistic and pessimistic points of view on the day that so many rave about, I have managed to glide through my adolescent years without a single accomplished New Years resolution. But that is where that chapter ends, and this one begins.

The New Year serves as a chance for rejuvenation. It is the day that we agree to pack up our inhibitions and memorable moments from the last 365 days and take a step in a different direction. It’s the day that we make a conscious effort to do more of what we enjoy and abandon the things that hold no importance.

Reminiscing on past New Years resolutions written in aged journals, it was easy to see that my goals and aspirations at the time revolved around materialistic things and the value I thought they would add to my life. Thankfully, that has changed. My thought process these days revolves around the things that I want for my future. A career that I adore, financial stability, a love greater than I could ever fathom and a life surrounded by metro cards and five-floor walk-ups (most commonly known as New York City). I have schemed day and night to turn the pipe dream of living in New York City into a plan…one in which I would put on my Carrie Bradshaw persona and waltz from avenue to avenue writing it all down for my readers to enjoy.  I’m sure it sounds as if this scene belongs in a metropolitan-based television series. And I would agree with you on that one; but, that does not constitute it as being impossible.

Seeing that there is no instruction manual for success I suppose this approaching year will be full of trial and error and the process of elimination. I am content knowing that this time next year, I will be 365 days closer to a future that I am beside myself excited for.

I will return to school in a few days and dive head first into a semester full of Polaroid moments that will find their place on my concrete, dorm room wall.  In between those moments I will take advantage of the chance for a new perspective on an old dream.

It’s not a new dream, but a new year. And I am one step closer.

Lilianne Walker wasn’t born in Beaufort, but moving here so early in her life makes her enough of a Beaufortonian.  She knows this is a great place to be from, but her aspirations are taking her all over the world, not just the Lowcountry. She’s an up and coming writer attending Winthrop University.