Colorful 2018!

Hi friends! Welcome to a new year. 

I can't even wrap my head around the fact that this is the year I graduate from college and enter a new, undetermined chapter of my life. 2017 was a wild ride and if I'm being entirely honest, it just wasn't my year. I have some great memories from the year, but I didn't grow or change or do anything really big this past year.

But that will NOT be the case for 2018. I am so determined to make this a great year, because there is so much I want to do before I finish college and begin my next chapter. Lots of people have a "word" for each year and I have never done that before but I want to give it a try. I didn't really have any idea what I wanted my word to be - there are SO many different directions I could have taken my word considering how big this year is going to be. As I processed a few different ideas, one word kept coming to the forefront of my brain, and it didn't really make sense.

COLORFUL.

What? You're probably thinking, Ashley you're silly, colorful is not a word to live by for an entire year. That's what I kept thinking too. But it just kept coming back up. The more I thought about it though, the more it made sense. I want a colorful year, a colorful life!

Now colorful doesn't mean perfect, or pretty, or perfectly curated in order to share on Instagram. To me, colorful is messy and real, and just plain happy, joyful even. To say I want my life to be filled with color means I want it to be filled with new experiences and new, interesting people. I want to say yes to the things that make me smile and spend a lot of time laughing and enjoying this last bit of college. I want to make new friends, because you can never have too many. I want to pursue whatever it is that sets my soul on fire. I plan to really dive into areas of my life that I've been holding back on and figure out what's next. I plan to cherish and appreciate this last semester in my perfect college town and love the people that have been a part of my college journey. I could probably keep going about everything colorful means for me in 2018, but I think some things are better kept to oneself when it comes to dreams, goals, and resolutions.

Have you ever picked out a word for your year? I would love to hear it!

Happy New Year, may your 2018 be beautiful and COLORFUL!!!