Reeling from a two-week vacation on the beaches of Mexico and a lovely stay in my hometown, I'm finally back home and prepping for the first day at my new job tomorrow! Though this past year was filled with trying times consumed of an unexpected series of events, I'm super optimistic about the times that are ahead of me.

Okay, let's start here: I love food. Most specifically: any kind of pasta, all Thai food, ice cream, cookies, french fries, and an occasional burger. If I'm going out to eat for brunch with the girls or a date night dinner, there is 0% chance this girl is ordering a salad. Unless of course, it comes as a side with my order of the Linguine alla bolognese. 

“I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be.” -Diane Von Furstenberg Well if that doesn't nail the start of 2018 right on the head, I don't know what does. I typically consider myself a pretty motivated person, and the start of a new calendar year marks the perfect excuse to break out that fresh new planner and set a list of goals that more often than not fall to the wayside come mid-March... but this year? Crickets.

Letting go of something you love may just be one of the hardest things we'll ever have to do in this life. Why can't everything good just last forever? Sometimes it's losing a person who you aren't ready to say goodbye to, or a town you're moving away from that you've always known as home, or perhaps it's even a job that you've fallen in love with and aren't quite ready to leave. But whatever it is, saying goodbye before we're ready is a part of life that I don't think anyone is ever really prepared for.

Happiness can mean very different things to different people. It could be financial security, success at work, contentment in your relationship, self-assuredness, or even a good hair day. And while we're sitting here trying to define the simple term, we're racing against the clock of time to proclaim from the rooftops... er, our social media platforms, that we're so insanely happy. But at the end of the day, being happy is such an annoying benchmark to reach, isn't it?