2017, The Year of Opportunity

In the last hours of 2016, my closest friends and I gathered on the kitchen floor. This was nothing unusual for us: we always tend to gravitate towards the kitchen floor. However, New Year’s Eve has always been more ritualized than our typical gatherings. With a few hours left in the year, plenty of Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider (never Welch’s), and a box of tissues, we convene and share our appreciation for each other. Each person takes a turn speaking of moments where the others had shown strength or true friendship.

This past year, there were more tears than before. As individuals, we all went through a lot in 2016: things that pushed as apart and pulled us back together as a core group. If 2016 had to be named, it would have been the Year of Change.

While we were sending off 2016, our friend Eve brought a new tradition to the table…well, the floor. We all wrote down things that we wanted from 2017: goals, achievements, resolutions, and things to check off bucket lists. We read our lists to each other and tucked them away until January 31, 2017. At one point in the evening, it was declared that 2017 would be the Year of Opportunity. We would seek out opportunity in every way possible and take all the opportunities presented to us.

I didn’t take the whole “Year of Opportunity” thing very lightly. I started the blog. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to attend an alumni networking event on campus, which led to me receiving my dream internship less than 48 hours later. The school wrote an article on my internship experience. I worked endless closing shifts at my summer job to save money so I can travel while I am abroad.

I crawled inside a pyramid, literally saw King Tut, swam in the Red Sea, and slept on the Nile; I went to Egypt.

I decided to run for an executive position for Susquehanna University’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and won the position. A few months later, I figured out a way to attend the national PRSSA conference in Boston, where I learned so much more than I anticipated and made great friends.

I took my first flight alone to visit my aunt in Vermont for her birthday.

I began all the paperwork (so much paperwork) to study abroad in 2018.

Thanks for the opportunities, 2017. It’s been a good year.