The one about new years resolutions

Dear Josephine,

tomorrow the new year begins and I'm sure you have made, as well as everybody else, some new year's resolutions. I've made some too - but I also have "new day resolutions", "new week resolutions" and "new month resolutions". Isn't it like that - that we always wait for something new to start a thing we always wanted? "From the next week on I'll eat only healthy food, no sweets and I'll work out at least once a day." Hahaha - no. There are people, who can do this. They wake up like: "Hey, I'm gonna start now." and then they jump out of bed and start working on their objectives. But I'm not like that and I'd guess many people are with me at this point. I can do this - I can wake up and start working and trying to reach my goals, but that will only last for a few hours or a week. And then I get back into my old routine. So why don't take the start of a new year as an opportunity to try again?

2015 is going to be a great year to me - hopefully. I'll travel to Rome for a week in spring and to London for a week in autumn. I'll spend my summer holidays with my family in the alps and with a bit of luck I'll go to the coast for the first time in about ten years too. I'll become "sweet sixteen", which means, that I'm legally allowed to drink and buy alcohol here in germany - which doesn't mean that I want to. But I could do it - in general. In 2015 I'll finish the tenth grade, which means, that I could leave school and start a teaching (but I still wanna graduate from high school, which means I'll have to stick around until twelfth grade). 5SOS, one of my favorite bands, are coming to three (!) towns in my country, which means, that I could go to my first proper concert - if I'd be brave enough. And with a bit of luck I could go to many other great concerts too, which means a lot to a music loving person like me.

I have a few resolutions for the new year:

1. I want to be courageous. I wanna stand up for my ideas and tell other people what I think about specific themes.
2. I wanna become more adventurous. The last years I spent mainly in my room or our garden. I never came along, when my friends made a trip to town or somewhere else. I've always been that slowpoke, whose answer to the question "Do you wanna come along with us?" is always "Nope." And I want to change this.
3. I want to become honest. Honest with myself and everyone else around me. I don't wanna to play a role and act, like I'm somebody else. I'm totally fine with myself (at least the most times) and I want to convince myself, that others don't have a problem with this person too.
4. I wanna be happy. Genuinely, intensely, consistently happy. I want to try my best to see the good things in every situation and not always be the nagging pessimist. I've experienced this feeling of almost complete happiness a few times in the last year and I want to feel it more often.
5. I don't want to let my anxiety control my life. I don't want to live in constant pain and be afraid to move, because I over think everything. I want to be more carefree.

Of couse there are things like "losing weight" and "living healthy" on my list too, but I generally think, that your mind is way more important than your body. Of couse I'm chubby and I'm not allowed to eat any sugar at all, because I've a high potential to get diabetes. I should do more sport and so on, but why not combine this with my objectives from above? What about a trip on the bike, a big ass Hike or a relaxes summer day with an hour of swimming? If you are happy with yourself and live in inner peace, everything else will come by itself. Thats, what I think.

Dear Fine, what are your new years resolutions?

Yours sincerely, Elisabeth.