We all get the exact same 365 days. The only difference is what we do with them.

My first blog post here on sarahndipity was January 6, 2016, and it was all about my resolutions for 2016. It was a great way to start off my blog, and it's been so fun to write my way through the year. Now, however, it's a brand new year! New resolutions are in order.

Everyone has a different take on resolutions. Some swear by them and make them every year while others don't even like the idea. When I was younger, I always made resolutions, simply because I thought that's what you were supposed to do for the New Year. However, I never really took the time to understand what resolutions really were or why people were making them.

I've decided that I love the idea of resolutions. Some people say they don't like resolutions because we should work on bettering ourselves throughout the year. I totally agree! However, I think there's something so magical about the New Year, a time when we feel fresh and new and as though we have a chance at a fresh start. Resolutions are things we can work on throughout the year. If you think of a new resolution in June, there's no reason to start working on that right then in June! We don't have to wait until December 31 and January 1 to think of resolutions and begin them, but this is the prime time to make these changes!

Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

2016 was...interesting, to say the least. Many people hated 2016; granted, a lot of negative things did happen this year. A large number of influencers and artists passed away, an election divided our country, and violence and hate continued to tear our world apart. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it: it was a tough year for a lot of people. But I've never been one to focus on the negative. I always try to see the positive, especially in difficult situations, so I'm looking back at the positive highlights of my own 2016.

—To start 2016, I started this blog! It's been so much fun to do, and I have some great projects in the works for the new year.

—My nephew and godson turned one, and I got to spend another incredible year watching him grow and learn. He also said my name for the first time this year (both as "Rah-Rah" and as "Sarah")!

—I got to go on two amazing trips to New York City. The first was in April with Ed on Campus during which we visited a number of magazines and got to visit with editors. The second was in July for Her Conference, which featured great speakers and workshops. During this trip I also bonded with three Her Campus Iowa girls, and they are now some of my best friends.

How wild it was, to let it be.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom and my sister and I went to see Cheryl Strayed speak. Cheryl Strayed is a writer and the author of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which is about her experience hiking the PCT. I loved Wild when I read it, but after I heard Cheryl speak, I discovered I relate to her even more than I had previously realized.

Cheryl decided to hike the PCT a couple of years after her mother died. In those years between when her mother passed and when she hiked the PCT, Cheryl's life kind of spiraled out of control. She cheated on her husband, used drugs, and just lived a life she wasn't happy with. As Cheryl put it in her talk, she had decided to continue her life after her mother died in a way that would best honor her. She had decided not to thrive because she couldn't bear the thought of living without her.

Cheryl's absolute love for her mother in as portrayed in Wild is something that I so deeply connected to when I read the book. Simply put: I absolutely love my mother and can't imagine how I would go on without her. Without her mother, Cheryl is simply broken, and I would be the same way if I were to lose my mother.

Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

I've been spending a lot of time trying to decide what I want this post to be. My love of Harry Potter is so great, and the number of things I could write about related to Harry Potter is so large. But with the recent release of the script of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," I knew I wanted to write something about Harry Potter this week.

I just finished reading the script; in fact, I read it in a matter of a couple of hours on Thursday. I have so many thoughts and feelings about the story. It may sound silly, but it's been so emotional to dive back into a story I thought was finished, a story that was such a big part of my childhood, a story that is a huge part of my life.

Last fall I was lucky enough to be in a class all about "Harry Potter." It was an Honors class and a gen ed, so it was a no brainer that I would take it. {Heck, I would have taken any class about "Harry Potter," even if it was offered in the Engineering department.} It was such a great experience to read the series and discuss in a room full of other "Harry Potter" nerds for an entire semester. And it helped to learn and realize so many things about my favorite series.

"Harry Potter" has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember that moment I first picked up the books or even the first time I watched the first movie. All I know is that it’s a part of my life and perhaps even a part of me. I’ve gotten used to answering the question of who my favorite character is. “Obviously it’s Hermione,” is my typical answer. It’s a cliché answer that I’m sure thousands of others share. But as I've grown up and reread the series and taken the class with other Potterheads and immersed myself even more into J.K. Rowling's world, I've realized that my love for the "Harry Potter" series goes beyond my love for Hermione. I've learned so much from these books.

Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?

The first read for my summer book club is Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes!

It's summer break, which means it's time for my annual summer book club! This is the third year that I have held my book club, and every year it just seems to get better and better.

I first decided to form my book club the summer after my senior year of high school as a sort of last hurrah for me and my friends before we all left for college that fall. I've always loved to read, so I thought book club would be a fun way to connect with my friends before we all went our separate ways.

Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.

Who doesn't love a little time off? This week I am home for spring break, and it's been so nice to just sit back and relax.

While a lot of other people my age are on a beach somewhere warm, I'm sitting at home, and I don't really mind at all. Although it would be nice to sit on a beach with a nice book while getting a nice, even tan (blotchy, red sunburn), I like sitting at home catching up on my favorite shows and indulging in a good book or two.

So far this break, I haven't really done much, and that's fine by me. After two months of going nonstop, it's been nice to stop and just be. Instead of rushing to classes and holing up to write papers and articles, I've gotten to just sit and watch TV or read.

The world was hers for the reading.

I have loved to read since the day I first learned how. I fell in love with the excitement of meeting new people, traveling to new places, experiencing new things, all through the words on the pages of the books I picked up.

I didn’t read as many books as I would have liked to last year, but I did read a few fantastic ones. Take a look at what I read in 2015.