Remember when you were between the ages of 14 and 18? That age bracket isn’t easy for any of us– growth, learning, changes, mood swings, and figuring things out take place–and that’s without adding any extra and guaranteed teenage angst or life obstacles. I taught high school for well over a decade. Those are the humans I know; those are the humans I understand. Perhaps, as adults, we don’t all sit around and reminisce or remember about life in high school or those early teenage years.

Do you remember your time in a classroom? Perhaps there are flickering images of building with blocks, playing handball at recess, or you can possibly grasp the names of your teachers all the way back to kindergarten. Perhaps you remember running the mile in physical education, joining your first bake sale, or that time you wanted to learn to play the flute.

Breathing in the first month of a new year is as good as chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven, ocean spray as it hits the air, and a brand new baby all snuggled up after a warm bath. It’s the promise of that new dawn, the beginning of something powerful, and a chance at all those do-overs we all at times require. How will you write that first page?

It’s December. The last month of the last quarter of 2018 is here, and the holiday season is upon us. Much of the country is littered in cold and snowy weather, many people are rushing out to purchase gifts to show their gratitude, and resolutions are in process for 2019’s arrival. It’s the time of year where endings and beginnings mesh together—and often the lines between the two blur.