Although this year has been hard it has taught me a lot about life;

Firstly that everyone has their own problems, it may not be the same as yours and to you it might not be as drastic, but we all have them, and for me it's learning to empathise with that and understand that just a little thing like 'Do you want to meet up and talk?' or 'Hello, how are you?' could mean the world to someone.

Secondly, that happiness is infectious, but so are other emotions, however, in my eyes this doesn't mean you should start to ignore or avoid people, if you are truly a good friend, you will stand by them no matter what and try and infect them with your own happiness.

Thirdly, and I say this right now as a hypocrite I know, but moaning about your problems gets you nowhere, actually, if anything it causes you to spiral down into a depression where the bad points in your life keep coming back to haunt you. The fact is not everybody needs to know your business, and I like it that way, so stop gossiping about others and focus on YOURSELF.

And last but not least, you can't change other people, they are who they are. If you feel left out, hurt, or mistreated by somebody else chances are you care a lot more about them then they do about you! If you feel people don't deserve to be in your life, then they don't and its time to wipe the slate clean and get rid of negative people.

Think about yourself, yes, but also have empathy for others and try to understand WHY they do it, and if that doesn't work, you'll know what to do.

Trust yourself, if you can't do that, who can you trust?

Stop living in the past.

And always be the best Gatsby you can be:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
F. Scott Fitzgerald