2007 In Review
Well, New Year's has come and gone and it's now 2008. I can hardly believe the year passed as quickly as it did...it was a big year with a lot of changes, and it definitely set me up for how life-altering and crazy this year is going to be.
I just got back from a week and a half in Ohio for the Christmas holiday. To be honest, it was probably one of the best weeks I've had in a long while. It was just so nice, so relaxing to be home. Part of me wishes I could be back home permanently...another part of me wishes I could just pick home up and take it with me wherever I end up in a few months. Anyways, I got to spend lots of time with my family, especially my mom and the little girls. Though my grandma seemed to not be doing as well as I would like, it was really good to see her. I spent lots of time with Tracy and Ryan, the two people that I had honestly been craving time with over the last few weeks. And I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while - Jen, Justin, Melissa, Jimmy...though I didn't get the snow I was practically begging for, I got to have a really relaxed, enjoyable, memorable visit home, which is the one thing I really wanted for Christmas. :)
As for the past year...
2007 - YEAR IN REVIEW
JANUARY: After a nice long stretch at home for the Christmas holiday, I came back to SoFL for the New Year holiday. Shortly after, Axel and I broke up, rather messily, and we're no longer friends. I have to admit, it was the darkest part of my year...that break up really rattled things in my world, changed a lot of things about me and my life, things I'm just now starting to realize have changed.
FEBRUARY: I experienced my first "Florida winter" and for about three months, I loved the weather in South Florida. My grandmother and mom came to visit at the end of the month, which was a blast. I won $70 at the Hard Rock Casino with my grandma, thus continuing her lucky streak in an indirect way (lol).
MARCH: Wrapped up my winter courses (Physical Oceanography and Scientific Writing) with straight A's, then went home for Spring Break. Went to Tracy's Carnation Ball at Baldwin-Wallace (you know us, any excuse to throw on a ball gown...lol), finally learned to forgive someone and subsequently moved on, spent lots of quality time with my family, and finally was home for Sarah's birthday (no crying phone call this year!).
APRIL: Started off the month with Mel's 80s birthday bash, quite possibly one of the best parties in my time at the OC. Unfortunately, ended the month with Bama's departure to North Carolina... :(
MAY: May was the start of the craziest period of the year - summer. I celebrated my 24th birthday...initially, I wasn't planning on doing anything, but over the course of the previous year, Bama and Bekah strong-armed me into getting into the spirit of things. :) Spent Memorial weekend partying for my birthday, hitting Riverfront and Roundup for the Wreckers concert. It was a great birthday, and definitely got me liking my birthday again. :)
JUNE: Bekah & I's joint birthday party at Ocean Club...Bekah's birthday at Hard Rock Casino...lots of celebrating going on in June. I wrapped up my spring classes (Plankton Ecology and Marine Fisheries)...and Tracy came to visit! We took a roadtrip up to Orlando (our first roadtrip, just us two girls) and spent a weekend at Disneyworld! :) By the end of the month, I was on my way to a week in OBX, not without a disasterous detour in Atlanta...
JULY: The month began with a weeklong vacation in the Outer Banks with my family (Mom, Dad, Chris, Uncle Greg, Aunt Melissa, Nicole, Erin and Sarah). We spent a week in a huge beach house, relaxing on the beach, swimming in the pool, shopping, cooking out, catching crabs, fishing, flying kites...it was probably the best vacation I've had in a long, long time. I spent the rest of the month roadtripping back and forth between Fort Lauderdale and Sarasota, to earn my scuba certification! By the end of the month, I was open-water scuba certified and was practically living under water. :)
AUGUST: August was a relatively quiet month...after my travel binge the month before, I laid off the roadtrips for a while. I started (and ended) a new romantic venture with Bruce...
SEPTEMBER: I started off the month with a trip home for Labor Day weekend. My trip coincided with Ryan's brother's wedding, so I got to spend nearly the whole weekend catching up with him. Mike drove up for a visit, and we spent a weekend diving in West Palm. I battled, and successfully (?) completed Marine Chem, hands down my least-favorite class of my career here at the OC...
OCTOBER: October was a big month in terms of friendships. I saw a few friendships fade away (or, in one or two cases, just up and walk off without an explanation), but I also saw new friendships develop and flourish. Most notably, I met what I like to call "the New York Crew" - Joe, Katy, Paola, and Geoff. Joe says they just came along at the right time...I say they were a godsend. We will probably debate those viewpoints for the next several months to no avail, given that our friendship pretty much functions like an old married couple. Anyways, my adventures with them definitely became one of the highlights of the late part of the year. The month was capped off by Halloween, with the traditional blowout at Ted & Christine's, and a Halloween bash at Roundup...
NOVEMBER: More classes, more diving, more shennanigans with the New York crew. My mom and dad came down to visit mid-month, shortly before Thanksgiving, and I had two awesome weekends in Sarasota as a result - checking out the Florida Aquarium, hanging on Clearwater Beach and Venice Beach and Siesta Key. Thanksgiving was spent at Rolo's house with lots of friends, and the weekend was spent relaxing and attempting to finish my capstone proposal...
DECEMBER: My favorite month of the year, besides October. I wrapped up my last two classes (besides Belize) at the OC (Biodiversity and Sharks & Rays), and relished in the fact that I will never have to take a final exam again. My capstone proposal was approved, with one of my professors saying it was "the best proposal he's ever seen" and the dean saying it was "perfect, exactly what I want to see, and I never see that". I spent most the month relaxing, enjoying the holiday season. I hosted my first dinner party, went to Santa's Enchanted Forest with Katy (definitely an adventure), spent a lot of time at Coyote Bar courtesy of Joe (not that I'm complaining
), went to my first pro football game (the only game the Dolphins won all year, mind you)...all capped off by my trip home for Christmas break.
It was a good year...it had a lot of ups and downs, but it was what it was, and I definitely got some incredible lessons to carry with me from it.
This next year is going to be one of the biggest, craziest, exciting, life-altering, and transitional years of my life. I'll be writing, completing, and defending my thesis, finishing my coursework, earning my master's degree, taking off for a week in Belize, moving (to where, I still have no idea), starting a new career, meeting new people, adjusting to living in a completely new place where I may or may not (depending on where I end up) know a single soul. In six months, I'm starting fresh somewhere new, will literally have to build a new life for myself like I did when I moved to Florida. It's a thrilling yet terrifying concept. It's going to be a huge year. There are times where I think about it and I can hardly wait to see what's going to happen, then there are other times where I think about it and I have to seriously resist the urge to throw up. I'm exciting and terrified and happy and sad about it all at the same time.
So, as for New Years resolutions, here are mine for the year:
1.) Live this year to the max. My only regret from my time at Charleston was that I didn't appreciate my time there while I was there, put off doing the things I really wanted to do, didn't explore enough, didn't experience everything that I could/should have, didn't try enough new things. I'm only going to be at NSU (and quite possibly, in South Florida) for six more months, and I want to leave here without any regrets, without having missed out on something I really wanted to do. So, for the next six months, I'm going to get out and do things, try new things, go see the things and the places that I've read about and wanted to go to and didn't because that wasn't what everyone else wanted to do. And, in six months, wherever I end up, I'm going to live that experience to the max. I'm going to get out and explore new places, I'm going to meet new people and make new friends and connections. I need to take a minute and take a look around me and appreciate my life every day.
2.) Eat & act more healthy. Yeah, yeah, everyone says it, and approximately 99% of people bail on this resolution pretty early on, but I'm going to give it a shot. I've made some definite headway this year (giving up regular soda, eating real food on a regular basis as opposed to junk food and carryout, learning that lovely concept of portion control, my discovery of Whole Foods Market (mmmm!), etc.), and I want to keep it going. So, I'm a) learning how to cook, real proper food, b) working out on a regular basis, whether or not the back permits (because, frankly, I'm tired of missing on that post-workout buzz because my back is shitty...I just need to come up with workouts that work around that), c) getting back into yoga, and d) taking care of myself the way I should - sleeping proper hours, vitamins, all that jazz.
3.) Not sweat the small shit. There are some things I just can't change. There are some things that I have no control over, no matter how much I wished I did. There are some people who are never going to change. There are some people who are never going to be what you want them or wish them to be for you. Going home for Christmas and seeing my grandma kind of opened up my eyes to that once again. I need to worry about the big stuff and let the small shit work itself out in its own due time. I need to spend my time with the people who matter, the people who care about me and appreciate me and understand me (or at least make an effort to) and take me for who I am and who I'm not, and not worry or waste time/energy/thoughts on the people who don't. I also need to continue to avoid drama like the plague, lol.
4.) Take a trip before graduation. I need to do something really fun and fabulous for myself before I leave SoFL, or it is quite possible that, between the job search and the defense and everything in between, I might lose my mind. Right now, I'm definitely a weekend in the Keys with the New York crew, perhaps a weekend in Charleston with Erin. Either way, I will find the time, money, and means to do something awesome before graduation.
5.) Get close to completing that damned To-Do List. So, I have a modified to-do list for the year that runs until July, as I have no idea where I'm going to be after the end of June. Thus far, I'm knocking things off it (14 so far), and did pretty good with last years list (actually completed 42 things on it!), so I think I'll definitely get far with this year...will also help me stick to resolution 1. :)
So that's all for my year in review...like I said, it was a pretty big year, with lots of changes, and this year to come is going to be even bigger, crazier, and more adventurous.
Until later, gnight and god bless...