The Countdown
For the last 2 years, I've done this, and I'm happy to do it again. Yet, I've crammed so many memories into the last 12 months, that it's hard to say which are the ones I will remember most.
But, I'll try. Here's my Top 11 Memories of 2005:
11) going to Chuck E. Cheese's in Brooklyn
10) my first Accepted Student's Day in which I worked, gave tours, and had to deal with the bomb threat
09) Returning to New Roads for the first time since having graduated, seeing the Jonny memorial and catching up with the teachers and other people who grew on me for 4 years
08) Class of 2005 graduation - feeling like I sealed the deal and that there wasn't much a reason to continue to visit, since I don't know very many people in the '06 crowd
07) the office end-of-the-year party in which we all got plastered and rung up a $600 tab
06) my grandmother's funeral
05) Megan's and my impromptu Teena Marie concert, the show-stopping, scene-making performance
04) telling a certain person to go straight to hell and not make any pit stops
03) when I started cultivating my own sense of self-worth and importance
02) the nose-against-the-glass tour of Midtown Manhattan
01) Cheesecake Factory 2005, in which I caught up with most people I still care about, had a ton of laughs, and had to come up with a part of the bill I wasn't supposed to pay
When I look back, 2005 has been a remarkable year. It wasn't as tumultous and confusing as 2004, and not as heartwrenching as 2003. It's had its customary ups and downs I was able to see my own endurance, self-worth and value, and realize that in the end, everything's going to be OK.
I can only ask for more of this in 2006.