If the way you start the year has any bearing on how it's going to go..
I spent New Year's Eve first at ladycariad's house with mad_as_soup and nix_the_fish, watching part of the Doctor Who marathon on UK TV (I never thought I'd see Doctor Who Confidential on New Zealand televison), playing with sparklers, and writing letters to ourselves and each other in a year, and then at Raymond's hiding in a corner playing TWEWY (for some reason I want to beat everything on the Noise list at every difficulty and at level 1. apparently attempted hardcore Caryl is trying to be hardcore) for an hour and then whoring out SingStar ABBA and then discovering that I'm actually quite good at drums on Guitar Hero: World Tour. You know you play drums when people are finding a song difficult and then you get on and find it very easy because it's very close to playing drums for real. (But yeah, I'm staying away from them guitars. Drums or vocals for me, please.)
And so in the end, I spent the year turnover rocking out Living on a Prayer instead of counting down or being introspective like I tend to.
Looking back on 2007, I remember the bad. It's not that there was a lot of it, it's just that the two major bads were particularly bad bads (and had bad spinoffs). And then I made things worse by wallowing in it to the point that I was suicidal. Without looking at my LJ or anything, I can only remember two good things that happened that year (the Opera House, and Nicola's birthday party).
But towards the end of the year or at the start of last, my mindset must have shifted back towards cute happy hyper Caryl, because looking back on 2008? I remember the good. It's the bad that I have to struggle to recall. And last year the bad was more stress, pressure, boredom (hunger, sleeplessness) than the rejection and worthlessness of 2007.
So 2008 was a good year.
I recovered from 2007. Except my self confidence, but I still just go for things despite thinking that I suck at whatever it is. I accepted things, let them go, realized they were for the best.
I had a lot of musical growth last year as well. I learned the drums, the timpani, the tambourine, and the triangle. I apparently grew some piano writing skills. I auditioned for a show with a ridiculously hard song a capella on the verge of a cold and got in, and proceeded to help throw the show together in the space of two and a half weeks. (Oh, Rongotai.) I finally discovered what it's like to really play as part of a team and loved every minute of it. I had a drum solo in prizegiving. I had my progress in singing validated by both my singing teacher and my music teacher. I rocked a song that the day before the concert I had been having trouble singing in key. And in a less active role, I saw my first show on Broadway.
I met an amazing group of people in digital_dive: New friends, new family practically, new love. And I reconnected with an old friend and family I hadn't seen in at most ten years, at least five.
I became a filmmaker. I put the work into making a film and loved doing (some of) it, even though it meant practically living in a computer lab. And then I did it again.
I guess what I learned in 2008 is not to overstretch myself. Fourteen extracurriculars, was it? And then there was Dive and my responsibilities there. And I had a tendency to put school last, so at the end of the year I was stressed and tired and starving and undersocialized. I'd like a bit less of that. So I guess that's my resolution for 2009: Know thy limits.
Yours (I'm looking at you, nix_the_fish and ladycariad) can be to stop fighting to buy me the gayest presents. Seriously. :P
Stolen from chickwith_stick: First sentences of the month, go.
January: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
February: So, uh.
March: ...How is it that I end up selling biscuits right next door to Out in the Square, aka Wellington's gay/lesbian fair, and therefore can't actually go?
April: Merit on my science test (on electro-magnetic radiation and sound), yatta!
May: Ten years ago I lived in Michigan, so a weekend trip to Canada (Niagara Falls) made perfect sense.
June: I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull today.
July: It got to that stage on Monday.
August: So today I went to a grand total of four classes, wrote by hand in a grand total of one, and partially failed at sports/cultural photos.
September: irish_pylon did not, as I had feared, get eaten by a tropical storm.
October: WATTERS WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? WINNERS OF TAYLORFEST 2008 WOOHOO
November: Please talk me out of rickrolling the seventh form message board as my own personal seventh form prank.
December: Here's a meme, there's a meme, and another little meme.
Maybe I should do this meme with subject lines, as when there is stuff happening in my life I enjoy using the subject line to talk about something completely different from what's in the entry.
And in other news, looking at my online offer of study is slightly discouraging because of the red "Decision pending" on my Latin papers and the message to go see the classics department about it. Given exam results aren't out until mid-January I knew this was coming, but the red text makes it loom a bit more. (Although that said, the classics site says you should enrol in 213 if you've done Level 2... Huh.) And naturally the fees are higher than I expected, whoops. Forgot about all the fees for things that aren't classes or books or instrumental tuition.
And so in the end, I spent the year turnover rocking out Living on a Prayer instead of counting down or being introspective like I tend to.
Looking back on 2007, I remember the bad. It's not that there was a lot of it, it's just that the two major bads were particularly bad bads (and had bad spinoffs). And then I made things worse by wallowing in it to the point that I was suicidal. Without looking at my LJ or anything, I can only remember two good things that happened that year (the Opera House, and Nicola's birthday party).
But towards the end of the year or at the start of last, my mindset must have shifted back towards cute happy hyper Caryl, because looking back on 2008? I remember the good. It's the bad that I have to struggle to recall. And last year the bad was more stress, pressure, boredom (hunger, sleeplessness) than the rejection and worthlessness of 2007.
So 2008 was a good year.
I recovered from 2007. Except my self confidence, but I still just go for things despite thinking that I suck at whatever it is. I accepted things, let them go, realized they were for the best.
I had a lot of musical growth last year as well. I learned the drums, the timpani, the tambourine, and the triangle. I apparently grew some piano writing skills. I auditioned for a show with a ridiculously hard song a capella on the verge of a cold and got in, and proceeded to help throw the show together in the space of two and a half weeks. (Oh, Rongotai.) I finally discovered what it's like to really play as part of a team and loved every minute of it. I had a drum solo in prizegiving. I had my progress in singing validated by both my singing teacher and my music teacher. I rocked a song that the day before the concert I had been having trouble singing in key. And in a less active role, I saw my first show on Broadway.
I met an amazing group of people in digital_dive: New friends, new family practically, new love. And I reconnected with an old friend and family I hadn't seen in at most ten years, at least five.
I became a filmmaker. I put the work into making a film and loved doing (some of) it, even though it meant practically living in a computer lab. And then I did it again.
I guess what I learned in 2008 is not to overstretch myself. Fourteen extracurriculars, was it? And then there was Dive and my responsibilities there. And I had a tendency to put school last, so at the end of the year I was stressed and tired and starving and undersocialized. I'd like a bit less of that. So I guess that's my resolution for 2009: Know thy limits.
Yours (I'm looking at you, nix_the_fish and ladycariad) can be to stop fighting to buy me the gayest presents. Seriously. :P
Stolen from chickwith_stick: First sentences of the month, go.
January: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
February: So, uh.
March: ...How is it that I end up selling biscuits right next door to Out in the Square, aka Wellington's gay/lesbian fair, and therefore can't actually go?
April: Merit on my science test (on electro-magnetic radiation and sound), yatta!
May: Ten years ago I lived in Michigan, so a weekend trip to Canada (Niagara Falls) made perfect sense.
June: I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull today.
July: It got to that stage on Monday.
August: So today I went to a grand total of four classes, wrote by hand in a grand total of one, and partially failed at sports/cultural photos.
September: irish_pylon did not, as I had feared, get eaten by a tropical storm.
October: WATTERS WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? WINNERS OF TAYLORFEST 2008 WOOHOO
November: Please talk me out of rickrolling the seventh form message board as my own personal seventh form prank.
December: Here's a meme, there's a meme, and another little meme.
Maybe I should do this meme with subject lines, as when there is stuff happening in my life I enjoy using the subject line to talk about something completely different from what's in the entry.
And in other news, looking at my online offer of study is slightly discouraging because of the red "Decision pending" on my Latin papers and the message to go see the classics department about it. Given exam results aren't out until mid-January I knew this was coming, but the red text makes it loom a bit more. (Although that said, the classics site says you should enrol in 213 if you've done Level 2... Huh.) And naturally the fees are higher than I expected, whoops. Forgot about all the fees for things that aren't classes or books or instrumental tuition.