in retrospect...

this is incredible. another year is about to come to a screeching halt just for another one to seamlessly pick up in its place. i feel like a completely different person from who i was in january. last year at this time, i was looking forward to a new year's eve with a man i didn't ever love, holding onto something that wasn't healthy and should have ended a long time before it finally did. this year i am spending new year's eve with my very best friends, and i am looking forward to it. i thought that it would be more fun to go to a "real party," but i am truly looking forward to spending the evening with my favorite girls. let's take a little look-see at my own version of "best year ever" :-P

january - finally ended things with "stupidface" after letting it get way too drawn-out and retarded. spent lots of time with some new friends, with whom i played lots of euchre and stayed out late. started new classes--a much easier semester than the previous.
february - abundant life winter extravaganza. that was certainly a fun night; more staying out late with my euchre-playing friends. underneath being ok this weird anger against previous relationship mounted as i realized how retarded the whole thing was.
march - wrote some angry posts...should probably delete those. don't remember anything specifically except that i started to hang out with people during musical stage.
april - chorale tour to florida. i have the greatest friends. tour was awesome.
may - another school year over. major frustrations moving myself out and barely fitting everything in my huge-tastic car! started at coldstone again.
june - andrea and jesse got married. met a guy at their wedding--knew it wouldn't work out and that i wasn't extremely attracted to him, but i love new things and pursued it. also went on vacation with the family to the british virgin islands, which, looking back, was lots of fun. it was very beautiful, but i will never go without a friend ever again.
july - working. i can't remember anything else.
august - finally exited my teenage years! spent some time with dad. led music at camp for the first time. it was amazingly fun. went to chicago with dad, doug, and james, which was also a lot of fun. moved back into school.
september/october - i am horrible at working a lot and getting all my schoolwork done. thankfully my hours got knocked down after the first few weeks. voice lessons start being more and more fun. realized i have grown up a bit over the summer and started to get annoyed with the roomie. began to freak out about my recital coming up. also started eating lunch with all my new friends. i love them! fall break - went to cincinnati and on the way stopped for an osu game with steinke! hooked for life. also, it's nice to have the wife to talk about all kinds of life lessons with. i love her.
november - started hanging out more with all of my new friends! movie nights, dinners, lunches, oh i love them. i finally feel like i have a group who likes me and i really like them, and i like spending time with them, and they're great. hurrah. seriously. seriously. :-)
december - an eventful month. had a fantastic girls' night with some amazing ladies and went to formal with the crew. decided to move out of the dorm into an apartment on campus. which was the best decision ever. ended up with a B- in theory (a miracle!!!) and various types of A's in other classes. this was my best fall semester ever. i ended up with about a 3.75ish gpa. my favorite.
my recital was also in this month, and it went really well. it was a lot of fun, and i can't wait to start preparing for my next one. i moved this month too, into my apartment. it's going to be awesome. i love my new roommate and we are right next door to some of my dearest friends. moving over there was frustrating, as my old roommate didn't feel like she should help me at all and instead just bossed around her poor fiance.
had a christmas caroling gig with some friends (got paid $50 and a nice dinner!) and then went to penn state, to hang out with betsy for a few days. her roommates are really nice, and we had a lot of fun together. got home, went on a "date" with a childhood friend of mine and uh...got thoroughly kissed! then i got strep. haha. but not because i kissed him. felt better just in time for christmas, although i didn't end up being able to sing "o holy night" at church like i got asked to do. next year. now my brother and i are out at my dad and doug's house, and we've just been hanging out, shopping, going out for dinner, etc. i made pierogies while i was here, and dad had some of his friends over for a big pierogie dinner. fun times.


right now, life is good, and i'm hoping for all the best in this new year.