Quite a year

I think that this may be a year I remember for the potential of technology being realized. 2008, a year that lasted 366 days and 1 second included a presidential campaign made possible by the fundraising power of the internet, an Olympics with more hours of broadcast online than on tv, and of course 573 new photos of me tagged on Facebook. We all know which of those three is most important.

Of course, I will remember 2008 as the year I graduated high school and began college. It really was a great year in that respect, as I had the joy of second-semester seniority, a relaxed summer, and a nice transition across the country for school. I would say that I am going to miss 2008, but I don't really see any reason why going forward won't be just as fun. I refuse to be one of those losers who thinks of high school as the best time of their life (props on this thought, Mr. J). Yeah, I will never again have the freedom I have experienced over the past year, as I start an internship in less than two weeks and expect to have a job over the summer from now on, but that's okay. It is the natural evolution of things. I love how easy it is to get together to do stuff at the spur of the moment (which hotforwords needs to do a segment on), thanks to both the technology of text messaging (get on board or be left behind, C) and the flexibility of those I surround myself with.

It was a big year for me personally as well. I feel more at home with my friends than I ever have before. Some of this definitely comes from leaving for school and discovering who I actually missed much. Some of it comes from the changes that have definitely occurred in who I hang out with regularly. These two holiday breaks so far have been pretty amazing, and I am glad that there is a nice group of people who enjoy each other and accept me.

If a year ago you sat me down and told me I would be constantly hanging out with M, seeing this much of R, and actually getting to know C, I probably would have laughed a little and doubted your complete sanity. It's been great peeps, and we should keep it up, mmKay?

It continues to fascinate me how much history people have. Knowing someone at the moment is really a lot different than knowing how they got there, and it often surprises me to hear about that path, even moreso when it comes straight from them. It's a nice change from petty drama to hear some reasonable backstory.

Watching the few '09ers I know make their own adjustments is a lot of fun as well. I think that MV was great for me, and has set me up quite well in terms of education. Seeing younger people who still hate it in the moment, and bond over that fact, makes me a little warm inside. Good to know the place hasn't changed.

Where to go from here? Well up of course. Silly. I have quite a variety of things I want to accomplish in 2009. The one that sits in the forefront of my mind currently is finding out whether or not I can take the grueling situation I have set up for myself next semester. I have always thought I liked being under pressure and now we'll see whether or not that is true in the long term. If it's not, it could throw quite a wrench in the works of my life plan.

I wanted to learn how to straight razor shave but I think I am going to put that off for some time when I have more money sitting around. Had not realized how expensive all that crap is! I'll substitute in the most cliché of resolutions and say I want to keep my weight. New Years Morning: 159.0. Good luck to me on that. Ugh, should have eaten more last night to artificially raise it, haha.

My main non-professional goal is to keep up the friendships I have right now as well as develop new ones. As my new (technology reigns supreme once again) friend S mentioned, it is a daunting thing to talk to people you have seen around a lot but never had any sort of a real interaction with. That's something I need to get over post-haste and get to know the interesting people who I come in contact with. That all is less important than maintaining what I have now. This might be the first year where I am happier with what I have in terms of friends than what I could have. Cool.

S, I'm glad you have been enjoying our random conversations. They have been a nice release and I'm glad you like them and don't find them creepy. It's been fun for me too, and hopefully that will continue. If you can ignore the promiscuity of the host, you'll probably love the hotforwords link above.

I can't believe people are already starting to pack up and leave to go back to school. I haven't seen some of you enough, but have seen everybody at least a little bit (I think!).

Anyone who is thinking about coming out to the east coast to visit this semester should make sure to keep me updated. Whether or not you come to DC, it's pretty easy for me to move around to other big cities on the right coast, so keep me in the loop, k?

Oh, and I can't decide whether I like the whole first-letter way of referring to people on here. It alternately pisses me off and makes me giggle. Whatever.

I didn't quite hit a thousand words, so don't complain about this being long and wandering. Deal with the non-cohesiveness.