Bottled Ponderings: A Year in Review

Hi, friends!

I'm back with the second half of my 2019 reflection. The second half of the year was far more action packed, so I'll hop right into it.

July was another favorite month, and one I'm proud of because I managed to leave the house every day in July. For those of you who know me, I tend to choose staying home over leaving the house, but I left my house over 31 times in a month and it wasn't for school! It started with seeing Spiderman: Far From Home with a bunch of friends, and it's one of my favorite Marvel movies. That night, I pulled an all-nighter with my brother and a few of our friends. We watched movies and played board games all night then we went to Panera when it opened. Initially we had no intention of pulling an all-nighter, but we realized at three in the morning that we were hungry and nothing opened for another three hours. We would have to wait and obviously that was the more logical option than getting a snack from the pantry then going to bed. I celebrated the Fourth of July with family and friends the day after I turned sixteen! I continued t-ball lessons and babysat plenty. I volunteered at our church's Vacation Bible School, which is my favorite week of the year. Last year I was in the kitchen and loved it beyond belief. This year I was assigned the job of the leader the sixth grade girls. I grew very close with a few of them. I love those girls to death. The week after VBS, my cousin flew into town and came with us on our week long cabin trip. The cabin where we stay is near the lake and away from wifi, so our trip was very relaxing. I absolutely love being in nature, it opens up the mind and imagination and I always return with my creative spark reignited. July flew by but every day was a new adventure (and sometimes more than one!). Looking back at my July journal entries always makes me smile.

August seemed slower than ever and was filled with all of the summer homework I had put off in June and July. I hung out with friends a few times, went to a few parks, got my junior year schedule, and the excitement for the school year grew more than ever. I came home from school on the first day beaming and overflowing with joy and excitement; my teacher and classes this year are fascinating. I've had a wonderful time thus far. I knew from the first day that junior year would be my favorite, so far it's proven to be true. School occupied my last half of August but I loved it so much that it wasn't a pain at all.

In September I was inducted into my schools chapter of the National Honor Society, threw a surprise party for my brothers eighteenth birthday (which proved very successful; perks of being a quiet, private person), started up some fall frisbee practices, joined art club, and visited my friends at one of their tennis matches. I was selected to join the servants team for the junior high youth group at our church. Our opening night was exciting. I also attended the Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome and celebrated the first birthday of a good friends sweet little brother. September was homecoming for my school. While I didn't attend the dance, I had a good time participating in our theme days (the theme was time periods this year, 80's day was my absolute favorite). I also attended the homecoming football game with my friends. That's saying a lot for someone who is not particularly a football fan.

October began with four and a half hours of homework in one night. What a joy. But all was set right the next day when I talked my frisbee team into cutting practice short to get ice cream. I went to plenty more football games as well as some of my brothers' cross country meets, celebrated a friends birthday, babysat a crazy ton, and helped run a toiletry drive at my school. I went to an AJR concert with my brother and his friends as a late birthday gift to the former, and it was amazing. I only got into AJR because of my brother, but after coming home from the concert I had their music on repeat. It's not the normal genre I listen to but I really do like it. My friend and I spent the last ten minutes of lunch for a week straight trying to learn how to tie a tie. I don't know that we ever mastered it but we got pretty close. It took plenty of help from Google, other friends/students and teachers who were passing by. In the last weekend of October, I had my junior retreat with my religion class. I love all of the girls in my class dearly (and yes, our class consists of only girls so you can imagine how fun it is) so those 24 hours with them brought me so much joy. The goal of the retreat was to bond as a class and oh my goodness did we bond! We all left retreat radiating more joy, love, and respect for one another than ever before, everyone was sharing hugs and laughs and it was wonderful. There isn't a week that passes by where someone doesn't sigh something like, "I miss retreat, I wish we could go back" at least once. Our senior retreat has a reputation for being a better version of junior retreat and an inspirational experience, so you can bet we are all dreaming of the day we get to attend.

November flew by. I was here on the blog for a good chunk of the month, although I don't know that I really documented all of the events that went on. My Novembers always start with my schools service day which I look forward to every year. My friend started coming to art club with me and it's now a tradition; I think I mentioned it in a previous post. I hung out with friends quite a lot in the first half of November, and in mid-November I'm sure you will recall that we had family in town. One of my friends organized a praise and worship session during one of our religion classes. We went down to the chapel and sang while she played her guitar. Those moments are so raw and beautiful, we all end up holding hands or hugging and just appreciating the community and friendships we've been so blessed with. In November I watched the Netflix adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (called Anne With An E) and fell madly in love with it. It was cancelled mere weeks after I got into it and I'm incredibly upset; I love the show so very much. The third season has yet to be released so the cancellation before the release was unexpected. I would highly recommend it although it's not entirely accurate to the book. I love it just the same. A warning though, it does portray some themes that may not be super friendly to young kids, but for the most part it's very sweet. Anne With an E aside (although is it really a blog post from me if I don't ramble about a current obsession?), November was really lovely.

And here we are in December. This month was filled with board games, books, and walks. My study hall discovered a deck of Uno cards and every day we have a couple of intense games. It's always a good laugh. I started tutoring at my school (as in I am the tutor), prepared for exams, and had a Secret Santa gift exchange with the girls at my lunch table. There was plenty of Christmas preparation, from gift buying to cookie making, decorating, and Christmas itself. I spent the first few days of Christmas break going out with friends; we went to our schools basketball game to see my friends boyfriend who plays, went ice skating, got plenty of food, played board games, and watched a Hallmark movie. If you have my mom on Facebook, you might have seen her post about how noisy we were during the movie. It was a miserably cheesy movie, but I find that watching bad movies with friends is more entertaining than watching good ones. I'm writing this just before I leave to watch the new Little Women movie, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of thoughts to share afterward (update it's been two days since I've seen it and I genuinely have not stopped thinking about the movie since. I loved it with my whole heart and I'll try to scribble down some thoughts to share another time)

And that's a wrap on 2019! 2020 already has so much in store; on the horizon I have ACT prep, frisbee season, a school retreat & other activities to plan, an AP test and Spanish test to prepare for, a couple of friends coming to visit, and countless other events, big and small. It's been a good year & decade, and the next one is already looking bright. I hope 2019 has been as kind to you as it has been to me, and that 2020 is filled with joy and blessings. Happy New Year!