Looking Back on 2016.

   A lot of things can happen in a year. 365 days is plenty of time to meet new people, start new jobs, do something crazy and take adventures. 12 months is a lot of time to say goodbye to old friends, grow apart from the ones you love, begin new things alone, do something crazy, and be adventurous. Like I said, a lot of things can happen in a year. It's what you take from those experiences, is what counts the most.

    My favorite part of ending a year, is looking back on all the memories I've made throughout the year, good or bad. Timelines are the best way to do that:

JANUARY

   The first weekend in January, I attended a wonderful worship conference for college students (and high school seniors, which I was) called PASSION. I learned a lot about myself and how to better build my relationship with the Lord. It was a cold, yet wonderful weekend filled with laughter and tears and good food and great music. It was so good, I lost my voice! 😂

   About the third week of January, while everybody minding their own business around the house, the power went out suddenly. Everyone was confused, and when one of us walked by the door to the backyard, we realized that there was a FIRE that had started! A fire started on one of our electrical boxes in the backyard, which caused a lot of surrounding houses to lose power as well. I was in charge of calling 911 and lemme tell you, that was a scary phone call. The fire department showed up and put out the fire, and the electric company gave us our power back after a few hours. We were just glad that nobody was hurt, and that the fire didn't get near the house. Grateful for God's protection in that situation!

   The end of January brought my very last Disciple Now weekend with my youth group. (It's a weekend spent with youth kids your age and gender to grow together and with the Lord.) They changed it up this year and instead of only staying with girls from my age group (there were just two of us), they did a mix of the girls from all high school grades in one house, and all middle school mixed in another house, separated by gender. It was one of the most enjoyable D-Now weekends I had experienced! I loved the girls I got to spend the weekend with and the leader we had, and all the things I learned that weekend. We even got to cook a meal and give it to a firefighting station, which was a blessing to them as well as to us!

FEBRUARY

   I spend my 17th Valentine's Day single. But who's counting, right? ;)

   I had a wonderful church friend take my SENIOR PICTURES! One of the things I was most looking forward to during the senior year (aside from graduating, of course) and Miss Neely NAILED it. I was in love with the photos!

The end of February brought the Netflix series of Fuller House--the Full House sequel show. Which brought me at watching the entire season twice within a span of 3 days. No regrets, y'all. No regrets.

MARCH

   A week before my birthday, I went to the DMV and took my driving test and got my license. We were worried that because I was still 17, I'd have to go back on my 18th birthday to change over the information that said that I was 18 and all the driving privileges that came along with it would be allowed. But the lady at the desk was very helpful and friendly and said that because it would take a while for my hardcopy license to come in the mail, because I was only a few days early on the 18 part, she would let it slide, as long as I kept all the under 18 driving rules until then. I happily agreed as I drove home, and then took my little car on a ride without anybody else with me. It was a very exciting day.

   I celebrated my 18th birthday a day early with a backwards birthday party, complete with a tiered upside-down cake and backwards hide-n-seek (so technically I turned 81) and an obstacle course. I loved the time I spent with friends and the laughter that was shared while everyone attempted to eat spaghetti with any kitchen appliance/utensil EXCEPT a regular plate and fork (it was hilarious to say the least).

teams of the obstacle course: winners on the right, losers on the left!

   I celebrated my 18th birthday with a car crash involving my tiny white car and a city bus and a 2-yo brother in the backseat, topped off with my first driving ticket. One of the most memorable birthdays, that's for sure haha! But going out to eat for lunch afterwards helped, as well as napping and using the adult coloring books I got (I was 18...which makes me an adult with makes it okay), and having my best friend stop by later to make sure I was okay. So while it started rough, it turned out pretty alright. And I'm thankful every day for the Lord's protection on me and my little car (even though my little Petunia had to go to the shop).

APRIL

after 2nd accident ↓

  Not even a month after my first car accident, I got into a second one. I completely totaled my car and forbid myself to drive for a looooong time. Thankfully, I hit a pastor from a church here in town so he was much more forgiving than the bus driver, and the police officer had compassion on me and didn't issue a driving ticket. But it was a very traumatic experience that I won't ever forget. I even got battle wounds (busted chin and smoke in the lungs from the airbag deploy).

   Later that month, I was asked to prom by my best friend! (Thanks, Elijah)

 MAY

   I got to celebrate National Star Wars Day (May 4) with a birthday girl (Kassidy is already cool for having her birthday on Star Wars day...I wish I was that cool). That exact same day, I also attended my senior prom. I rode around in a limousine, wore a pretty teal dress and heels that were too high, took a hundred pictures that ended up getting corrupted when I tried looking at them on the phone (BOOO), ate banquet food that was actually good, danced my socks off (even though I wasn't wearing socks), and went to a sick after-party in converse where orange juice and pancakes were served, and had one of the coolest nights of my life.

   I graduated from high school. 12 years of schooling and I finished. I walked down the isle in a pink graduation gown and a sparkly tassel, sang worship songs, watched slideshows of childhood-adolescence, said a speech (I'm homeschooled and everyone was their own valedictorian, it's all good), walked the stage and tossed my mortarboard. I graduated high school. I can't believe it happened and I'm so glad that it did.

   Along with graduating high school, I also performed in my last spring play. I portrayed the person that was Betsie ten Boom, sister of the Jewish concentration camp survivor, Corrie ten Boom. We reenacted the story of the sisters' lives in the Hiding Place, and for the first time in my little actress life, I got to use a blood capsule on stage on both my chest and in my mouth to "cough up blood" (fake blood tastes horrible btw), and died on stage. I skipped a few lines and messed up a few times, but apparently nobody noticed except my drama teacher and the actors I shared the scenes with, so we all good (you'll never know the details...muahahaha).

   To end the month, I started a temporary job for lady who attends my church. She was/is a clothing boutique owner and was going out of town for a week or so, and asked me to step in and do her job while she was gone. Translation: I owned a clothing store for a week. It was a pretty neat experience and I learned a lot!

JUNE

   Summer began! Meaning no school, hip hip hooray!

   I spent the night in the parking lot of a Chick-fil-A the night before it opened, in order to gain the amazing privileges that are having free Chick-fil-A sandwiches for an entire year (it's bomb, y'all).

   I accompanied my mother as we traveled to Houston for a weekend to welcome a new little baby into the extended family: Nova Grace. She was a precious little babe and everybody agrees with me!

   I came up with the brilliant idea to create a summer bucket list. I came up with a list of all the fun things that I wanted to do throughout the summer, along with a little box to check them off when they were completed! (I completed all on my list except 15 I believe? To have 50+ items on the list...that's pretty impressive).

JULY

   I attended my very last summer camp as a student at Louisiana Tech University through Student Life. Also gained a pretty stellar hoodie/sweatshirt while there that I happen to wear like every 2 days...even if it's 80 degrees outside.

AUGUST

   My family took a huge family vacation to Pennsylvania and New York. We visited the Liberty Bell, saw the Statue of Liberty, ate Philly cheesesteaks in Philadelphia and ate NYC pizza in the Big Apple. We had a blast and took a bazillion photos. Also got frustrated with the subway system in New York once or twice but let's be honest here, who doesn't?

   At the end of the month, I started my first semester in college. If you would've asked me in March if I was attending college, my answer would have been "I have no idea". If you had asked me in June if I was excited about starting college, I would've said "not sure". But surprisingly, by the time that the first day showed up, I was a little excited. Attending community college of course, but it was still an exciting experience. College was not something I had ever thought I would wanna do, but the idea was starting to settle in.

   About the same time that the new semester started, I started teaching middle school girls on Sunday mornings at church. My youth pastor (former...now that I'm graduated...woah) started a different system of having grades mixed into classrooms, separated by gender and middle school/high school. Then he asked for teachers, and since I was an assistant (not really...I never really had a person to assist) during senior year, he asked if I wanted to continue as a real leader/teacher. We would meet on Tuesday nights for a bible study that would help us go over the topics/scriptures we were teaching that Sunday. It was a neat experience, but a tough one! Teaching middle school girls that have little attention spans and with little experience myself, it's interesting to say the least haha.

SEPTEMBER

   I tried buying a Volkswagen beetle car off Craigslist two separate times and ended up getting scammers instead of legit sellers (we found out they were scamming before buying the car though so it's okay). That week was emotional cuz I *really* liked those bugs..oh well.

   My cousin proposed to his girlfriend which means that I'll have a COUSIN-IN-LAW (still working on the name) come summer 2017! This doesn't really have a lot to do with me...but it was exciting news.

   I helped the homeschool group with their dance class as an alumni dance teacher. A weird concept for me because just 4 months earlier I was still a student. Time flies and my heart's still not completely ready for it all.

OCTOBER

   It took a while, but we finally found a Volkswagen bug that wasn't a scam and wasn't extremely expensive. SO I BOUGHT MYSELF A CAR. A VOLKSWAGEN. Which is my absolute favorite car on the entire planet, so it's a big deal for me. The Lord blessed me with this little chunk of metal with wheels and I'm so grateful that He did. After what I'd been through earlier in the year with driving, 3 months later, and I'm still in love with the little car. (still don't have a name for it so if you have ideas, I'm open to suggestions)

   I went to a Halloween party with some friends from college (I HAVE COLLEGE FRIENDS. I FEEL COOL) and dressed as "When life gives you lemons.." complete with a shirt that said "life" and I handed out lemons to people that seemed to be having a bad day. It was a fun time!

   The night of Halloween, I had homeschool friends (I may be in college, but I still have high school buddies. Don't judge. I have no shame!) over to eat gross food and play silly games and even watch a movie (Jaws). We had a blast and even though my witch finger pizza slices didn't turn out how I wanted them to, it looked like the rest of the group had fun. And watching Jaws with homeschoolers who haven't seen it before is pretty interesting.

NOVEMBER

   Being newly 18 (well...9 months in), I got to participate in my very first election, which also happened to be a presidential election. Though the candidates weren't ideal, it was still fun and memorable to be able to vote for myself! Watching my parents do it for as long as I can remember made it not very strange or unfamiliar, but it was still odd going in without a parent and place the votes for myself and my opinion. I felt like a very empowered young woman walking out of that building with my little sticker. (To keep this post non-political, I won't share who I voted for. You're welcome.)

   I got to be a photographer of Spiritfest, which is a huge Christian music festival that comes to town in November. With a daddy that works in radio, he has connections, and he got me hooked up to be one of the official photographers for the festival that day. (A funny story is that the day before this festival, I misplaced my camera battery charger, and I used my camera that evening to shoot for a dance, and the battery died halfway during the evening! I had to drive to Best Buy early that Saturday morning to get a new battery charger before heading to a math class, before heading to the music festival. It wasn't a very funny story at the time, but it's funny to laugh at now!) One of the best moments that day was getting to be on stage with both For King + County AND Newsboys while they were performing, and when shooting the pictures for one of the bands, the lead singer looked over at me and smiled! And  I got it on camera! It was a pretty epic moment for my little photographer self.

   I had a super fun time during Thanksgiving with cousins as us older girls dressed up all pretty and drove down to the Botanical Gardens up in Beaumont to take pictures and laugh til our tummies hurt. (a preview of some of those pictures can be found here.)

DECEMBER

   I had my first set of finals. I think I survived, but I died that week cuz of the stress.

   I finished my first semester of college. I realized that the only friends that I made during that semester (that were in my classes) were guys. There were 4 of them. I also realized that of those 4 guys that I became friends with, 2 of them were only friends with me because they needed help with assignments + homework (laaaaaame), 1 was only a friend because he thought I was pretty (I lied and told him I had a boyfriend cuz he wouldn't stop flirting with me. It was a weird friendship). And 1 of them was a real friend who didn't need anything from me, but we were just pals.

   I watched my big brother graduate from community college. I cried like 4 times during that ceremony. I'm one proud little sister!

   The same night he graduated, we all loaded up and went straight from the auditorium to the movie theater to watch the new Star Wars movie. Rogue One was amazing. I recommend it to anybody who likes Star Wars even a little bit. You won't be disappointed!

   The same weekend that Jonathan graduated from college, the city of Corpus Christi found that our water system was contaminated and not safe to use in any way. No washing dishes, no showering, definitely no consumption. It was a strange weekend. During that weekend, we (my immediate family + the extended family that came to town to see Jonathan graduate) all spent the weekend in Mathis, an outside city of Corpus Christi, at a friend's lakehouse. It was a tiny little house for 27 of us, but it was memorable! We watched movies and drank hot chocolate and had a secret Santa gift exchange. Some of us even used the paddle boats and fishing nets that were there and had a blast there!

   We spent the weekend of Christmas in shorts + fans on because it was 70-80 degrees in central Texas, where we were staying with family. The day of Christmas I forgot to pack my guitar in my mom's car before she left to the Lutheran church 30 minutes away, where we were planning on singing Christmas carols as a family. I didn't realize that it wasn't in the car until after I got there, so in between eating lunch and singing, my cousin and I drove 30 minutes back to her house to grab my guitar, and drive 30 minutes back to get there roughly 20 minutes late. I don't think anybody noticed (but now anybody that was there will all know cuz they're reading this). I played 2 Christmas songs on my guitar successfully (I was nervous), so that was an accomplishment

   *if you're reading this with any children you have that are under the age of 12, stop now and make them go away* Exactly after we finished singing Christmas carols, Jonathan and I rushed over to where we ate lunch and changed into Mr. + Mrs. Claus. Every family brings prewrapped gifts for their kids and put it in a big bag, and then they have 2 people portray Santa + Mrs. Claus so that the kids can get presents from Santa himself on Christmas Day. It's a fun tradition that Jonathan and I have loved to dress up together and do (our second time)! *you can bring your children back now.. it's safe*

   A lot can happen in a year. I went through a lot of change this year. I graduated from high school, attended many of my last youth events, watched good friends move away, started college, gained few friends, worked many jobs, lost and gained a car, and went through many traumatic experiences. But I've grown so much in the past 365 days, I can't even tell you. I'm a completely different person now than I was a year ago, and for the better. I learned new things, about myself, about others, about the Lord. I grew as a person, and I'm happy about it. I regret some things, but glad others happened. I've been shaped. I can go into this new year with a new outlook on life that I didn't have 12 months ago. I hope that this next year brings many more challenges and adventures and exciting things and things that make me nervous because I still want to grow. Just because I became an adult doesn't mean I can't continue to grow. Maybe it means I won't have to buy bigger shoes, but maybe I'll have to buy new ones because I've worn out this pair with all the experiences I walk through in 2017. I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow brings.