a.[carolena]

Year in Review

If 2010 was my year of adventure, 2011 was my year of accomplishment.  I am so proud of last year and happy to see that my 20s are off to a really incredible start.  Here it is…

January:

I turned 22!  And that night was a total crazy mess during which I drank way too much of way too many things and somehow ended up losing my purse and my phone and hanging out the door of a moving taxi (none of which I remember).

February:

Looking back at my Tumblr, it seems that I studied the entire month.  I believe it. 

March:

Spring break Mediterranean cruise with Alex!  It was a dream.  We went to Barcelona, Morocco (Casablanca and Agadir), Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira, and Gibraltar where I met the monkeys. Love love love.  Experience of a lifetime.

April:

Another study month.  For some reason that is beyond me I took an unprecedented TWENTY THREE credits during spring quarter and it nearly killed me.  I got some pretty outstanding news in April however…I was awarded two academic scholarships for the 2011-2012 school year that covered my entire tuition + some expenses!  Holla.

May:

May was another really phenomenal month.  I got the internship at Rick Steves, I bought a car, I went to Oklahoma for Jordan’s graduation, I was rehired at the Space Needle for their summer season.  

June: 

In June I finished my Junior year and ended spring quarter (yea..the one with 23 credits) with all 4.0s!  This month was also full of work and road trips and baseball. Alex and I took a day trip to Portland and ate at the food trucks and went to OMSI.

July:

More work, more road trips.  Plus this month we went camping!  This plus the Prius completed my transformation into a Northwestern girl.  Also Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 came out and we had a party and it was also sad.  And sometime in July Kas and I went to Capitol Hill block party and drank way too much and watched TV on the Radio.

August:

We went camping with my friends Stacey and Angela at Kalaloch and some idiot backed in to the Prius.  We saw Manchester Orchestra (and others) at the End Summer Camp.  Also Jordan came to vist for the first time in the four years I’ve lived here!

September: 

I ended the summer with a bang.  First, my parents drove their RV to Seattle and let Alex and I tag along with them down the west coast.  We went through Crater Lake and the Redwood Forest and ended up in gorgeous San Francisco.  Then, in the days before we had to return to school, Kas and I took over Las Vegas and drank our way through 4 days of sunny bliss and Pauly D sightings plus loads of laughs and losing things and Peep Show with Holly Madison.  We got home the night before Fall quarter started.

October:

I was sick for most of the month somehow.  But I also got started (and fell in love with) working at Rick Steves’ Europe.  Kas and I had a Halloween party.

November:

November started off as a particularly difficult month.  However! mid-month Alex and I headed off to Florida to the WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER which immediately made everything better (everything except returning to reality…)  Then I got to go home for Thanksgiving which is sort of a rarity and my whole family was there at some point or another.

December: 

In December I somehow magically pulled my grades out despite a rough ending to the quarter.  I also interviewed for and was offered the internship (which I start on Monday) at Seattle Met Magazine.  I spent Christmas with the Warps and then rang in the New Year during my family’s skiing vacation in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico.

So that is that!  I, again, had one of the best years to date and I feel very accomplished and productive.  There were lots of difficult and stressful moments, but looking back I truly remember the good times most.  I also changed my hair in 2011, so maybe I’ll do that again this year.  haha.  I feel like I’ve set myself up for a good 2012 and I cannot wait to see what is in store for me.  I graduate June 9th, and after that who knows?!  So au revoir 2011!  Thank you for being so good to me.