2024-12-28; 12:15AM
Let's all rest; we deserve it!
Hey! Sorry, this is a long one.
It's been a few weeks since I last updated this. I think my last blog post was something frantic about finals. Anyway, thats over now. 6 hours of back-to-back testing in one day (with another 6 spread out over the rest of the week) was a drag, but I'm here now and it's all good.
I really can't believe that we're almost through another year. As I get older, a single year represents an increasingly smaller portion of my life, but it amazes me how much can happen in that once segment of time.
I'm roughly 1/3 of the way through my degree, I've done so many new things with my friends, I've had my depressive moments here and there, but all of it is behind me now.
A year of your life can seem so intimidating to begin right? We might set ourselves up for failure with tacky resolutions every New-Years, and then set our resolve to make it another 365 days. It might not feel like much is happening, but then you look back and you can't help but smile. At least I can't, its hard to deny that I've had fun this year. Maybe I've grown too, but I think that maybe 2025 is going to be okay too.
2024 has been the year that I've really started to materialize my freedom. For context, my high-school years were in the middle of the pandemic, so a not-insignificant chunk of my high school experience occurred between the four walls of my bedroom. Not to say that it wasn't fun at times, I just missed out on a lot of socializing and going places.
This year that really changed. I have my Driver's License, and have been lucky enough to find time to explore. I've driven up mountains, through deserts, along the coast of my home city, with my friends, alone. I've hiked trails that I've always been curious about, climbed a mountain with my girlfriend, and recently went to a cabin with some friends for a few days.
I used to lay in bed every afternoon listening to music, imagining the days when lockdown would end and I could do these things. It's not quite how I imagined it then, but that isn't a bad thing.
I want to remember some of my favorite moments this year. I'll leave them here as a memorial to 2024, I don't know.
Favorite moments:
I got my girlfriend into hiking, we hiked a local mountain. It took all morning and we were exhausted, but we got to kiss at the top of it.
My best friend moved to Arizona a while ago, he came back to visit and we went camping. We took turns on his guitar as the sun went down and we were swarmed with bugs.
I went camping alone for a night; my breakfast was interrupted by a herd of wild turkeys passing through my camp.
Me and some friends rented a cabin in the mountains; the plans were shaky but I think everyone had a good time. We explored the local town, hiked around a lake just before sunset, and roasted beef franks over an open flame.
My friend and I camped in the desert; it was my first time doing that since I was a kid.
I got to go to a Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert. If you think that's already cool, they opened with Cortez the Killer and it broke me.
My girlfriend and I got to see the snow last winter in the local mountains; it was so cold my toes went numb.
Some friends and I spend the afternoon at a lake south of the city. It was so tranquil, and I wasn't even sure if we were supposed to be there.
When I was in the Sierras with my family, I got up early one morning to hike up a section of the PCT alone. As I scaled the switch backs, the trees dropped below me; I was alone on the bare windy face of the mountain.
Through all of the stress that my university gives me, it has a perfect autumn sunset every now and then.
I saw a wild toad.
My girlfriend and I got to see the snow last winter in the local mountains; it was so cold my toes went numb.
This is nowhere near everything I did this year. I'm amazed I got so much done, too. I'm in a better place now than I was at the start of the year, and that makes me hopeful. If 2025 is as fun as 2024, I think thinks will be alright after all.
If you don't think your year was exciting, look back on it. Find some happiness. There is so much out there in life, both good and bad, but I think all of it is worthwhile.
Merry Christmas, happy New Year, and happy holidays beyond that! Sorry this was such a long thing, and I'm sure there are typos here and there, but bear with me haha.