Sparkly Puff Paint

Really has nothing to do with this post. I just really like the way it looks when it dries....Anyways, it's New Years Eve (as you probably well know) and boy has it been "one of those years". Quite seriously I've been up and down this year and next year is going to be a big one considering I'm graduating from college and will be moving on to the next stage of my life.

This year I managed once again to avoid getting a "real" 9 to 5 job. I kept working in the lab for the rest of the school year and once summer rolled around I was able to take on an intern spot and work 40 hours a week. Sounds like 9 to 5, but it really isn't. The summer was awesome because I got to travel a lot up and down the coast which is always fun. And even though it meant having to get up butt early in the morning (how butt early is between me and anyone who asks....ok 3 am) I still had tons of fun frolicking around the tide pools in all kinds of weather. We worked through rain, sunshine, and even some freaky nice coast weather. There was also plenty of opportunity to battle waves during coastal transect days, a super fun time that I was everyone could have a chance to do simply because it so much fun. Coastal transect involves driving to a bunch of different spots along the coast, taking water samples with a crazy long sampling pole, and filtering water all while trying to fend off crazies like beach combers, old guys walking their dogs, and surfers. Good times though.

After a year and a half hiatus from the realtionship world I started dating again. We all know how that turned out so I won't go into it in detail, but I can say that it was good to know that I was still capable of being in a relationship. Damn scary at times, and super frustrating at others but I'm glad that I did it. Super glad. Learned a lot about myself and what I want from someone in my life and even what I want from my friends. Yay for all my friends!

As for the other stuff in my life, I feel like I"m coming to better terms of what I believe in, what's important to me to accomplish as a human being, and especially how I can effect the world around me. Just coming to grips with my belief system has been an immensely empowering experience. It's also been a year of learning to trust what I am capable of in terms of my abilities to cope with my life. I'm a lot stronger than I used to be and I think that's come with understanding myself better.

Well now that that emotional stuff is out the way, here's a blast from the past photo of New Years FIVE(!) years ago in Australia. The dude wearing the tie is probably one of the most important people I know. His name is Glen and he's freaking amazing. Seriously dude. And that's little me when I was only 17 (awe!), now I'm 22 and getting ready to jump off the precipice into the unknown. But it's going to be really good. I can already tell.

Here's to next year being as and even more amazing than this year was!