Another year draws to a close. This one's been pretty good, but difficult as hell! Overall, the good outweighed the bad, though, and I've been really happy this year. I've got real good friends now, and while I admittedly had a sexuality crisis when I realized I had a serious crush on my closest friend (a guy), it turned out we had both liked each other for the better part of a year, so we're dating now, and I'm really happy. Outside of dating each other, we became really close friends over this last semester, partially because we had a really awesome bio class together where we traveled all around the Pacific Northwest to look at plants! A lot of the photos in this project are from those trips. That was the best class I have ever taken, hands down (and getting to cuddle with my friend/boyfriend on hours-long van rides sure was nice, too. In fact, I'm pretty sure the rest of the class thought we were dating long before we actually were). I know how to identify 80-some woody plant species and have memorized all of their Latin names. I've gotten a lot closer with my other friends, and I'm actually happy about my relationships with other people for once. I also got to work at an aviary over the summer, which has been a lifelong dream and has only made me surer of my goal to pursue ornithology and aviculture. I've also recently rediscovered my love both for trains and for wandering. I can sit on my city's light rail for 7 hours at a time, no problem, just because I like it. And the benefit of that is that I get to see a lot of cool and interesting places! I've also got an in with a local museum to fulfill one of my other dreams of driving a train, so I might get to do that soon. Once I have more time, they can teach me. However, holy moly, classes were difficult. They do not pull any punches in your sophomore year of college, I'm learning. Organic chemistry? Torture for anyone caught in the crossfire (bio majors). If you have the chance to NOT take organic chem, trust me, don't. Unfortunately, I've also had numerous health issues pop up this year. I've been losing my vision since about August, with no clear cause, and that's been scary. I might've found a potential root cause, though, that could also explain other issues, which is relieving! I've also accidentally revealed an eating disorder (whoops, ARFID) and lost 25 lbs since starting college last year. So that's not great, but everyone's working with me to fix it, and I'm getting better. That's all on top of getting diagnosed with EDS (finally), POTS, and costochondritis, so I'm just swell. But overall, this year was good! Better than last. I had a really good time. I'm hoping next year will be even better. Thanks for another year, and Happy New Year!
Photos: Me Music: Can't Let Go, Juno by Kishi Bashi
