AFDOR 2: Past

I'm bringing it back! Last year I did "A Few Days of Reflections" to give review over my year and my thoughts for the coming year, and I want to do that again. I'll do my best to mention important things that I'd said before, but if you want to read my stuff from before here ya go. So, to start, let's look at the past!

Last year I ended up with 30 blog posts, which was pretty impressive. This year- 12. Not terrible, but there's much room to improve (Esp since my eventual goal is 52). This year was pretty crazy, though. Looking back, a whole heck of a lot has happened but we'll just stick with the main points.

• Panama: At this point last year, I was halfway through my time in Panama. A lot happened throughout the whole trip, but we definitely did a lot of traveling through the second half, in 2015. We spent 3 weeks in Capira for different camp things with the youth, we visited Santiago twice, and we visited a really gorgeous beach. I had my 19th birthday in Panama with Nef, and then we packed up everything in order to head back to the US.

• Costa Rica: Te amo! I know I'm biased, but I think CR is an amazing place. Unfortunately, I didn't have a ton of time there (only about a week) but I did get to visit a fair amount of family. Basically, I had to leave the country of Panama in order to renew my visa and the easiest thing to do was to take an 18-hour bus ride up to San Jose and stay for a few days before coming back. And yeah, I wrote about it. 

• Moving: After moving back to the US, my family then moved from our rental house into a house of our own. And there's been lots of renovating and unpacking and organizing, but all of us are glad to be in the house that we now have.

• Bonnaroo: So, I know I've done crazy things like go to Europe or take a gap year in Panama or whatever, but I consider going to Bonnaroo to be one of the greatest experiences. It was a pretty incredible time, and I gained a lot of new music, stories, and friends from it. And I definitely plan on volunteering again. ~Roo 2k16 join our volunteer caravan coming up from FL!~

• College: After having had a year of having to take care of myself away from my family and with roommates, I felt fairly confident that I could handle the transition into college. And yeah, getting used to my roommates and meal plan and taking classes wasn't that hard. It was WEIRD. But not difficult. At this point, I didn't really have specific expectations about how my experiences would turn out, so I feel like I kinda just accepted whatever came my way and did my best to roll with it. And it's certainly been full of new experiences and people but I passed all my classes and I feel like overall it was a successful first semester to my college career.

• Sailing: I've learned how to sail! Or, at least, how to crew on a 420 sailboat! It's been sooo much fun, and it has totally taken place of my high school sport of Marching Band, despite it not necessarily being musical. A lot of my friends also sail, and we're gone to Regattas together  and done fairly well. I look forward to learning more and doing even better in the future.

• Band: While I myself haven't been in band this year, my brother started high school and joined the GHS Marching Band and the 2nd Bass. I was only able to go to 2 competitions, and several games, but they had a phenomenal year and they won State FMBC in the 3A Class. Very proud. 

• Concerts: Besides Bonnaroo, I was able to see Vinyl Theater (they've opened for Twenty One Pilots) in Gainesville, and then 5 Seconds of Summer in Tampa (with my mom and sister).  Lastly, I was able to go to Big Ticket Fest in Jax because my dad won tickets on the radio, and it was great to see TOP for the forth time (and the second time at the Big Ticket!) and Walk the Moon for the first. It was nice to return to a familiar festival, despite some weird stage changes because of repairs needed on the regular stage, and I'm gonna to my best to continue going in future years. Never enough concerts in a year, but I tried. 

• Dog: So, this is happening right now! We're getting a dog! Her name is Maz (Have you seen The Force Awakens?) and we've already signed her adoption papers, but she's currently in a training program and so we won't take her home until her graduation on the 8th. She's coming from the Paws on Parole program, so you should check that out if you're thinking about getting a dog, because it's really great.

Anything else? Well, of course; there always is. But that's the highlighted overview of 2015. And 2016 is edging ever closer!

~See ya