Okay, FINE, I'll do an end-of-the-year survey.
1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? Conducted the Brown Band. Shook hands with someone famous. Got my purse snatched. Played in a pit. Ice skated while playing sax. Dabbled in disordered eating and paranoia. Was diagnosed with mild OCD. Took care of a puking drunk person. Got a road bike. Biked 50 miles in the Memory Ride. Sang alto. Came out on Facebook. Loved my body. Posed nude for a calendar. Got drunk. Decided on a concentration. Ended a relationship. Kissed someone new.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions and will you make more for next year? I don't really do those. I think my official resolution was to "stop being obnoxious" and I don't really think I've done that. But my perpetual resolution (which I have to make anew every day) is to stop picking my skin.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope.
4. Did anyone close to you die? No, thankfully.
5. What countries did you visit? Canada! With the band!
6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? Good skin. And an internship.
7. What date(s) from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Hmm, I think I'll forgo the "why". Bus rides on the Canada trip. The night I had my purse snatched. The Memory Ride. The night on the Cornell trip when I got drunk for the first time. The night I was puked on by a drunken freshman. Seeing Ethan after he was beat up. Nearly every night of the last couple weeks of this semester, particularly the night of the ADPhi cocktail. Lots of little moments with my friends and my freshmen.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Loving my body and becoming a confident and empowered woman. Also biking 50 miles.
9. What was your biggest failure? Continuing to pick my skin. And getting a B in music theory even though I loved the class and worked harder on it than anything else.
10. Did you suffer any illness or injury? Nothing worse than a UTI. And some mental stuff.
11. What was the best thing you bought? My camera was the only thing I bought with my own money.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All of the incredible people in my life, basically. My cousin for graduating high school (against all odds) and getting into Berklee.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Pretty much just my freshman year roommate, for being depressing.
14. Where did most of your money go? COLLEGE. Argh. After that, probably Starbucks, Blue State Coffee, and Tealuxe.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Everything!! I get excited easily.
16. What song will always remind you of 2007? Do You Realize?? by the Flaming Lips (Spring Weekend wooooo). Any band song will probably remind me of the time I first conducted it. Merrily We Roll Along (all of it). Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun by Debussy.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier. Not perfect, but...I've really just been incredibly happy.
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter, but I prefer "softer". And I'm cool with that.
iii. richer or poorer? Eh...probably poorer because college is effing expensive.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Practicing sax and piano, doing good in the world.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Facebooking, picking my skin, being paranoid.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent it at home, with relatives visiting. It was very low-key and nice.
22. Did you fall in love in 2007? No, I was in love when it started.
23. How many one-night stands? None.
24. What was your favorite TV program? ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. Regardless of the fact that it's not on TV anymore.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Not at all!
26. What was the best book you read? HP7!! Also Me Talk Pretty One Day and Snow Falling on Cedars.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? SO MUCH. I rediscovered Charles Mingus, a.k.a. I discovered The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. A lot of new classical music. Tons of French pop! The Flaming Lips, The Roots, The Last Five Years, Belle & Sebastian, Elliott Smith, Spring Awakening, Sufjan Stevens, Eric Whitacre's choral music.
28. What did you want and get? An incredible group of friends at school. To become a WPC. Something new.
29. What did you get and not want? OCD and a B in music theory.
30. What was your favorite film of this year? Juno - go see it! Also several Christopher Guest movies, The Triplets of Belleville, Hot Fuzz, and Provoked (movies I saw but that didn't come out this year).
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? That was almost a year ago...I turned 19 and my friends threw me a "surprise party" (which was held at my house, so it wasn't actually a surprise). They made me a cake that looked like a clown threw up on it and I wore a fancy dress. It was pretty great.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? SLEEP.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? Um. Clearance rack?
34. What kept you sane? My amazing core group of friends. My freshmen. Tea. Backrubs. HUGS. Prayer.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Okay, these never really change. Johnny Depp, Scarlett Johansson, Shakira, Anthony Keidis.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? I'm hopelessly less informed about politics than I'd like to be.
37. Who did you miss? My core group of friends from home while I was at school; my core group of friends from school while I was at home. My brother. People with whom I'm afraid I may have lost contact: Lyndsay, Ed, Kev, Edwards, Mrs. Thon.
38. Who was the best new person you met? SO MANY PEOPLE. My freshmen! Elizabeth, Laure, Lisa Egan, Hannah, all the amazing W's, Michelle, Bryan Chu, Mark Steinbach, Charlie.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007: Loving yourself is much more productive than not.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Oh, goodness, this is tough. Internally, I had a lot of issues and rough spots during second semester of last year. And now, at the end of first semester of this year, I think I'm in the best place I could possibly be, in just about every way. So in honor of that, I'm going to quote the entirety of "Private Party" by India.Arie (and I think the fact that I'm turning 20 in two weeks is especially fitting).
I'm having a private party
Ain't nobody here but me, my angels, and my guitar
singin' baby look how far we've come here
I'm havin' a private party
Learning how to love me
Celebrating the woman I've become, yeah
I tried to call my mother, but
She didn't get where I was going
I called my boyfriend and he said
Call me back a little later baby
I hung up the phone, I felt so alone
Started to feel a little pity
That's when I realized that I
Gotta find the joy inside of me
I'm gonna take off all my clothes
Look at myself in the mirror
We're gonna have a conversation
We're gonna heal the disconnection
I don't remember when it started
But this is where it's gonna end
My body is beautiful and sacred
And I'm gonna celebrate it
All my life
I've been looking for
Somebody else
To make me whole
But I had to learn the hard way
True love began with me
This is not ego or vanity
I'm just celebrating me
Sometimes I'm alone but never lonely
That's what I've come to realize
I've learned to love the quiet moments
The Sunday mornings of life
Where I can reach deep down inside
Or out into the universe
I can laugh until I cry
Or I can cry away the hurt
Happy birthday to me