2012 Did Its Best, Kids

Considering it's the last day of the year, I figured it was a good a time as any to write something that concludes 2012. It's a shame inspiration isn't really coming to me now, though. At this point I have about ten hours of the year left to get this done, and it just might take all that time.
So 2012. "A" for effort. 2011 was a truly wonderful year, probably the best of my life, and 2012 did its best to compete. It was never really going to come out on top, but everyone involved went through the motions anyway and had a surprisingly good time along the way. I'm sure there's a metaphor that goes along with this, but I'm struggling to think of it right now. Let me get back to you. I just wrote this entire post and came back to this and still have nothing. That will be my resolution for 2013- thinking of an appropriate metaphor for this.

Early 2012 was pretty great, as it was the final semester with all my friends from study abroad together at school. We went on various adventures like:
- attending our friends' Anthropology colloquium which, ok, was about as exciting as it sounds, but they were in charge of it and we got to keep the extra food from the intermission. I ate cheese and crackers like a king for a week. Also, there was a little girl there who wouldn't let me out of the room without "the password" and I very nearly kneed a seven-year-old in the face.

- spending spring break in Texas with my friends' family, where we ate at the absolute best chicken restaurant in existence and my hand was attacked by a deer. At the time it was also March Madness, so we all spent about two days doing nothing but watching basketball and I survived, which is pretty miraculous.
- throwing a surprise birthday party for my friends' because their real birthday is in July so they never get to celebrate it at school. We had cake and Happy Feet plates for the cake. Later that night I had to leave the party to be voted in as the next president of the History Club. It was a fairly eventful day.

This summer was spent down on the Massachusetts South Shore, working as a counselor at a day camp. The whole experience was wicked fun, although a good half of it was yelling at kids to walk. I also slept outside for the first time, without a tent or insect repellent. On an unrelated note, I also learned I can make it through a ten hour work day after getting no sleep and lying on a rock all night.

This later part of the year has been a bit of a struggle, as I entered into my most work-intensive semester yet, without almost all of my best friends to distract me or act as a buffer against the suck. I found various other sources though, so I didn't manage to completely lose my mind. It occasionally got incredibly lonely, but every time a friend from somewhere in the country or across the ocean would do something unprompted to make me feel included and missed. If nothing else, 2012 showed me how great my friends are, even when it's not necessarily convenient.

I have hope for 2013 to be great. I start student teaching full time, and then start grad school. I'm going on a school trip with friends in May to Europe, and will be able to see my friends who live there. Hopefully, I'm going back to camp this summer (if I can find somewhere to live). Regardless of where I am though, the great people I have in my life will stay there. That's not changing.