365 Days (Part 2) | ✓

360. Review

360. Review: Review your week, month, or year in a journal entry or poem format.

December 28th, 2016

Dear Diary,

When I think of all the things that have happened this year, it's easy to focus on the bad. I know, though, that words are immortal, so I'll try to emphasize the good that happened.

Well, let's see...

I graduated high school. That was pretty good. I made perfect scores on every test during senior year, and that was even better. I don't know how it affected my GPA, but I am hoping it made up for my average sophomore year grades, when I wasn't trying very hard. My graduation ceremony was certainly a memory! I have never had such a large party in my honor before.

Camp was another big thing. It was my last year to go as a student, and I don't regret one single moment. Maybe that should be my motto for the new year: Don't do something you'll regret later.

We started babysitting Luna. She is a dear, sweet little thing, but she sure does love attention! I'm glad I got to spend time with her, especially this last month when I'm was off work, but now it's time for me to move on to college. There's still that guilt I have over leaving my mom to babysit Luna by herself, even though she volunteered for it and I didn't. I wonder if that will ever go away. I always feel obligated to sacrifice my life to make my family's lives easier... I wonder if that's a good thing. That's a question for another time though.

I made a lot of new friends. It's worthy to note that I also got asked out for the first (and possibly last) time... and I also rejected someone for the first (and hopefully last) time.

My job history went crazy. First I worked for a small business, then I started working as a nanny at the same time, then I quit my small business job, and now I'm planning to quit my nanny job so I can shoulder a full load of classes at college. My purposes in working so much weas fulfilled though. I can pay for the first few semesters at college without having to worry about money, and that is a huge relief.

I also fixed all of the legal problems I've been having. I am officially... well, me! It took six months to do all of it -- six long, anxious, panicky months. But it's all settled, and I even have an ID with a very unattractive picture!

In reflection, this year was half finishing an old chapter and half waiting to start the new one. I turned 18, graduated, and then had to pause for a moment. The last six months have been me preparing for college and adulthood in general. It's been a bitter pill to swallow, having to watch all of my friends go to school and get to progress with their lives, while I'm stuck at home taking care of my brother's children or working and still taking care or children. It was lesson in patience and faith.

Luckily I am not the type of person who can be idle for long. I devoted a large -- large -- chunk of this year to writing. In this year alone, I have completed writing one epic (While Escaping Fate), two novels (By Valentine's Day: Andy and By Valentine's Day: Jackson) one novella (The Boy from the Treehouse), countless poems and short stories, and I started dozens of rough drafts. I have thought up thousands of story ideas, mapped out way too many story plans for the amount of time I have to actually write, and spent hours poring over my "big binder of story plans." I have even edited about half of my pet project! I participated and won two CampNaNoWriMos and one NaNoWriMo. I gave up on two or three stories and rewrote one. It has been a year full of words and characters and ink. I loved it.

I just added up the word counts for the longer stories I completed this year. The sum of it all was roughly 245,000 words! This isn't even including the word counts for the short stories, poems, fanfictions (that I don't post on here), and other things. Wow!

Of course, all of it may be complete and utter crap, but at least I wrote, eh?

2016 was hard. I think everyone can agree with that. I am thankful it is over. This was not my best year, and although there was a lot of good that happened, there was a lot of bad too. It's ending, though, and it's time to shelve this book. Next year I will be in college, determined to get that summa cum laude honor or die trying. (And I just might.) It's the end here.

My parents got me a ring for Christmas that says Believe. "It was a reminder, they explained, "to always believe in God and have faith."

Maybe there was a reason I had to put my life on hold. I took the time and matured. I finally decided on what degree I wanted -- or really, degrees. I'm going to first earn a Bachelors in Information Science and then earn my Masters in Library Science. (That's right. I will be living every bookworms dream as a librarian!) The time spent waiting had a purpose, and maybe I don't know it now and maybe I won't ever know it -- but it will benefit me.

The year is ending. Hello, 2017.

Hannah.

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No joke, that's actually what my diary entries are like: scattered and random, and jumping from one point to the next.