I had an idea for some of us to share how our years have been! Through the ups and downs of life, sometimes it's just nice to share the little things with people we know. With the start of a new decade, too, it's quite the time for reflection. Maybe this is a bit personal, but hey, you don't have to participate if you don't feel comfy! The idea is to share small (or large!) things you did, ways your life changed for better or worse, or maybe a new year's resolution you actually went through with! I'll start.... My year's been pretty great, honestly. It started out not the best, but through the last 6 or so months, my life has changed so much for the better. This year I stepped out of my comfort zone and became social (and made one of the best friends I've ever had!) by going to a harp camp in June... I went on more trips than ever before, and visited more places than I ever have in the past in one single year. I went to a lake for the first time, too! First time being on a boat, first time tubing, first time on a kneeboard, first time skating with other people (or just skating in general).... so many firsts this year! I started volunteering at a cat shelter, and I've done that multiple times this year. (Oddly enough, those were the first cats I'd seen in person in probably over 2 years but I fell in love with them!) I've started driving, as well, which has been an interesting journey.. It's quite the interesting thought that I'm going to be getting my license in a little over 2 weeks. I mean, I just turned 13, right?! Where's the time gone, how am I already almost 16! I've found a passion for cats and an interest in law enforcement (okay, fine, that's cheating... I got interested in it last year, but I've had a growing interest in it ever since then), and I've found love and learned a lot this year. I've made plans and been disappointed when they didn't work out, but I'm learning more and more each day. I've also discovered more and more about who I am, and discovered parts of my personality I didn't even know existed before. I hope 2020 is just as good or better than 2019 was - a good year to start an amazing decade. How about you?
It's been a pretty good year for me. - GPA increased from 3.8 to 4.3 from 2018-9 SY to 2019-20 SY - found an interest in linguistics - made some new friends - managed to maintain my weight for the year - helped my mom pick out a new phone (just yesterday!) - got a new computer - ran for student council, came in second place for secretary (!!) - helped my grandfather set up his smart device he got for Christmas 2018 - passed a Greek proficiency exam (beginners level, but still) - witnessed someone from my tiny state become build team leader (khixan) - witnessed Moople become moderator Yeah, the year has been pretty good. (these aren't in any particular order of importance lol)
I spent the first half of the year unemployed. I spent that time hanging out with my dad downstairs (he went to work at 2pm), picking up my eight year old brother and talking to my dad outside the school gate (my dad was the caretaker of the school), playing games, and going to job interviews that I always failed - looking back on it, I really don’t care about those now. At the beginning of the year I opened my phone to check something on my UCAS application and found myself running downstairs, excited, and told my parents that my first and second choice universities had accepted my application on unconditional offers. My mum was kind of shocked and my dad started laughing at her. In August, me and my entire family (my dad, my mum, my seventeen year old brother, my fifteen year old sister, and my eight year old brother) went abroad for the first time in sixteen years. We went to a Spanish island off the coast of Morocco called Lanzarote. On the plane journey there I was scared because I hadn’t been on a plane since I was two - my dad made fun of me, but I quickly settled and was fine with it while it turns out he’s actually scared of planes. On our first night I saw a cockroach for the first time that my mum screamed and chased into pesticide-coated bushes outside; everyone besides my naturally browner-skinned dad got sunburn at the poolside; we saw dolphins at a zoo and all have pictures of us touching them; and we went on a boat ride across the length of the island where we had a family picture taken and I got a video of my dad riding on a jet ski with my sister. Me and my long distance... whatever she was became official in August, too. On September 14th, I left my English hometown to go to a university in the furthest reaches of Wales. I was filled with so much anxiety and we had to stop off in a McDonald’s because I felt so sick - my dad laughed at me and said that this is how I was just before the plane. We moved my stuff into my room and my mum and dad cornered me between the space of the car next to ours and hugged me. My entire family visited me a week later, on September 22nd. I just remember being unable to see them but hearing my mum shout at my little brother to stop running ahead from them. I saw them all come up and couldn’t smiling. We went out on a walk to the pier at my university town and had a McDonald’s. I told my mum and dad all my partying stories and they wished me luck now that my studies were starting. On October 5th, I texted my dad with some funny court case in the news I found and he sent me a text back that I found pretty funny. I FaceTimed my little brother later that day and my dad took over the call when my little brother ran off to the PS4 and left me in the kitchen. We talked for a little bit. He told me he was going to a Wetherspoons (British pub chain) and I laughed and said I was there with my flatmates just a few nights ago - turns out my mum had seen the transaction from there come up on my online banking, told my dad I was at Wetherspoons and I was posh now, and my dad was not going to Wetherspoons that night at all. He went to a local pub with his friends and tricked me into talking about my night out smh When he came home in the early hours of October 6th, he was behaving normally - not like a drunk at all - but he was vomiting. He played with my dog when he wasn’t doing that and talked to my brother a bit. My sister came home and saw him sleeping on the couch and went to bed. She got out of bed at 10am and came downstairs - he wasn’t on the couch anymore, and was on the floor with vomit everywhere. She got my mum, my mum told him to get up and started shouting at my dad for getting so drunk, but he looked up at her with one side of his face drooping and told her he’d had a stroke. The ambulance arrived an hour later so he wasn’t exactly rushed to hospital. On October 7th, my dad went into surgery to have a piece of his skull removed. My mum phoned me when he’d just gone into theatre and told me what had happened. I got the train home with the first toys my dad ever got me - a monkey and a boar that he got from the hospital when I was just born, resuscitated, and put in an ICU. On October 8th, I visited my dad in the hospital as he was waking up from surgery. When his eyes were open I made sure I was smiling and sounded happy. I told him I loved him and he gave me a hand squeeze.... and wouldn’t let go and kept squeezing my hand tighter and tighter when I told him to stop smh. He tried to say something to me but couldn’t speak through the tubes in his mouth. He waved goodbye to me and my seventeen year old brother and mum. And that was the last time I ever saw him awake. He was put back into a coma on October 9th after the brain swelling didn’t stop, I put the toys into his hands while he was in the ICU, and was declared brain dead on October 11th. His body was fighting off its own death for ages because he was so healthy and the stroke was a freak thing, likely caused by something hitting his neck and harming the artery. We signed him up to organ donation on October 13th. His life support was removed on October 14th and he passed within ten minutes of that. I took the toys back and now they come everywhere I wish my dad could be. The funeral was November 1st. I carried his coffin, gave a bidding prayer, and lowered his coffin into his grave. I was the last one to leave it and the last one to put dirt on it. I went back to university a week after the funeral, but suspended my studies earlier this month. Halloween and Christmas weren’t the same without him and Christmas 2019 was the worst one of my life. New Year’s Eve will be similar. I’ve got a lot of stuff that will be same in 2020, so I’ve still got a lot of fight left to give before this tsunami turns into a wave. I’m not going to let this ruin that nice first half of the year, though. As far as I’m concerned my 2019 ended on October 5th, and I live in some weird year purgatory until January 1st.
Oh gosh, I'm really sorry to hear about all that... I'm glad the first half of your year went well, though. I hope things start looking up for you soon.
