2013 in Review

i know everyone is doing these 2013 review posts, and most readers are probably sick of them, but i think that this type of post is where bloggers kind of forget about the rest of the internet and write just for themselves. or at least that is what i am going to do, because 2013 was a huge year for me, and i want to take a second to look back on it and review.

january: 

i started the year off right with the best dang new years dinner party ever thrown. with a theme like "glitter", you just know the night is going to be a success. 

once i got back to school i took a little break from blogging (besides bachelor posts) and spent all of my free time with a person i called "boyfriend". i thought i was being dealt an unfair amount of happiness, because life seemed too amazing.

february: 

as cliche as this is, february really was the month of love for me. i've loved a lot of people in my life, but for the first time ever, i fell in love with someone. and it felt like magic. 

i also got horribly angry with utah for all the freakin' snow, and i wrote a really mean letter that, in hindsight, was maybe a little too harsh. #noregrets

march: 

the beginning of march brought lots of food experiments. i made up tons of recipes and had a blast feeding that "boyfriend" who i was in love with. cooking dinner for us became my favorite activity. i also got to participate in the lamb of god musical production for the second time.

unfortunately, the end of the month brought horrible heartbreak when i found out that "boyfriend" didn't exactly love me back like i thought he did. and i discovered that being broken up with is actually the worst feeling in the world. i felt a kind of pain that i didn't know even existed.

but i also started the really long process of healing, and wrote one of my favorite posts to date. 

april: 

in april i was fragile.

the end of march and all of april were the hardest months i've ever lived in my life, and i don't say that lightly. luckily i had rachel and laura to rescue me and save me from the darkness.

i started running to fill up the time that i was now spending alone, and for the first time in my life, my body started feeling strong. it was stronger than my heart, but slowly they began to grow together. i finally started to hope again, and with the help of my roommates and FHE family, i lived the best day of the whole semester, and the now ex-boyfriend had absolutely no part in it.

at the end of april i moved to a new place to start a new life, and the healing continued. 

may: 

in may i still felt fragile, and i learned that moving away from the places in your memories doesn't exactly bar the windows to the memories themselves, but it's a start. i learned that nostalgia's a bitch, and i missed CT something fierce. but i finally got strong enough to start cooking again.

but quickly may passed in a whirlwind of concerts, traveling, stéfanie, and pool days. i traveled to idaho and georgia to say goodbye to my two best friends before they left for their missions, and i experienced the most epic car journey back to provo with a boy we all affectionately call "rideboard tanner". i gained 4 twitter followers in one night of live-tweeting that ride. ah, the memories. unfortunately, i don't have a record of it.

by the end of the month i was eager to leave my job of two years in the dance department for my new life as an efy counselor. 

june-july:

i quit blogging in june and july to focus entirely on being an efy counselor. i can't put my experience into words, but it was the best thing that has ever happened to me. and again, i don't award that lightly. i worked with 193 youth, 9 co-counselors, and dozens of other counselors, BC's, and teachers who helped build my testimony of christ and finally fill in all the cracks still broken in my heart. i learned to sacrifice my needs for the needs of my youth, and i fell hard for those 14-17 year olds. i can truly say that these two months were the best months of my entire life.

august: 

i finished up efy in august and went home for a few weeks before the new semester began. for the first time i felt comfortable being back in my parents' house, and i really enjoyed the time i got to spend with my family. i worked in my mom's first grade class, and i fell in love with my major all over again. 

i also spent a lot of time reflecting on where i was at in life, and i even wrote a poem about it. 

september:

september started a brand new journey in provo with almost entirely new roommates. and i was terrified.

i started blogging 5x/week and spent every possible moment with those humans that i lived with. my new classes proved to be pretty easy, and i spent lots of time having fun with my roommates, like fangirling over princess diaries and getting addicted to pupusas.
i continue to run, and i ran my first and second 5k's! 5k may not seem like much, but it was a huge accomplishment for me, and one of the things i'm most proud of myself for doing.

i also saw ex-boyfriend for the first time in months and that terror i had built up inside dissipated as i realized that he was more scared of me than i was of him. i finally felt free. i wrote another favorite blog post about it. 

october: 

october was much like september, and it got lost in blogging, roommates, and going on dates. i discovered that i hate first dates and i highly doubt i will fall for someone who i only get to know in a date setting. 

i wrote one of my most popular blog posts on dating here, and we all learned from a byu dating magazine why we should not date bananas. vlog. also became a real thing.

i enjoyed lds general conference, and i wrote about why i don't support the ordination of women in the priesthood.
fall began and we threw a huge party for canadian thanksgiving.

november:

so much happened in november! the beginning of the month brought the recapturing beauty campaign that took over my blog for ten days. it was an amazing experience and got me excited to work with the women's services and resources group on campus in the future.
my blog got a makeover and grew exponentially. maintaining this place became a bit more of a job, but i decided to dive in and accept the responsibilities.
alyssa and i wrote a mash-up, and i also fell for one direction.
i traveled to boston with my mom for the NCTE conference, and i wrote the first post ever about my family.

december: 

december came in like a wrecking ball with a whopping 8 inches of snow! strangely, i made peace with it, and the rest of the month was spent celebrating winter with my roommates. with finals squished in between, of course. we found the perfect hot chocolate mixture and watched one too many made-for-tv christmas movies.
we planned an epic christmas dinner party. we also threw caution to the wind and asked dates to said party, because gosh darn it, normal byu dating conventions suck.
i got asked to do my first product review for rose gal, and i watched this little place of mine continue to grow with excitement.
december drew to a close in arizona, surrounded by my high school friends who are all starting to get home from their church missions around the world. i said goodbye to my canadian, and all of a sudden.....2014 was here!


PHEW.
that took ten million years, but i am glad i did it! and if you made it this far, holy cow, leave a comment and i will send you a freakin' trophy.
all in all, 2013 contained the highest highs for me and also the lowest lows. it was amazing, and luckily it's a year i'll never have to relive. 2014, bring it on, baby!

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