A Retrospective Perspective on 2017

  It's been quite a while since I last sat down in front of a computer to write. It's almost a foreign feeling to me.

  Hello everyone! Happy 2018! I hope that the last few months of 2017 treated all of you well, or at least decently.

  I apologize to those of you who closely followed me; I kind of fell off of the face of the planet for a few months. Life picked up, and I became incredibly overwhelmed with trying to keep up a blog, and so I shoved it onto the back burner for a long time to focus on other things. With what's going on in my life right now, I think that blogging again will be wonderful.

  Like all narrators, and especially those of memoirs, let me go ahead and fill you in on the personal things that I haven't had the opportunity to do yet. I'm going to do them chronologically, I think. If I get sidetracked, just bear with me; I promise that I'll make it through this post as eloquently as possible.

  When we last met, it was May and I was talking about friendship. I was discussing the ins-and-outs of forgiving people who might not deserve it, explaining that I'd reached a mature peak in my life where I could discern between the kinds of people I wanted in my life, and those I did not. Man, was I wrong. It was an extremely maturing process of thought, yes... but I don't think that at eighteen people can immediately decide to be friends with a certain type of person. Especially not if you're me, because I like being friends with everyone that I can be.

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  So, the month of April came and went. I don't know if I ever said anything about it, but I went to a fantastic concert... Panic! At The Disco in North Carolina with a bunch of people. That was another turning point for me, because up until that time, I'd never been to a concert in a stadium that wasn't Christian. The type of concerts with questionable offerings that may or may not have been going where they were designated to go.

  {There might be some gaps in my storytelling- I'm sitting at an iMac going through pictures on my phone. They're all marked by date and location, so I can piece together the missing pieces of the last eight months and make some type of sense.}

  The month of April also brought my first convention (the kind where a bunch of eclectic people gather in a convention center and walk around in costumes.. which is affectionately called "cosplay"), and I went with my friend from Geology. She was Dark Link, and I was Light [Death Note.] I spent way too much money, but enjoyed some of the coolest things ever. I met Chad Lindberg [also known as 'Doctor Badass' in Supernatural], who is one of the coolest guys ever. It's called "Causeacon," and aside from being run by some awesome people, it benefits victims of domestic violence in our area. A portion of all proceeds of that event and others benefit some awesome organizations, and if you're in the area this spring, you need to come to at least one day of it.

  I started reading books again. The kind that take a whole day to read, where you can't be bothered to do anything else because they consume you so much. That was a good thing. That's another reason I think I stopped writing so much; I wanted something to write about. I craved feelings and the emotional connection between reader and writer that I feel like I might have been missing for a little while. Now, I remember fully why I'm so passionate about writing.

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   April ended, and the month of May brought new adventures of its own.

  My brother (who I cannot refer to as 'little' anymore, because he towers over me), turned sixteen in May. Part of me wants to be in denial, because it feels like I was sixteen only days ago... and because sixteen was a strange age for me. I lost several loved ones, experienced the best year of high school ever, and had a lot of things to worry about that Nicholaus doesn't. He's a different sort of person. Over the last few months, I attended football games, fundraisers, and a banquet. I watched as he played several different positions on both sides of the ball, became statistically important on a state level in football, and he placed first in his division in a history fair.

  I spent a lot of time with Hayley and Wes, and an equal amount of time with Bethany and Jon when they were in from college. There were trips to Little Beaver, discovering what places near me actual deliver food for a considerable price, and at one point over the summer, Hayley, Bethany, Wesley, and I went out on the town.

  Surprising my mom with a birthday cake and a bunch of cards was a lot of fun. She wasn't expecting anything, but when she got home from work we had stuff waiting on her. Instead of birthday candles, my brother and I had scavenged and found candles from all around the house and lit them around the cake. In my honest opinion, I think that she enjoyed that more.

  My dad got himself (well, we all kind of pitched in, but I digress) a red riding lawn mower. That was one of the most joyful days of all 2017. The Aaron's guys who delivered it were even smiling because of everyone's excitement. Dad mowed grass every chance he got over the summer, and our yard was always beautiful to look at.

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  Summertime crept up on us out of nowhere, and many weekends were spent at the city pool laying in the sun or going down the only water slide for miles. My brother and I went, and his girlfriend would go too, and my dad came with us. I think he was making up for not being able to go swimming during the summer of 2016 because of his surgery. Either way, those weekends were a lot of fun.

  By now, you've probably noticed that I'm not talking about how much I worked over the summer. I did. Mom and I both did, actually. Although, some people made mistakes and my hours were drastically reduced, we both continued employment until September. Then we both left the company; honestly, you can tell when you don't belong somewhere anymore, and that was that. So you guys can feel free to assume that between all of these lovely summer misadventures, were incredibly long days taking service phone calls.

  My dad turned thirty-nine for the twentieth time on June 19th. We got him a Mountaineer colored cake, and had a good day.

  Then I went on a trip! That was the first trip of the year to North Carolina to exclusively visit my friends. I stayed with my friend Katy, her family, and her two dogs. (One of her pups has since crossed the rainbow bridge; rest in peace Ella.) That week was spent almost throwing up both of my lungs at a trampoline park, going to threeeee(??) different movies at a discount movie theater, spending forever in a Wave Pool at a water park, and helping Patrick establish his first type of independent residency. It was an altogether good week.

  July brought a thrilling kind of commotion all its own. Wesley Dylan celebrated his first birthday, with a Mickey Mouse party! (Hayley, Megan, and I sat up the night before making decorations late into the night- thank the Lord for Pinterest!) The same week, I went to Grandview with Bethany and Jon. We took a lot of trips to Grandview over the summer, and one trip to Sandstone Falls. Talk about some interesting hikes.

  Trip #2 to visit my friends came at the end of July. Patrick took me on a date to ride a carousel and a small train, we drove to some beautiful places just because, we watched Katy sneak McDonald's into "It" at a movie theater (I've taken Taco Bell into the movies before... What else am I supposed to eat? Movie theater food is expensive now!), and I ended up stranded in the Carolinas for a bit longer than I anticipated due to a payroll malfunction. Oh well. It ended up being so worth it!

  {Y'all are still with me, right? I know I'm cramming a lot into this! I'm getting all of the personal stuff outta the way so I can talk about what I want my blog to be in 2018! If you aren't interested in this aspect of my blog, I won't be offended at all if you want to go read a different post. Skip to the end to read my plans for 2018!}

  August was (of course!) my favorite month out of 2017. I turned 19, and took a carload of people to Fairlea, WV. We pitched two tents, made sandwiches, and camped out at the WV State Fair in the pouring rain at first! Bethany, Katy, Hayley, Jon, Patrick, and I had a blast. My tent spent the majority of the night playing cards and worrying about bugs, after watching some pretty phenomenal fireworks. The next day brought motion sickness, fried food, the most blatantly terrifying swing ride ever created in the entire world, and some pretty awesome memories. I made my friends ride the vomit-inducing rides with me more than they needed too, but they still loved me afterwards. Thankfully.

  My mom got me a swing for my birthday, and I cried.
  Patrick bought me a dozen red roses, and I cried.
  I had my first big birthday party since I was probably five years old.
  The day was topped off with a Spongebob birthday cake.

  The end of the summer was filled with a bunch of bonfires, and the beginning of football season. I spent as much time as possible with Hayley and Bethany, between working, and between Bethany being in town, and took some more trips to Grandview. All in all, it was a beautiful summer.

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  We've made it to September! Wow!

  The very first thing I did in September was get a new tattoo! Bethany and Hayley got tattoos with me! Hayley got a tattoo of the sun, Bethany got a tattoo of the moon, and I got a tattoo of a shooting star. They've always considered me a sister, and it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Wes was with us in the tattoo shop, but he behaved very well, and absolutely loved watching everyone getting tattooed. We've all since joked about what tattoo he'll get to match ours/Hayley's when he's old enough. I guess it would be interesting for our children to follow in our footsteps and be best friends someday.

  Outside of the tattoo and football games on Friday nights, the middle part of September was uneventful. Oh, and I quit my job at some point. It just kind of naturally happened because I was planning on moving, but we'll get to that further down the page.

  HOWEVER: The end of September was phenomenal!!!

  We had a huge family reunion between Little Beaver and our house. Family came in from out of state, the friends that we consider family attended, and it was a blast! We had fancy gatherings, casual little sit downs, and my favorite part of the weekend had to be all of the bonfires. We sat around telling stories and jokes late into the night. The best jokes came from my parents, and from my Uncle Denny and Uncle Bill. They know how to make people laugh.

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  October was a doozy.

  Anyone who knows me knows that all I have talked about for years is moving to North Carolina to be closer to the people I love. It annoyed my friends in high school, it annoyed everyone to be honest, but I was dead set on moving. Well, earlier in 2017, I had all of my planning focused on October. I was going to move at the end of October, and planned a lot of my life around that. My family did, too.

  Well. I took Trip #3 in October. I packed enough clothes to stay in North Carolina indefinitely, and spent a lot of time by myself at Patrick's apartment because he had to work.

  During that stay, my dear friend Brianna (whom I hadn't seen since my freshman year of high school), dyed my hair for me and fixed that situation. Patrick spent some time with her fiancé at an arcade, and Brianna and I caught up on life while she and a few other girls dyed and color-corrected my hair.

  Patrick and I also went to a haunted attraction called the "Woods of Terror," that I would GREATLY recommend to anyone in the Piedmont-Triad area of North Carolina. It rocked.

  Despite having a pretty good trip, at a few points during that stay, I felt that my mental and physical well-being were being jeopardized, and called my parents to come get me...and to get Patrick.

  Due to unforeseen circumstances, Patrick ended up returning with my uncle, my dad, and I- and he moved to West Virginia.

  Just like that, everything I'd spent years planning for, changed. It's like someone (*cough* God *cough*) snapped their fingers and decided that I belonged somewhere else. He also knew that I needed Patrick as a constant and unwavering presence in my life, and let me tell you, that alone has improved me as a person over the last few months.

  {For those of you looking down your glasses at the screen at the fact that Patrick moved in, my parents were the ones who pushed for it, because of the bold, extremely overpowering text above. Pat is family, and we've viewed him like that for years.}

  The end of October was spent looking for more haunted attractions to go to, including Fright Nights at Glade Springs Resort. It was really good, too. So was the chili that they sold. If you aren't into creepy things, go and buy some of the chili that they sell... That alone is worth it.

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  In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a lot of food. We had a lot to be thankful for, but it was also our first Thanksgiving in this new house, which has turned out to be one of the biggest blessings to happen in the history of this section of the Wickline family.

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  In December, Patrick and I ended up on an impromptu trip to Tennessee that was a whirlwind of emotion. We did get to enjoy the Ripley Aquarium, Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, and the 5D Movie Theater.

  I also purchased tickets to go see Taylor Swift in concert this July, something that I'm really looking forward to because I didn't get to go to her Fearless Tour when I was younger. The other tours haven't really piqued my interest, but the Reputation era Taylor is pretty cool. I'm really looking forward to it.

  Christmas was the best day of the year. Well, allow me to rephrase, the weekend of Christmas Eve was the best weekend of the year. My family trekked to Indiana to spend Christmas with my Uncle Denny and Uncle Bill. We watched movies, ate some good food, spent a lot of time talking, playing cards, and we decorated a Christmas tree to the tune of Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music. My uncles are some of the coolest guys you'll ever meet, and I can't wait to see them again.

  The end of December was spent ringing in the New Year with some good friends and my family. We spent New Year's Eve playing card games, Headbandz, Mario Kart, and Just Dance. It was a ton of fun. We toasted the New Year, the couples kissed, and everyone sat around watching TV or waiting until they passed out.

  Then, sometime earlier this month, I got to spend some time catching up with one of my closest friends from high school, Emily. She came over, brought her little boy Asher, and while he tried to create small bouts of chaos, she and I caught up on a couple of years worth of missing space. I'm thankful that 2018 has started off with her back in my life as a close friend; she's one of those people that you keep around forever.

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  2017 was a really fulfilling year for me, and maybe that's one of the reasons that I didn't have the change to write as much as I would've liked to. I spent a lot of time actually going places, doing things, spending time with people, and working.

  This year, I don't have a New Year's Resolution. I just know that I want to write, I want to work this new job I got with the best attitude I've ever had towards a job, I want to go on dates with Patrick at random times and relish in the feeling of not being in a hurry anymore, I want to go to concerts and festivals, and I want to give back to people who made last year so good for me.

This is the part where I throw in the congratulations of important things that happened in 2017 that I failed to mention throughout the year: 

-Bethany & Jon (engagement)
-Emily (engagement and the birth of her little boy earlier in 2017)
-Brianna & Chad (engagement)
-Erica (birth of her daughter)

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Thank you guys for bearing with me throughout this post, this next year is going to be a world of difference on my blog. I want to let other people write and share their thoughts, I want to share some more of my poetry, I want to share some fictional works, and I just want to be more real with everyone who reads this.

Happy 2018!