2015 in Review

Healy Hall, December 15, 2015

Currently listening to: Dance Party playlist on Spotify

Housekeeping

It's been a bit too long since my last blog post! I am a big fan of resolutions and fresh starts, and one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2016 is to post on this blog biweekly.

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One Semester Down, Seven to Go

I now have completed my first semester of college, and I finally received my grades! There's a lot about the Georgetown grading system that I don't yet understand, but I plan on fixing that next semester so that I'm not anxiously unaware of my grades throughout finals season. My grades turned out very well this semester, and I'm grateful that I gave myself the leniency of just trying my best and not worrying about the numbers. My mother has already posted my grades on Facebook (thanks, Mom), but I'll tell you all that I came out with a 3.668 GPA. It's definitely lower than my high school average, but that's okay. As I've already stated on this blog, first semester freshman year often sees a dip in grades. I went from a Georgia public high school to Georgetown University; a lower GPA is unsurprising. I'll continue trying my best in the semesters ahead!

Next semester I will be taking:

• Intro to Justice and Peace Studies, a course about peace, diplomacy, and social justice
• Sounds of Language, a linguistics course on phonetics and phonology
• Advanced Spanish II
• History Seminar: Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe
• Problem of God, a famous Georgetown class on theology and how it figures into the human experience 
• Intro to Ballroom Dance, a leisure and recreation 0-credit course just for fun

Mental Health ¿?

This semester was very hard on me. I've struggled with mental illness off and on since I was thirteen, and this semester depression and anxiety took hold of me once again. Because of that, I don't know what to say when people asked me about Georgetown. "How is Georgetown? How was school? Do you love it there?" and similar questions are difficult to answer; I do love Georgetown, I think. I do love it there, I think. But school was hard; at Georgetown I am so far from every support system I made for myself to cope with my mental illness at home, and I'm doing my best to create new support systems at Georgetown. It's slow going, but I'll make it happen. I still can't see myself at any other university, and that's how I know I do love it. Coming home was reassuring because the depression did not disappear, meaning the problem is not DC, but my own mental health.

I'm going to make a lot of lifestyle changes in the New Year and keep trying to pursue support systems at Georgetown. I'm feeling confident about next semester. Mental health is not easy, just like every other aspect of health. Without health and love, we have nothing; it's important to prioritize both health and relationships, both of which require substantial effort and upkeep. It's foolish to think that either are easy, and detrimental to assume that mental health (or any other aspect of health) just sorts itself out. I'm feeling confident that I've learned enough about myself and my mental illness to fight it, and hopefully, win.

2015

This has been a big year! I graduated high school, moved out of my parents' house and out of Georgia, and began studying at Georgetown. Here are some of my best moments of 2015:

June 20: Bootyclan reunited and we took this wonderful, happy picture.

August 4: Allison, Melissa, Isabel, and I hiked part of the AT and stayed at the Hike Inn. 

August 11: every time I saw Helen (this is just a good representative picture)

July 2-9: Panama City Beach with my family and the Leatherburys.

July 10-12: Steubenville Atlanta.

September 9: Tyler Joseph of the band twenty one pilots sings above the crowd at Echostage in DC.

September 24: I saw Pope Francis and wept. 

October 16: my family visited me at Georgetown.

October 25: Father Greg Schenden, S.J., collects himself before Mass on the ReFRESHMENt retreat at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

October 30: my lovely friends took me to dinner on my nineteenth birthday.

October 30: Ellen Bannon gave me flowers for my birthday. The real best moment, though, was when I met her and became friends with her. (This is just a particularly lovely picture of her and our friendship.)

November 8: I made this cookie for my tutee in the DC Schools Project program. Tutoring her gives me great joy.

November 14: after months without orchestra, seeing the National Symphony Orchestra felt like breathing again. 

November 21: my parents surprised me by bringing Topper, my cat of fifteen years, to my grandparents' house for Thanksgiving break.

December 8: celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at Dahlgren Chapel was beautiful; meeting Father Leo O'Donovan, S.J., former president of the university and for whom the dining hall is named, was equally wonderful.

December 19: Allison and my family picked me up from the airport. 133 days was too long without her.

 
 Some of my other best moments include graduating from Chattahoochee High School, having my extended family come for my graduation, my graduation party, seeing Smirts again after a long semester, and realizing that I'm asexual.

In Sum

2015 was a long year full of adventure, love, and good fortune. There were ups and downs as usual, but I'm just as blessed as always.

Thank you for reading and for supporting me this year! Take care, and see you in 2016~!