2014 | year in review

So here it is, my year in review. I think it's really nice to think back and reminisce about the good things that happened this year. This year has been particularly good to me, and I'm really happy for the things that I got to do. Most of these pictures were taken on my phone, before I got a fancy shmancy camera - but I still hold them close to my heart cause memories are still memories. It's a lot easier to capture moments on a cellphone camera rather than a heavy DSLR anyway!

I met my best friends for the first time. Kyle, Steven, James, Michael, and Brian - I basically became who I am today because of these guys. They're all from Canada and knew each other in person, but I was the only one in New York. Sometimes they'd joke about me being born in the wrong place, and I felt like it was true! I got to meet Kyle, James, and Michael in February, and in May I got to meet the entire group. All we really do is eat and play board games in person, but we had a lot of good times with each other anyway. It's funny to say that we don't have a picture of all of us together, I guess we're just not that into selfies! I'll have to remember to get one next time I visit the lot. I guess I should also mention that most of these pictures weren't taken by me, but rather Michael who always took my phone to take random pictures of everyone, and Snapchat-worthy pictures of himself.

I got out of a long-term relationship... » Breakups suck, I know. But I firmly believe that from every breakup, you learn a little more about yourself and change to be a better and stronger person. In my case, I'm one step closer to knowing what I want to do. I'm a much happier person, I've learned to express myself in a better way. I'm not afraid to look or dress however I feel like anymore. I gained so much more confidence in myself, and learned to never let anyone change who you are - unless you wholeheartedly agree that they are right. I realized that, even if you want to make others around you happy, it's not genuine if you're not happy yourself.



...And then found myself with one of my best friends who I liked for basically forever » It still makes me giddy as heck saying that, and sometimes I can't believe it really happened. We've already known each other for 4 or 5 years prior to this, so it's really nice to skip the getting-to-know-each-other phase. I like that we don't really expect things from each other because we already know our habits. We get along really well, have the same sense of humor, and a lot of the same interests as well. I honestly feel that out of this relationship, I love myself more. I can accept my flaws because someone so close to me accepts them and sees them as part of who I am rather than being flaws, as cliche as it sounds. Also, we don't have any decent selfies together... All of them are us making silly faces or doing dumb things. Mostly shots of us directly up the nostrils. Note to self: take a proper selfie together.

I got myself a DSLR » It was a Canon T3i, and the biggest chunk of money I've ever spent at once. I'm happy to say that I use it fairly often, though there's still a lot of things I don't know about this camera. There always seems to be more to learn, and I've only been shooting in manual setting. I should be trying the other modes sometime soon!





I traveled a lot » The better part of being long-distance: the traveling! I went to Canada a few times, and to California once. Being in these two places were a really nice change to the busy and fast-paced New York City. Canada is really nice because Waterloo-Kitchener is a really cute and quaint area with a lot of small businesses, plus it's not as hot in the summer. The Bay area in California is really pretty, there are mountains everywhere! Even though it's considered to be a big city, it's not as busy as New York which I really like... and it's not too cold in the winter, which is important cause I get cold very easily. I wonder where I'll be going next, after he graduates...

I became close friends with Vennesa » I've never really had a close girlfriend before - the last one I remember was in fourth and fifth grade - and it's really nice to have someone to talk about girl things to. We totally bonded over $30 worth of cake, our first serious, long-term breakup stories. I didn't expect to be good friends with her either. We started out as coworkers who barely talked to each other in the first year, though she would tell me things about herself that she preferred to keep private whenever we worked together. Then we started hanging out outside of work and we became really close friends. She always buys me little things I mention, and it's really sweet and thoughtful of her to remember things like that. I really love this girl to death! One fun fact about her, is that she really likes eating donuts.

I (re)became close friends with Pramod, too » Pramod was my good friend and classmate in 8th grade, and we pretty much lost touch between the time we graduated middle school and sometime near the middle of this year. We're hanging out pretty often now, though it's usually one of us running errands and the other person to keep the errand-runner company. We haven't lost the friendship we had in 8th grade where we'd constantly make fun of each other, though now we talk a lot about the deeper and more meaningful things in life like coffee and bad drivers. Picture recycled from here, cause we don't take a lot of selfies together either.

I'm blogging more consistently » I've always wanted to get "into" blogging because I remember the good ol' Xanga days where everyone blogged about their day and I think it's pretty cool to have a place where you can write and share your thoughts. Now it takes a little more time and effort since there's so many other things going on like a job and actual responsibilities, and even though I feel like I have to push myself at times it's very rewarding to me. Plus I met some great friends as well - looking at you, Ashley and Mei!

James is visiting here until the 3rd of January, so I won't have a new post up until after then. We're exploring New York City together and it's funny to say, because I've grown up here but I still don't know a lot about what my city has to offer. We'll have a lot of fun regardless, and we're celebrating the new year together. So happy new year, you guys - I hope you had as great of a year as I did. See you in 2015!