thoughts on a finished semester and year

I started writing this post in the comfort of my dorm room, the first day that people started leaving for winter break. Now, I'm at home as well, wondering where the past few months had gone. It seems simultaneously that college is home and that just yesterday I was excited for graduation and my senior ballet and had barely finished college applications, let alone picked out where I was going.

Blue tape hallway giraffe says hi.

Now, 2012 is completely and irrevocably finished, and an exciting blank slate of a new year is just beginning. So much happened in the past twelve months and even just the past four that I've been at school, living on my own. I've learned so much and been so blessed--I couldn't be more grateful for the past year. 

My highlights: being a senior soloist in my studio's ballet...making my own Titanic-style prom dress...writing a knitting pattern book...getting into what may not have started out as my dream school, but sure as sunshine has proven to be all that and more...graduating...going to said amazing college...making the most wonderful friends there who I love immensely...seeing a live Broadway play (Les Miserables!)...being in my first college dance performance...and finishing my first semester of college living over 1,000 miles away from my family (that part was hard, but also taught me a lot about how to be a confident young adult--even if that makes me sound like an ad for college)

seeing fall leaves for the first
time--definitely a highlight!

I can't help but look forward to what this new year brings because it's already promised so much. The classes I'm taking this semester sound interesting, and I'm excited for spending another semester with the people who have become my second family (or possibly third or fourth; I have my ballet family of course!) and of course the blue tape giraffe that hangs out in the hallway of my floor. 

While I may not be much of a resolution person, I do have some goals:

• have 15 knitting FOs
• finish the sewing projects I have planned (a skirt I've been working on for ages and a blue satin semi-formal dress)
• sew a long-sleeve shirt for winter next year
• design one knitting pattern, even if it's just for me
• become a better recorder of my life, whether through pictures or writing or blogging. I don't want to let these moments fall into the crevices of time to be forgotten!