While I firmly believe that in the future, I will refer to 2013 as "The Year I Sprained My Ankle So Many Times That My Left Foot Couldn't Fit In My Boots Anymore," it was also a year of wonderful experiences, new opportunities and incredible memories. I definitely think I was able to become a better, stronger person than I was in 2012 and here are thirteen things I learned that helped me get there.
1. Like something lame and own it.
The obsession I have with One Direction rivals that of an 8-year-old girl. During finals week, I got a fever and spent the entire duration of my delirium watching 1D music videos on repeat, then crying because Zayn had such perfect cheekbones. (I was really, really sick). I watched the whole One Direction documentary by myself and in a move that will pretty much assure I will never have a boyfriend, once tweeted something with the hashtag "#1Dgirlfriends." The amount I love them probably should be embarrassing, but at this point, I've just learned to accept it as one of my (many) quirky and awkward personality traits.
Another weird trait of mine is that I'm a huge nerd about fonts. The day One Direction gets a better branding font will be a wonderful moment. If they somehow find a way to incorporate an ampersand in it, I will probably die from sheer happiness.
2. Spend more money on experiences, not things.
As much as I want pretty much every item in Urban Outfitters, I've tried to realize that items don't last forever, but experiences will. My favorite memories from 2013 didn't include the moment I spent money on a dress that I probably couldn't afford. In fact, I hated that time because I had to leave work early, get stuck on the T for over an hour and be that girl running to the commuter rail in order to make the train in time, all for an overpriced dress. Not fun. Instead, one of my favorite memories from 2013 includes when I wore that dress on a night out in NYC with my best friend, Chelsea, after we fan-girled at a Taylor Swift concert, then met an inordinate number of Irish people at a bar. When I think of the best night of my summer (aka the night that my younger brother and I went to a Backstreet Boys concert), the most important thing about that night wasn't buying an extremely overpriced t-shirt, even if Nick Carter's face did look divine. It was spending the moment with Dana and sharing a childhood dream come true. And, in May, Sarah and I bought super-cool snapbacks to wear to Boston Calling. We wore them during Portugal. the Man and I remember just feeling so, so happy in that moment. By the end of the summer, we had both lost our snapbacks, but today, I almost considered eating Taco Bell for the first time in nine years because "Evil Friends" plays in their new commercial. So, yeah, experiences are way better than things because if a memory from a concert can almost convince me to eat Taco Bell, anything is possible.
After re-reading this paragraph, I guess I'm just saying spend money on concerts. Also, if anyone wants to go to the 1D concert with me in Boston in August, let me know. My brother refuses to go and said he drew the line at Backstreet Boys.
3. Don't let something little ruin your day.
I think that Steve Jobs would hate me because of something I did once. In the most dramatic thing I have ever done in my laid-back life, getting a text message (or lack thereof) led to me throwing my phone across the room (into, like, a pile of pillows. I'm not that dumb). Immediately after I did it, I realized that this behavior was absurd. It reminded me of high school, when my friend Jess and I would give each other our phones, then hide them around the house so that we wouldn't let a guy's sub-par texting skills ruin our day. Think about it: it's pretty insane to let a few words on a screen dictate how your entire day is going to go. Life is so much bigger than that. Things that bother you now might not be important to you in a year because you'll be at such a different point in your life. Let it go.
Also, don't throw your phone. That's idiotic.
4. Realize when you are being a tool.
Pretty self explanatory. Sometimes, I can be a tool and for that, I am sorry.
5. Have a job that you love.
When I was offered an internship at Cercone Brown last summer, I didn't realize that taking it would completely change the way that I designed. Although I had experience designing for Cardinal Communications, Ball State's student-run creative communications firm, it was the area of design that I felt least comfortable in. Now, after finishing a ten-week summer internship and working as a creative freelancer for them since August, I know that my design style has improved. My work with Cercone Brown led me to feel qualified enough to apply for a position as the Creative Director for Cardinal Communications and I feel so lucky as to have been able to have an experience like that in 2013. Going to work every day never felt like going to a job because it was in an environment that I loved and let me grow creatively. There's nothing cooler than riding the T and seeing a poster I designed being viewed by all of Boston's public transportation users. I learned that the passion I had for the creative work I made for Cercone Brown is important and I'll definitely take that lesson into wherever I end up after graduation.
6. Do not let your intoxicated roommate carry you after spraining your ankle on the walk to Dill Street.
If you are running through backyards in an attempt to find a short cut to the Village and happen trip over a bike, consequently spraining your ankle, you should probably just end the night there. Do not let your intoxicated best friend piggy-back you to Dill Street because she will accidentally drop you and then you will be laying on a sidewalk on University for a solid five minutes until you feel like you can function again (love you, Dia). Also, if your ankle hurts so bad to the point that tears are rolling down your face, you should go home, not on the dance floor at Dill. "Girl Crying And Limping On the Dance Floor" is not a cute look. In fact, it's probably horrifying. I was that girl once in 2013 and once was enough. My clumsiness has led me to invest in an ankle brace that I'll put on before going out, which makes me like the most prepared awkward person ever. It's a miracle that I have friends.
7. What's right for you may not be right for other people.
Two of my best friends, Taylor and Kyle, are marrying each other this summer. They're the cutest couple ever and I cry every time I think about their wedding, even if I'm in really public places like the library or at work. (It's fine. I'm a really embarrassing human being).
Between our group of friends, it's a running joke that by the time I get married, their child will be too old to be either the flower girl or ring bearer in my wedding. But, really: it's not a joke. I definitely know that I'm not ready to settle down anytime soon. I still have difficulty putting socks on correctly, so planning a wedding is for sure out of the question until I'm at least able to do that.
I think that I'm very lucky in the fact that I have friends who are all experiencing different things in life. Even though we're all in our twenties, we've made choices that have gotten us to separate places. For some, that means they've found the person they want to spend the rest of their life with early-on and are ready to make that commitment. For others, we're still experiencing things like "The Almost Dick Pic Incident of 2013." Neither way is right or wrong: they're both just different ways of going through life.
In the most typical twenty-something move ever (besides the fact that I'm writing an article called "13 Things I Learned in 2013"), I'm about to quote "Girls" because that's how twenty-something's deal with life and I just re-watched both seasons within three days because Season Three is coming out later this month. Anyway, at some point in the first season, Jessa says, "I don’t like women telling other women what to do or how to do it or when to do it."
So, yeah. That's basically how I feel about that.
8. Friends bond by singing accapella.
After driving to PCB together in March, it is impossible for me to be in a car with Allie, Cody, Kyle and Taylor and not sing "Since You Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson accapella. We all have our own parts, we're not very good at it and we can't get through a verse without laughing. While we were all extremely close before traveling in a small car together for 15 hours, driving with Team JACKT really taught me that I have quality friends who can make any activity fun. I also learned to never give Allie Jolly Ranchers if she's sitting in the middle seat and that I have the ability to sleep through us running over and accidentally murdering a gigantic rabbit.
9. Nothing is more important than family.
I love my family more than anything in the entire world: they give me nothing but support, love and, because of the situations that we somehow always seem to end up in, some pretty good stories that are often outrageous, awkward or embarrassing. I am very, very lucky to have been put into this crazy family and if "Modern Family" ever wants to do a spin-off called "Nuclear Family," we are some prime candidates.
10. The best place to cry is surrounded by your favorite people while singing "Wagon Wheel."
On May 5th, 2013, most of the world experienced Cinco de Mayo. Our friends, however, were unexpectedly celebrating Cinco de Cry-o, which is basically our clever way of marking the date we spent the entire night singing, laughing and bawling our eyes out because a lot of them had just graduated. There are perfect moments in life and I definitely believe that Cinco de Cry-o was not only one of my best memories from 2013, but of my life. There is no better way to solidify a friendship than all singing "Wagon Wheel" while bawling. It really just screams college.
I actually experienced this "Wagon Wheel" phenomenon one other time in 2013 at my last Winter Sorority Formal. All of the members of my Pledge Class were in the middle of the dance floor, singing, holding onto each other and crying because we've been through so much together. It was a pretty special moment, but we were singing to the Darius Rucker version, so it's slightly lower on my totem pole of college memories.
11. The late nights are worth it.
Everyone always says that nothing good happens after 2 a.m., but if that was true, I never would have met Scott the janitor. At this point in my college career, I basically live in the Art and Journalism Building. I've spent fourteen consecutive hours in the Cardinal Communications office on multiple occasions and I rarely leave the building before midnight on weekdays. Because I'm always present in the building, I've become extremely attached to the staff in AJ: whether it be the check-out people in the Atrium or the night-staff janitors, it seems like I interact with them more than my actual roommates.
One night, I was working alone in the Ball Bearings office until 4:30 a.m. As I was about to leave, Scott came in to fix up the room. I ended up staying in the office for another half hour talking to him and have never been more grateful for a conversation. Scott was more than encouraging: he told me how all of my hard work was going to pay off in the end and that he was impressed by the products that we students were creating. He said that all the late nights are worth it, which was really exactly what I needed to hear at 4:30 in the morning. It was such a refreshing conversation and as I walked home, I realized how lucky I am to have all these responsibilities and opportunities.
12. You won't get to live with your friends forever.
I live in a typical college house with four of my best friends. You know when you walk into a house and it's perfectly put together with matching furniture and framed photographs on the wall and you just feel like, "Wow, these people have their life together!"? That's not our house. Our sink hasn't worked since October 2012. I have a giant cardboard cutout of Zayn Malik hanging on my door. There's a huge hole in our bathroom wall (it's still a mystery on how it got there) and we call it "the Capitol" because when our doorbell rings, it plays the National Anthem.*
2013 was the year that I realized I wouldn't be living with these people forever. I'm graduating this year and it's a mystery as to where I will end up, but the likelihood of all of us ending up in the same city is ridiculously slim. I'm not always going to get to cuddle with Allie in my bed while we re-cap our lives or drink hot chocolate and bond with Kate over how attractive Captain Hook is in "Once Upon A Time." This is the last year I'll get to see Dia spill cheese all over our fridge and I won't always get to have to ask Cody how to turn on the TV. (Cody loves living with four girls who don't understand how to use technology, I'm sure of it).
I won't get to live with my friends forever, but they will be my friends forever. So, for the next semester, I'm going to love living in our weird house with my favorite people and hopefully, we'll be able to find and destroy the massive centipede that has been haunting us since early October.
* It's pretty obvious that we're all not real people yet because the fact that the doorbell is the National Anthem played an irrationally huge part in our decision to rent the house two years in a row.
13. Life is about learning from mistakes.
I am so good at making mistakes. Anyone that has ever watched me attempt to cook can vouch for that. I think that making mistakes is a part of life for everyone, but it's the aftermath that really shows how a person can develop from them.
I've made mistakes that I can't come back from, but that doesn't mean that I didn't learn from them. Instead of destroying me, they've become a part of me and the person I am today. Whether they were big or little, personal or professional, or just as dumb as the time I let Allie yank my boot off my sprained ankle, the mistakes I made in 2013 made me a better, more successful person and for that, I am thankful.