A Year in Review

Last year I posted a year in review on my MySpace blog. It was a nice way to recap the year and set some goals for the year ahead.

Last year's hopes and wishes: from a 2005 perspective In 2006, I will turn 18 and graduate high school. I hope to be accepted to either Stanford or UC Berkeley. I hope to strengthen bonds with my friends as well as generate new ones with new people, and even help reattach those broken threads. I hope to reach all of my goals and I will work hard to reach them.

Let us review my year month by month, similar to last year's blog.

January: I started the year off with some of my closest friends, watching movies and hanging out. At midnight I laid outside on a trampoline in the bitter cold discussing aspects of life with Kasey. In a weird way, my best memory of 2006 was also my first. It was finally 2006, the year I have been waiting for since middle school when I discovered I was part of the "Class of 2006". It was also the month of my 18th birthday, turning 18 was not anything like Hollywood leads us to think. Angie went off to college in Colorado which began the longest time I have been away from my sister.

February: Once again Valentine's day was nothing too exciting, but I did get to host the robotics media event. I became friends with the Wallaces at their Valentine's Day party in early February.

March: Traveled to Annapolis and Las Vegas with the robotics team and did very well with our robot. I became further and further behind in school due to the progressive symptoms of the highly contagious disease of senioritus. Finally spring break came and I got to take a brief vacation away from the ridiculous demands of high school. College acceptance letters started pouring in with acceptances from Long Beach, Irvine, Santa Cruz, San Diego and on the last day of March, Berkeley.

April: April Fool's Day was a big day, the robotics team won the second most prestigious award they could and I found out I got rejected from "the school across the bay". I had within that weekend pretty much sealed my fate for my next our years without even thinking too much about it. Within 48 hours of knowing I was accepted, I decided to attend Berkeley to do god knows what.

May: For the past four years of my life, May was almost monopolized by AP testing. This would be my last round of those dreaded tests. High school dwindled to only weeks where the good-byes inevitably began.

June: Happy graduation Benji! 13 years, from kindergarten to senior year in high school, it all came down to that very warm afternoon in early June. I got handed a diploma case as well as a mild sunburn from the hot June weather. The rest of my life had begun and I didn't know what to do and where to start, I just knew I had to enjoy the best summer of my life.

July: The 230th anniversary of our "great" nation. I spent it watching TV in a house that was far too warm for humans to tolerate. I went over to Kasey's house in the late evening and lit sparklers to feel patriotic. We sat on the grass remembering the memories from New Years. I attended my student orientation and went on vacation. My student orientation was two days long, but I only really needed to be there for about an hour of it. My vacation across the left coast of the United States with my family was great. I returned home and caught up with my friends before the last month at home began.

August: Angie went back to Colorado. At that point I have seen her everyday since May and kind of got used to seeing her again. The local high schools started again, this time without me. It was a weird feeling knowing that life at Lancaster High went on without me, but I knew I didn't really want to go back. I was still burnt out from the past four years. In my last month I said goodbye to the people I have gotten to know over the course of a lifetime. I shook many hands and hugged many bodies. My mom and little sister dropped me off in Berkeley with the essentials of my life that accumulated over the past 18 years in a few boxes that managed to fit in a midsize sedan. I spent a week waiting for classes to start and just getting used to my new environment. I also got hired at my current job at The Scholar's Workstation.

September: The Wallaces, Rene, Tyler, and Alan came up from Lancaster to visit me on Labor Day weekend. We toured San Francisco and spent just one more weekend together. School came into full swing with my first true college paper. I came home to Lancaster for a long weekend at the end of the month to help my mom move out of the house into a new one. My room was how I left it, even the smell and look were the same. When we moved it was like I was going away again and I had to pack up even more memories into boxes that I knew may never be unpacked.

October: Just a month filled with repetition. More assignments and a midterm. Time just kept flying by and before I knew it, it was Halloween.

November: Before I knew it, there were six weeks left in the semester. More papers and a midterm and then I realized it was Thanksgiving and I got to go home again. This was when I finally realized I was going to see people I haven't seen since August, unfortunately Angie was not one of them. I did however get to reunite with Kasey and just talk about life, like we used to and we realized even though our lives were now 500 miles apart, they were still very similar and our friendship just as strong. It felt a little bit like it was summer again and that I didn't have a care in the world. Then reality hit and I knew I had to go back for my last three weeks of my first semester at the university.

December: It started with me just wanting finals to be over and wanting to take a break from dorm life and the stress of college. I came back just in time to celebrate the first night of Chanukah with my family. I still had to wait a week before my friends came back to hang out again. Angie was supposed to come back two days earlier than she did, but she was trapped in a blizzard in Denver for two says and our reunion was delayed. The last day of 2006 was spent with the same person as the first, very appropriate if I say so.

Review: Most definitely one of the most eventful years of my life. 18, graduation, college, life, and love. It was hard, it was surprising and it wasn't at all what I expected. On a five point scale, I give it a solid four.

How did I do?Well, I was vague to say the least. I did keep in touch with old friends and now that I am here in college (UC Berkeley) I of course made new friends. I did not get accepted to that school across the bay, but it was all for the better, who wants to spend five times as much money for an education just as adequate? Exactly.

Hopes and wishes for 2007: Well, we're one month into it, so I guess I have to shorten it a little. I hope to keep my relationships strong and let them grow. I look forward to seeing what they blossom into. I hope to live somewhere next semester that isn't the dorms. I want to maintain a good GPA and finally pick a major to work towards. Maybe I'll start a business or something and get rich and drop out of college like a few famous people I know. Or maybe I'll become a model and make money off of my *cough* perfect *cough* body.