Scribble #24: Pretty Good Year

“They say you were something in those formative years.”

This is my last blog that I will be creating while here in Ann Arbor for this academic year. This year has been a rollercoaster ride for me. I remember during my rough first weeks of the academic year back in August and September 2021, I wished that if I closed my eyes, I would open them and be here, where I am now, at the end of the year and heading home. It didn’t work, thank goodness. I would have missed so much if that had happened, but the year seems to have gone by just as quickly as if I had.

“Hold onto nothing as fast as you can,”

Time sure does fly when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?

“Well, still, pretty good year,”

Here’s to the karaoke nights where I sang until I lost my voice. Here’s to the yoga breaks my friend and I would take to break up our studying. Here’s to all the times I wanted to cry but didn’t have the time or energy to spare. Here’s to the windows-down drives to McDonalds, even though it was freezing outside. Here’s to sitting on my friend’s floor, talking with her so late into the night that I nearly fall asleep there. Here’s to achieving my high-school goal of becoming a tour guide for my university. Here’s to the therapist appointments that helped me realize that here – right now – is what my ultimate form of happiness can feel like. Here’s to calling my housemates every time I accidentally lock myself out. Here’s to forgetting to journal but being able to keep up with this blog, so when I look back at my sophomore year of college I can see a bit into my mind. Here’s to me and my friends making cardboard cutouts of celebrities with our leftover printing money. Here’s to making new friends and finding my people. Here’s to never really being alone, even when I’m across the country from my friends. Here’s to finishing my sophomore year at the best university in the world. Here’s to coming back in four months. Here’s to the present, and here’s to the future.

“Pretty good year.”

Listen to Pretty Good Year by Tori Amos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abvktnzBUkU