To make up for 79 posts with one, I'll start with this (stay with me 'til the end of this post, and you might just get a super-treat):
If you're wondering, yes, that was my eighteenth birthday cake. And yes, featured on the cake is my first and only ever true love, the great Bob of the Sponges. Couldn't have thought of a more fitting way to immortalize my youth on this day that I've supposedly become an adult by insisting on inviting the epitome of immaturity to join in on the celebration ;)
On a more serious note, I suppose it's time to do some reflection. After all, I think the whole point of this 365-challenge was to come to some sort of deeper understanding about myself. Before I do that, though, I should probably bring you up to speed on some of the key events of the past three months.
October
Shortly after the Thanksgiving blog post, I was simultaneously turned down for the Blyth Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship and offered to attend an interview at King's College, Cambridge. The notification emails came within a span of hours, which in hindsight, was strange foreshadowing for events that would soon follow. Won't dwindle too much on this, other than to say that it was a highly stressful period of time.
November
Little recollection about this month, really. Time just seemed to fly by, and I really just couldn't wait to visit Europe for the first time ever in December.
December
Things started out on a good note, with the knowledge that I had somehow become a UofT National Scholarship finalist, which was completely unexpected considering I had actually forgotten that I had applied. The highlight of the month, however, was definitely my trip to England for that anticipated interview at Cambridge.
King's College, in all its glory.
The trip itself is a whole 'nother blog post, but I will tell you that I don't think I have ever been anywhere quite as beautiful.
January
And that brings us back to this week. What a crazy week it's been. Yesterday, Cambridge decisions were finally sent out, and I went through an emotional rollercoaster ride from being pooled to rejected in the span of 8 hours. That, of course, deserves a separate post of its own, so we'll leave things at that for now.
***
This day last year, I aimed to document the next 365 days with a daily photo, capturing my last days of childhood. At the time, I said: "I am not ready for this. I don't want to grow up. But I can't stay a kid forever."
17 was a year of changes. Big ones and small ones, and good ones and horrendous ones.
Some memories were captured in words, but most are already beginning to fade, and will soon be lost to history.
The bad ones are the ones that stick: bombed tests, rejection letters, and my parents fighting yet again. But some of the good ones, too, have been carefully documented and saved from oblivion: unexpected scholarships, after-school snacks, and sparkling moments of love and laughter in the mundane life of a so-very-busy-all-the-time IB student.
And with the change of the seasons and months, I've changed as well as a person. I cry less, think more, worry less, smile more, and blog less, but live more.
Adulthood? I'll be the first to admit that I'm still not 100% ready. But hey, knowing that I got through some of the toughest obstacles life has thrown at me so far definitely gives me confidence.
And hey, having a Nimbus Two Thousand and One might just help me soar. :)
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