Decade in Review

Saw this whole decade in review deal on Lia's blog, and figured what the heck, I'll play along. Turns out this was actually harder than you might think because apparently, I have the memory of a hamster. Sad, sad. Anywho, here's what my feeble self can remember.

2000:

In 2000, I was finishing up 7th grade. And man was I cool. I wish I had pictures to show you, because I weighed about 90 pounds, but I was already 5'4", which apparently is going to be my height forever. Yep, peaked out in 7th grade. But due to my growing so much so fast pre-7th grade, no one would buy me clothes (or especially shoes) that were my actual size. Instead, I was wearing like a size nine and a half shoe and super-long pants because everyone was convinced I was going to keep growing like Alice in Wonderland after she takes that get-big pill. And just so you know, I'm 22 now and wear a 7 1/2 shoe. An 8 on occasion. I looked like Ronald McDonald.

That was also my last year at Assemblies of God Christian school, aka That Place Where They Screw Up Your Brain Forever. Example: had a second period Bible teacher (required course every year) who would put healing oil on people's first-period gym class boo-boos. She would wave palm fronds around the classroom. She sent me to the principle's office for wearing power beads because she told me they were the tool of Satan.

Anyone remember those? They were my go-to accessory, and I'm pretty sure I had every color Claire's stocked. Told you I was cool.

2001:

I left That Place Where They Screw Up Your Brain Forever and went to public school, which my grandmother was convinced would turn me into a Satan-worshiping stripper within 15 minutes. I felt so free that year, and went down the hallways saying "crap" without fear of getting a CDC slip (Character Development Class, aka after-school detention, aka more time to screw up your mind).

Everyone else probably hated eighth grade, but because I was in public school and felt like I had just escaped Vietnam, I loved it. We had dances! I know, that was all old hat for y'all, but for me, it was amazing. I even wore a pair of pleather pants to the winter dance, I was so excited. Yep, that's right. Pleather. We also went to Disney World in the spring of that year, and we all know that Disney World is my favorite place on earth, so Mt. Pleasant Middle School was pretty much sealed as the best institution ever in my mind.

2002:

I moved on to high school, still in public school. I remember spending the first week wandering around like a lost puppy, thinking every hallway looked the same. I thought it was amazing though - going to walk around Friday night football games and giggle with friends, not having to walk with your class to lunch. I started dating a boy who was a junior, which got me a ticket to prom, which I loved. I wore a big crazy, shimmery, sparkly purple dress and had my hair up in a billion curls. I think my mother nearly had a heart attack thinking I'd come home pregnant, but I had fun and thought I was super-fancy getting to go to prom.

2003:

Sophomore/junior year - ended up on the outs with the freshman year boyfriend (doesn't everyone?) and actually started talking more to PB. That ended up with me sneaking over to his house under the guise of "doing homework" even though we never had any classes together. But that ended poorly with PB wanting to be a sophomore-in-high-school jerkface and we said mean things to each other on AIM and that was that. Went to prom with a girlfriend of mine who was a junior, drove the pink '60 Cadillac and had a lovely time.

2004:

I finally turned 16! I'm a year younger than everyone else due to skipping kindergarten (probably the most fun grade in my opinion), so getting my driver's license was a big deal. I turned 16 on a Friday, and was so crazily OCD about passing the test that I asked my friend to let me take it in her VW bug, the teeniest car ever. I passed the test - I mean, you don't grow up in the country and learn to drive at eight years old for nothing - and remember driving out of the DMV parking lot alone, thinking it was the weirdest feeling in the world.

I went to Governor's School the summer after junior year and met who would become my freshman year roommate at Carolina. People always make fun of Governor's School but it was seriously awesome. You can be selected to go in an academic or artistic area, so of course I went to be an English nerd all summer. But the state pays for you to live at Salem College for six weeks, and even though there are curfews and schedules and such that I never really had at home, as a junior in high school it felt like the most independence I'd ever had. We'd walk around Old Salem, swim in the college pool, have dance parties at night. It was too much fun.

2005:

I was organizing a blood drive, and walking around to classes that I knew would be full of juniors and seniors to sign folks up. I walked into PB's civics class and asked him to sign up, after not really talking to him much since sophomore year. He just straight up asked me for my number, and started calling me the next week. Of course, I had another boyfriend at the time, who I'd met when I was visiting my freshman year roommate/governor's school roommate. Finally, PB and I ditched our respective prom dates and decided to go together. The rest is history.

2006:

I went off to college at Carolina, rushed a sorority, wrote for the newspaper, and tried to do everything including dating PB even though he was back home, my family hated him because he wasn't a UNC frat boy, and I had zero time for anything. It was a rough year - I hated living in a room the size of a shoebox with someone else, I hated fighting 24/7 with PB and about PB, and I decided that year to go to summer school at UNC Charlotte and graduate from UNC a year early.

2007:

I finally started getting more used to UNC, and I was happier because I moved into an apartment with three girls where I had my own room. That alone did wonders for my sanity. There were still rough patches, and I came home a lot - Chapel Hill was ok, but it was never home for me and I missed home a whole lot. People wanted to call that immaturity, they wanted to call it PB's fault, they wanted to call it abnormal, but even now, I know that it just wasn't the place I needed to be forever.

I worked that summer at the Boys and Girls Club, as a camp counselor at a camp out in the country. I don't think I've ever had a better summer. It was hot, it was tiring, and I was sometimes drowning in a sea of 60 kids at a time, but it was the best job I have ever had. I got paid to hang out with kids, tie-dye t-shirts, swim, fish, canoe, and go on nature hikes. I would have paid someone else to have that job.

2008:

The year I graduated from UNC! My parents and grandparents were so excited, but I was just relieved to be done with that, but scared to death of everything else. I wanted desperately to get into Teach for America, and I applied in the fall of 2007 when I was 19. I made it all the way to the final interviews, but I didn't get it, and I cried for three days. The family sort of guilted me into law school, and I don't know how, but I ended up at South Carolina in the fall of that year. The only saving grace that year was meeting Lia - it seemed like everything else had gone to hell. I was living in the hood, yo - a product of not deciding where I was going until three weeks before classes started. I was also living in a place infested by giant, giant palmetto bugs. That is a fancy word for roach. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but living in a house full of 3-inch long roaches that fly and hiss plus going through your first year of law school will make you a complete neurotic. I decided to leave USC after that year and never look back. I'm glad I met Lia there - but the rest? Total wash.

2009:

Settled back into my ways here at home, got my house, and got happy again. Turns out that even law school is better when I'm back where I'm supposed to be. 2009 actually flew by - it was such a blur that I can't even remember much about it, seriously. Went to law school, had a good internship, moved into my house. Happy happy joy joy!

2010:

Still loving life. Went back to my internship and worked my butt off and learned a ton this summer. After that, went to Savannah with PB and got engaged after five years together! Started planning our wedding, had an engagement party, and got Peggy Sue (who I'm going to sell to the circus if she doesn't stop ringing the "go outside" bell for no reason like she's been doing the whole time I've been attempting to blog.)

And that's the past ten years! Wahoo! Happy 2011!