2014 IN REVIEW

It never ceases to amaze me how much can change in a year. We are always looking forward to the future, dreaming of what it could bring and hoping that every day will be better than the previous. As with every year, 2014 had its ups and downs. The difference with this year is I learned how God's timing doesn't always align with our own plans. I believe it's important to look ahead and do what you can to forge a good path for yourself, but this year more than ever I began to realize the power of the forces that we cannot control.

When I say God's timing doesn't always align with our own, I mean that sometimes we can have ideas about where we see ourselves in a certain amount of time or things that we want to happen, but sometimes things take longer. It's easy to get into that "I want it, and I want it now" mentality. We want to make progress over night, and we want our dreams to come true, but it's never simple. This year, the most important thing I learned was to remember that when we don't get something we want it's because there is something better in store for us. 

I am grateful for the downs that turned into ups, and I am grateful for all of the unexpected ups that made all the downs make sense. This year was one I will never forget.

January

• I got to spend an entire month at home for break. 
• I went skiing for the 2nd time in my life with friends from my dorm.

February

•  I surprised my mom with a weekend at home for my birthday. I swear she looked like she saw a ghost before she started crying, because she was so happy I was home. It was the best.
•  My friends made me the best birthday surprise ever (the video above)!

March

•  I learned HTML and CSS and created my first web pages. 
• The Badger Basketball team got into the Final Four! On Wisconsin!

April

• I made my first podcast ever for a class project. 
• I volunteered at the Wisconsin Film Festival.

May

• I completed my freshman year. 
• My floor had a bonfire bonding night to close out the year.
• I started watching my 4 year old sister, Sydney. I even thought I would blog about it.

June

• I discovered how massive the blogosphere is.
• I decided to start taking my blog more seriously. And the construction began. 

July

• I went to Basilica Block Party for the 3rd consecutive summer. 
• I contributed to hitRECord--Joseph Gordon Levitt's online production company.  
• I got together with a couple of college friends to send another college friend birthday cookies. 

August

• I decided to sponsor a blog for the first time.
• I had my last day working at an Ice Cream and French Fries shop.
• I moved into my first apartment.  
• I ran my first 5K Color Me Rad. 
• I started making blog friends! (This was one of the most exciting parts of diving further into blogging).

September

• I started my second year of college. 
• I got accepted to write for Her Campus-Wisconsin.
• I got a job at a local television station. 
• I participated in my first blogger Twitter chat.

October

• I declared my major in Communication Arts--the Radio, TV, Film track, with a Digital Studies minor.
• I wrote my first sponsored post!
• I signed a lease for a house next year.
• I got to see two of my best friends when they came to visit for Halloween. 
• I got to go to Q&A with TV writer, Stephen Falk.

November

• I saw Ingrid Michaelson live!
• I got to go to a Q&A with documentary filmmaker and UW Alum Jason Cohen.
•  My grandma beat cancer!

December 

• My apartment hosted an Ugly Sweater Christmas party.
• I finished my 3rd semester of college. 

A year ago, I wrote a New Year's post that admitted I have always been a writer. It wasn't easy for me. Being a writer is something I have struggled with for years. It is a part of my identity that I have had a hard time coming to terms with. It is not because I am ashamed of my writing--it's something more than that. I guess part of it is that I have always feared that other people won't accept me as a writer or that I will never become anything as a writer. This year changed that for me. I had people reach out to me to tell me how much they enjoyed reading my blog. Some of these people I hadn't talked to in years or seen in forever, and I never imagined some of these people were even reading my blog.

There is nothing that compares to feeling of someone saying that what you love doing matters. At first, I even had to peek through some of my old posts wondering what ones people were referring to as "good" or "refreshing." I questioned myself, because I had this constant internal battle over whether or not I had what it takes to go after my dreams. After a while, it really started to hit me that this is what I am supposed to be doing, and I couldn't be more grateful to that have had this kind of encouragement. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported my passion. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me and told me that you enjoy reading my blog. Thank you to everyone who has made this year a dream come true. Your words mean more to me than you will ever know.

Happy New Year! And may 2015 bring you everything you are wishing for!


P.S. Most Popular Posts of 2014:
7 Things I Never Want My Little Sister to Feel
College Guys: Expectations VS Reality
6 Signs You are Ready for Winter Break
Fall Favorites
10 Things You Learn At College (Technically 2013, but it got even more popular in '14)

INGRID MICHAELSON TAKES MADISON

Friday night Ingrid Michaelson took the new Memorial Union stage. The concert included on-stage spooning, an attempted paper airplane, and flawless singing in between her sarcastic remarks. I don't think I have ever laughed so much at a concert.

For those of you who may have seen Ingrid at Summerfest or the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis, this was a completely different show. In part, it was because of the venue and the fact that the audience seemed to have a wider age range. But it was also due to Ingrid's slower set. People sat down almost the whole concert, with the exception of a couple groups on the main floor that would stand and dance during some of her more upbeat songs. It wasn't until the final song in her encore that the everyone was on their feet.

Minneapolis Native Chris Koza opened the show with soft indie-pop beats, including a song he wrote that appears on the soundtrack for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, "The Wolves and Ravens." Chris and his guitarist played a short set, not saying much in between songs. The biggest reaction he got from the audience was when he asked if anyone was excited for Ingrid to come out.

Finally, shortly after 9 o'clock Ingrid scurried onto stage and opened with the first song on her Lights Out album, "Home." From the beginning it was clear that she was going to be cracking jokes the whole show. "Madison! I love you guys! You should have a square garden somewhere. Then, I can play there and say I have played Madison Square Garden." During "Maybe" she held out "me" in the "you're gonna come back to me" so long that it first appeared that she was showing off, until she held it out so long it became humorous.

One of the best parts of the concert was when Ingrid said, "Oh, you guys are giving me the vapors." Then admitting she wasn't sure if that was the right word, she joked about Siri not being available to answer her question. She was trying to say the audience member's compliments were making her lightheaded from how sweet they were. A few songs later a crew member popped onto stage with a piece of paper for her, which she announced had the Wikipedia definition for the vapors.

From Wikipedia, Vapors includes: "hysteria, mania, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, fainting, withdrawal syndrome, mood swings, or PMS, ascribed primarily to women and thought to be caused by internal emanations. This is related to the similar term female hysteria. Vapors were considered to be the female equivalent to melancholy found in men."

She was distraught with the fact that it was about female hysteria. But then she read "a case of the vapors" is usually used for sarcastic or comic effect, which helped her justify her attempt at using it.

Then she tried to make the piece of paper into a paper airplane as she complained about how bad she was at making them. Finally, an audience member suggested she crumple it into a ball--which still only made it to the front row.

Before her popular "You and I" she told us one of the things she hates is when people call her "Cute." "No! I am dark and twisted and sad", she pleaded. And then she proceeded to sing, "Maybe I think you're cute and funny. Maybe I wanna do what bunnies do with you, if you know what I mean", and had a group spoon session with the lyrics, "But baby how we spoon like no one else."

She played her top hit from Lights Out, "Girls Chase Boys", and some of her other popular songs, including "The Way I Am." But she slowed it down a lot with songs like, "Winter Song" (her duet with Sara Bareilles), "Ready to Lose," and "Over You."

While singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," she had to restart, because she messed up. "Wouldn't it be great if you could start over at your jobs? Oh, excuse me; can we start this presentation over? Could we just resew this guy back up?" While it wasn't an up-on-your-feet-dancing kind of show, it was still a great show. Her beautiful voice and quirky personality made for a great way to spend a Friday night.

For her encore, Ingrid and her band members sang "Warpath" along to a specific clapping pattern that she admitted to messing up often. She warned the audience not to clap along, because she would mess up and had to start over when someone in the front row clapped along anyway. She finished with "Afterlife", inviting some audience members on stage to dance around them--including a middle aged woman who clearly had a few too many and kept trying to steal the microphone from one of the band members. 

Someone took "We're going to live like there's no tomorrow" a bit too seriously.