2016 Year in Review

Tanya B
Jan 1, 2017
4 min read

Ah, New Years Eve-- A night most often spent in sparkly dresses with a matching smokey eye while getting drunk and trying to figure out who you will kiss at midnight. That is unless you just had ankle reconstruction surgery, don't drink, and the only thing you want to kiss at the moment is this year goodbye.

The trend lately seems to be everyone complaining how bad 2016 has been. Yes, there were many tragedies that happened this year. If you want to read about that, feel free to scroll through your Facebook feed. I figured I'd do a 2016 recap on my blog instead of making one of the obnoxious flipgrams that everyone hates so much. This may be just as obnoxious as that, but I figure it's easier to scroll past and not read.

I decided to look through my photos on my phone to get a refresher of what this year brought me and this is what I found....

I started this year by getting Invisalign. I also decided to put that I got Invisalign down on a sheet that was for my professor of things he "should know about you that may affect your learning." Why I thought Invisalign would have any impact on my learning abilities, I can't tell you, but looks like 2016 was not the year where Tanya didn't do embarrassing stuff. Probably the biggest thing that happened to me in 2016 was that I fell in love, even bigger was that I had my heart broken. This isn't a "Tanya got dumped let's all feel bad for her" blog post. But it would be dishonest of me to not include that in here. This person was a huge part of my year, and when I think about the year 2016 in the future, I know he will be the first thing that pops into my head. Along with love/heartbreak came a lot of weird first dates stories, my favorite having to be when I got sent to urgent care and my parents almost called the police (dedicated blog post to come).

This year was filled with a lot of firsts and new things. I learned a new language (well at least the alphabet), moved into my first big girl apartment, survived my first summer without air conditioning, met the first cat that I actually like, and I started this blog!

2016 also brought some awesome opportunities I never thought imaginable. I started my term as Vice President of Hillel, met the mayor of London, made so many new friends who continue to inspire me everyday ,and started taking more Ubers which allowed me to start the ever so popular "Tanya's weekly Uber updates" Facebook series.

And of course, some things never change....

I consumed more nachos and Barq's root beer than I thought possible.

I continued to have dance be a big party of my life. Spent many hours by the lake at school asking myself if I chose the right major and if I had any chance of passing that organic chemistry exam (I did). And bought more makeup that I did not need.

I also learned a lot, more than just in the 36 credit hours of college classes I took. I learned that people will let you down. The people that you thought you needed the most will disappear and you will be left questioning everything. But, thankfully, people will pick you up when you feel as if you've fallen so low there's no chance you can get up. You will find people who will listen to your same spiel about the same problem as if it was the first time they were hearing about this conundrum even though it's the third time that week and it's only Tuesday.

I learned that olive oil is a miracle worker and that if you think you may not fit through a small space with your car, you probably can't.

I learned that there isn't much a hardcore car jam session to "Drops of Jupiter" on the way to get some gluten free treats can't fix.

I learned that even on the worst of days, you notice the little things like the extra big smile the bus driver gives you or the person who waits a bit longer to keep the door open for you when it's raining. They don't know it, but those kind strangers got me through some days I thought I may not be able to get through on my own.

Finally, it wouldn't be an end of the year post if I didn't include my

new year's resolutions:

1. Re-learn how to walk and hopefully dance again by the end of the year

2. Get better at putting in contacts

3. Eat more nachos

4. Don't take it personally if someone doesn't smile back at you on the street; you don't know what they're going through

5. Find people to take pictures of me so I can keep this blog updated

6. *only because my mother forced me to add this one* Try to curse less

Well friends, that was pretty much 2016 in a blog post! I hope whatever you are doing tonight to celebrate, you are having fun and being safe. Here is to the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, anything is possible!

Instead of a flipgram, here are some of my favorite pics from this year, including the people who helped get me through it.