20-20;

When I scroll back in my blog and see the hopes I had for 2020, I feel a sense of dramatic irony now that we have all lived through this year. 2020 was supposed to be the glorious year of graduating college and gap year traveling. But all it took was a virus to expose how feeble our best-laid plans are.

As someone who loves hosting gatherings, enjoying restaurants, and getting lost at crowded concerts, this year felt like a sacrifice of who I am. Yet in a lot of ways, 2020 was a follow-through of a trajectory my life was already tracing. In my social life I am naturally open and trusting, but in recent years I have been prioritizing a tighter circle of friends — pledging loyalty to my ride-or-dies and denying the riff-raff. 2020 took that to an extreme as socializing became perilous and online interaction exhausting. When I wasn’t living at my parents house, I also became more independent, which has been a trend for the past four years, too. I worked daily for a clinical research job from home, cooked for myself, paid bills, maintained our little home with friends from college. I complain that this pandemic took a lot away from me, but in truth my life has blessfully remained quite stable.

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A review of personal music reviews

Hey there. Even as December 31^st confronts me face-to-face, I still feel at a loss of words for this year. But maybe music will help.

But of course, this wouldn’t be “piece of caustic” without a critique of how something came about. And as a long-time Spotify user, Spotify’s new tactics AREN’T going to go unnoticed. Unlike previous years, your “Wrapped” is unable to be viewed on desktop. Instead, trying to open the analysis on desktop prompts you to download the mobile app. For the purposes of functionality, nostalgia, and _{trying to make uploaded photos on WordPress look pretty}, I dislike this. Spotify is best enjoyed on desktop. There, you can scroll through long playlists, see a bunch of things at once. Meanwhile, on mobile, the app is only bearable with Premium’s on-demand streaming.

Looking back on a decade

For kids in the Class of 2020, next year is like a mythical promised land — it has always been a set of numbers too neat and far-off to be true. Until now.

The end of the year

Waist-deep in the relaxing, lethargic ooze that is called Winter Break, I’m blinking at the realization that the next chapter is right in front of our noses. Before it’s too late, I better recap my life since I last posted, and jot down some expectations for the next year.

My life has pleasantly lined up so that Wednesday marks more than a new year or decade, but also a new phase of my life. As someone in the Class of 2020, next year I will be graduating from college, taking my gap year, and applying/(getting in?) to medical schools. After that is the rest of my career until I retire.

But as much as pre-professionalism occupies my mind, I am keenly aware that I have grown in ways that a resume can’t encapsulate. I think I have had my most stable year thus far because I am finally embodying better confidence, perspective, and contentment in my everyday life. Even though I haven’t been attending therapy this year, I couldn’t have gotten to this point without supportive friends and family. It also helps that, with the privilege of my position in society, I’ve passed the challenging checkpoints of my career path on the first try (pre-med classes, MCAT).

Monthly Me (Sept. ’19)

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  First botany class field trip

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Even after studying for the MCAT all summer, there was still an adjustment to school starting. From reuniting with the farmers market, overcoming my new STEM classes, and catching up with my roommates, I’d say this month was a success!

Seattle

A few days after my MCAT exam, my family flew out to Seattle to visit my sister, who works there.

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It was my first time in Seattle and Northwest America in general! It was a little chillier than I would have liked for late August, but I was impressed by the plentiful waters and the mountains, rugged and rug-like with their thick carpet of evergreens.

Elementary: The Finale

Y’all…a show that I started watching when I was fourteen ended this week. I’m currently 21 and already missing these characters dearly.

I’m hardly coherent so here are my bulleted thoughts on what I thought was so great and fitting about this last episode (in semi-chronological order)

Elementary: The Final Season – It’s Ending!

The Reichenbach storyline is a classic one in Sherlock Holmes, but I am still anxious as hell about how this season is wrapping up — I am not ready for this show to end!

Monthly Me (July ’19)

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  Brunch on brunch

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  Propagating my spider plants again

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July alternated between me getting scorched on my walk to work and days of relentless flood warnings blowing up my phone. There was even a flood warning during the Fourth of July party at my house — though luckily we grilled and chatted without a drop of rain. I think that party I hosted was the highlight of my summer. I’ve never grilled by myself before, never ordered a plethora of party supplies from Instacart…the chopped watermelon, Arnold Palmer, and patties were a huge hit!

Self-care during a summer of studying

Ah, mental health during the summer — this summer marks the first time in a year that I’m not in the therapy, and I am also studying for my MCAT exam in August while having a part-time job. Certainly not the worst of circumstances, but wellness has been on my mind!

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I can talk about my pre-med experience in another post, but since I’m preparing for the MCAT to make up for a lackluster GPA, it is hard to take study breaks without feeling guilty. However, I’m still making it a point to practice self-care through these ways:

• Growing plants, caring for bouquets
• Going to the farmers market and getting said bouquet
• Watching the new Elementary episodes every Friday
• Enjoying the NEW PANERA BREAD that opened on my campus. For those who don’t know, I’m a FIEND for Panera Bread.