2017 Reflections

My goal for 2018 is to blog more. And it's 2 weeks into the year...and that has been my goal for like 2 years now but maybe it'll stick this time. I know few, if any, people are actually reading this but I want it more as a way for me to look back and see where I was in my life. So here goes.

A Walk Down Memory Lane...

January:

I started 2017 off by going on my first solo trip! I went to visit Alexa in Philadelphia and had the best time. I have a whole post about it so I'm not going to say much else.

February:

This month was my last at Forever 21! I had my last day at the end of the month because I started my internship on campus with Cisco. I loved my time at Forever 21 for the most part but it was time to move on to something more relevant to what I wanted to do. I remember being really sad because Marshall came in on his day off to give me flowers and treats, meanwhile the store manager and assistant manager working that day didn't have any sort of goodbye for me. Dad and George and Riley also came up that month and we had a day in San Francisco at the MoMA, where I'm pretty sure I saw Willie Garson, aka Stanford from Sex and the City.

March:

March was full of travel! I got chosen to go to a journalism conference in New York City with one other student. And by chosen I mean very few people applied and I was kind of a rockstar at Student Media anyways. That was an incredible experience and I just had a damn good week because I got to go to another conference in SF and got my second job as the Student Media Marketing person! That was so cool because I was the first ever and we basically built it from the ground up.

At the end of March, I went on my cruise to Ensenada with Julia which was so amazing and so memorable. It was our first trip together in our entire decade of friendship and we had so much fun. I met two dudes in the span of 4 days and it was great, honestly. This year was all about opening up and meeting people and seeing people and that cruise really did it for me.

April:

Technically this was still my spring break, but the first week of April I went to Joshua Tree for the first time! It was so beautiful and I wish I'd gone back. I turned 22 and had a mellow birthday with sushi at I Love Sushi for the 4th year in a row and went to the bars after. It was the first time my S/O at the time came along to stuff with my friends and that was special. We also had our alumni dinner for SoMECA and it was the first time I could go out to the bars with alumni which was really fun!

May:

I can't for the life of me remember anything from May. My Instagram and Snapchat memories also don't have anything to show besides a Memorial Day BBQ.

June:

Probably the busiest and most eventful month by far! At the start of the month, I flew down to surprise my mom for her nursing school graduation. The video of her surprise is my favorite, because it's not until the moment they pull up to the airport terminal she actually gets what's going on. That same visit, I said goodbye to her house. It was bittersweet because we had spent a few years there and had some good memories, but I was excited for her to move into a beautiful new home of her own with her then-boyfriend.

Quickly after that, everything happened. I finished my last film class ever (my seminar with Kahana and with my favorite people Amara, Mindy and Sarah) and graduation quickly approached! We had our last Wednesday production after my 3 years of CHP. I had 90 Wednesdays just like that and it was so surreal to watch it end. I popped down to Riverside for Riley's high school graduation and got to see the whole family. A few days later, they all came up to Santa Cruz for my graduation.

I continued my internship throughout the summer and was coming back up to campus daily so it didn't feel that different, really.

July:

Had a 4th of July BBQ but went to bed without any fireworks. Said a very sad goodbye to my friend Stefanie before she moved up to Portland. I think this is also the month where I started this blog! We also went to SLO for summer orientation for my sister and saw the campus for the first time which was so fun.

August:

Took a day trip to SF and got the call I'd been very anxiously waiting for that I got my job! I was still at my Cisco internship but this was the first big girl job I applied to in town and I had been through a couple other steps in the interview process. This was make or break because I had an unpaid internship I had to do the application process for down in LA and if I didn't get this job I would have likely moved in with my mom. At that point I really didn't know what I was doing or what I wanted to do. I wasn't really ready to leave Santa Cruz but I also wasn't super set on staying but I'm so glad I stayed and was ecstatic to get this. Later that month, I started working but was still searching for housing, which was really nerve-wracking because I thought I wouldn't find anything.

September:

I started getting into the swing of things at work this month despite a crazy robbery which messed up all the work I had done in my first 3 weeks. After that, we could only go up. I also took one of my favorite trips, to Puerto Vallarta. I wrote about it here so I won't say much else. I got the keys for my new studio which I finally found! While I was in Mexico, my dad so so sweetly moved in my bed and got me all set up with essentials so that when I got back my place was all set. Living in a studio has been such a game changer for me and I'm not sure why I never tried out living alone sooner.

October:

I missed moving Riley in to college while I was in Mexico which was a huge bummer but I got to come down to celebrate my mom's birthday one weekend and then Parent's Weekend the next. I don't get to see my family as much now that I'm working 9-5 and don't get holiday breaks but the last couple of months have been good for me. We celebrated Julia's birthday with a fun night out. Then Halloween came and I dressed up as a flapper for a night out with Marshall and it was insanely fun. On actual Halloween, I was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and one of the coolest things ever happened when Sarah Michelle Gellar liked and commented on my instagram post. It got even better when she reposted it! It was also really nice because my ex hand-made me a wooden stake despite us breaking up a couple of days before. No one really got who I was but Kelsey was my #1 fan so nothing else matters.

November:

This month, my dads went through the process of getting a house in SLO. I had my last trip to our house in Riverside, though I thought we'd be back maybe one more time. We spent Thanksgiving with my mom but I also made a trip earlier in the month for me to see the house one last time. I had my annual Friendsgiving which I've now done for 5 years! We had a turkey bowl for work and I saw Chad Michaels at Splash in San Jose. I felt like I was really getting into the swing of things this month.

December:

My favorite month! We started early in the month by adopting 8 families (45 people!) to buy Christmas presents for in town. We spent a whole morning at Target buying everything and then came back to the office and had an assembly line of gift wrapping. It was so cool that we got to do something like this and I'm really grateful to have a company that gives back in such a great way. The next day, I went to my first ever company holiday party. It was amazing. It was at the Dream Inn, which I'd never even seen before. We started on the pool deck overlooking the ocean where we got champagne, bacon wrapped shrimp and a bunch of other appetizers. They brought in fire dancers at sunset which was insane! Inside, we had a nice dinner with filet mignon, chicken, fish and tons of other food as well as an open bar. The open bar lead to dancing all night with my coworkers which was unexpected but really fun.

I decorated my own place for Christmas for the first time and then spent Christmas in my dads' new house for the first time. We barely got the Christmas tree up but it was still so nice. Then we went to my mom's on Christmas Day and I got to see Alexa the next day for some LA fun. The end of the month/year was spent in Napa with my aunt and uncle and grandparents and dads.

2017 was a good year on a personal level. I experienced so much growth in so many ways. In January, I didn't know what I wanted to do and I was still second guessing my film degree despite having studied it for 4 years and getting ready to graduate with it. It felt so good to get a job in the field and really solidify my interest in it. I got 3 different jobs this year and got some really great opportunities. I travelled to great places and became closer with great friends. Moving to my studio was probably the best part of the year and one of the best things for me as a person. It feels so good to come home and have the space to myself and be able to pay for it with my own paycheck. I never thought I'd stay in Santa Cruz past school but the choice feels so good now. I love my job and I've never felt so comfortable and so close to my coworkers. 2018 is going to be good too.

Favorites:

TV shows:

This is Us

Why did I become a sobbing mess once a week? This. Show. And usually, more specifically, Randall. My friend recommended it and I haven't looked back since. I was hooked from the first episode because the way it trips up the timeline is brilliant and every single episode pulls at your heartstrings. Even when nothing much happens in an episode, I'm totally sucked in.

Insecure

This is a recent discovery but I'm absolutely in love. Issa Rae is brilliant. This show just gets shit. Way to well. There have been so many moments that parallel what life is like so well, it's freaky. I like that Issa is kind of a spaz that doesn't really have her shit together because that's totally me. I also love the ridiculousness of the white characters because even though it may seem exaggerated, it's not at all far off from what POC experience daily.

The Handmaid's Tale

I loved this one for the same reasons as everyone else. It was well done, tells a really interesting story and is full of badass females. I love Elizabeth Moss and pretty much every other actress in there and I'm stoked for season 2!

Death Note

I have never watched an anime in my life and I watched every. single. episode. I underestimated anime but the storytelling was so good an unique and I'm not sure why I didn't give it a chance sooner. The first and only time I saw my significant other at the time cry was during the finale. Don't even bother with the Netflix American version movie, it's absolute garbage that even Williem Dafoe couldn't save.

Honorable Mentions:

Big Little Lies

Master of None

Stranger Things

American Gods

Broad City

*Youtube Show:

I only have one of these but I watched Buzzfeed Unsolved religiously. Amara got me into this as well as the Serial podcast and said we should have our own podcast and call it Please Don't Murder Me. Anyways, Ryan and Shane are so funny and I really like the way they do their shows.

Movies:

Honestly, I'm struggling to write this part because I don't feel like I saw anything super memorable. I went to the movies a lot and even got a Movie Pass so I could go even more, but not much stands out so I'm not going to say much about any of these.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

This one was a favorite because a boy showed me the first one and it became our thing. I realized I've never seen a Marvel movie without a boy (significant other, friend, mom's husband). And I'm not a huge fan of Marvel or superhero movies but these are different. They're so funny but also stupid and don't take themselves too seriously like other ones. The soundtrack is probably my favorite of the year and I could listen over and over.

Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri

I didn't even know what this film was about going into it and I'm glad because it kind of blew me away. It was so good but in a subtle enough way that it wasn't too hyped going in. It was funny and dark and poignant and every second was just really entertaining.

The Big Sick

Funny and sad and not sure how I never heard of Kumail Nanjiani but he's hilarious.

Blade Runner 2049

Any movie where I get to watch Ryan Gosling for 3 hours is a good movie in my books. I did think it was a little slow and predictable, but it was so pretty to watch I almost didn't care.

Podcasts:

2017 was the year of the podcast for me and I got obsessed with listening to them, especially once I quit my retail job and started working in an office. I got unhealthily obsessed with true crime but they're really fascinating to listen to.

Serial and S-town

These were the podcasts that started it all. They were the first ones I listened to and I'm not sure whether I actually started them this year or last year but they deserve a mention as my inaugural podcast obsession!

Pod Save America

Hands-down my favorite of 2017. I've never enjoyed listening to ad runthroughs more and every episode delivers informative, funny talks from these guys. I feel like I'm up to date on the news and learning about issues I might not understand in a way that's super accessible but also just really hilarious. I would marry John Lovett in a heartbeat.

True Crime Garage

I will start this by saying I don't really like the Captain because he's a total dick to Nick and never really has anything good to say, mostly because I want to look back and see if I still feel that way.

Stuff You Should Know

A newer discovery because I was trying to stop with the true crime. I've still ended up at episodes about crime scene cleanup, psychopaths and Lizzie Borden, though...

Ones that I either like but don't have much to say about, used to like but fell out of touch with, or just forgot about until I wrote this:

The Daily

This American Life

Lore

Criminal

Sword and Scale

Generation Why

Dirty John