2006: "Between Love & Hate"

2006 was a year of many achievements, failures, and plenty noteworthy events. I could write for pages about how it's remarkable that the UN actually has accomplished (positive) things this year, though in the proverbial eleventh hour. I could explicate on how Sudan allowing UN peacekeepers into Darfur is amazing, or how the sanctions on Iran are entirely uncharacteristic for an organization so wound up in bureaucracy and national sovereignty hoopla, but that would be uninteresting and would probably end up sounding contrived, like every other "year in a review" piece. If you're that curious, I would suggest watching the latest JibJab video.

I'm hear to talk about my year. The latter half of my Junior year, summer, and Fall of my Senior year in high school. The excitements, the upsets, the whole shebang. Curiously enough, the title of this post, a Strokes song, is somewhat apropos in describing the year.

My New Year's Resolution: To meet and discover new people, and be open to change in relationships with friends. Be more positive and take more chances in terms of meeting girls and new people to be friends with. Try to reestablish the friendships that broke off in late-2005 and if they don't work out then drop them, hard. Don't need to bring any excess baggage into this hard year (think about it - 1st semester finals, 2nd semester/finals2, summer before senior year, first semester senior year, ACT/SAT, college apps.)

That was my proverbial "New Year's Resolution" for 2006. This particular ideology came out of being completely blown off by the people who I called "my friends" last year on New Year's Eve. No one was home in my house, I basically sat around (alone) and, for lack of anything better to do, watched the Twilight Zone marathon on SciFi. Not exactly my idea of a good time.

I returned to school, hellbent on dealing with the situation and I did -- the people involved, I refused to really hang out with them at all before an apology was reached and it was not for the time being, so such is life. Taking a break from that line of craziness, I spent second semester last year really making sure I got all of my ACTs dealt with, my grades decently set up, and whatever else.

My 'extracurriculars' definitely changed as I did over this semester; Model UN was a crazy time this semester as well, with exec board members quitting, strife on the board, and general mayhem, it was at times hectic. The MUNI conference ended up being a great deal of fun, surprisingly enough, and it was definitely a conference to remember. Drops of Ink came into its own with me, as Brendon joined the group, and I became better friends with some of the seniors on staff. And of course, Debate, with my 0 debates and despite my placing 44th/46 at state, it was a fantastic time.

For a certain change of pace, that semester, I visited my friend at BU during my spring break. I have already gone into it, but that really opened me up to new opinions about things and triggered a lasting love for that particular school and enough goodness to get me through the end of the year.

I found a new passion that semester, which manifested itself in Mock Trial, which virtually dominated every waking hour of my life (outside of homework) from late January to March when we went to state. Through this team, and I'm "serious as a heart attack" when I say this; I met some great people - Dan Porter, Sean Clement, etc - and had an amazing time portraying witnesses for both the defense and prosecution. A guy that would never "throw you under a bus," Mr. Duffy was also a solid addition the repertoire of people in my life. This even went so far as to convincing me in going to a camp over the summer called "Mock Trial Academy" in which I was able to meet several people from across the country that I hope to see again in the future, giving me great hope for college, as this was somewhat of a college-esque atmosphere.

And lest I forget, prior to the Mock Trial camp, I received a fateful phone call from one of my former friends, Blake, apologizing for the "New Year's Eve fuck up" and pleading for forgiveness so that our group of friends can reunite once again for a final hoo-rah senior year. Of course, I believed this line of bullshit, and against my better judgment, decided "hey, I'll give it one last shot."

The summer was filled with interesting times, to be brief; the words "Innocence Faded" just about sums up my summer, both figuratively and literally, between the actual filming of the movie to the behind the scenes drama. The failed camping trip, the drinking tickets (not mine, sorry, I'm not retarded enough to get trashed at concerts), the late night Taco-Hut runs -- quite the experience.

Interjecting in the production of Innocence Faded though, was my cross-country trip to Pitt, BC, Tufts, and BU. I enjoyed the luxuries of wireless Internet through the generosity (ha!) of Paslode and was able to see the schools that I needed to. Once I was able to establish that Tufts was way too damn small, and BC was way too filled with preppy rich kids (okay, yeah, but the people at BU at least aren't blatant tools), I moved on to spending time with my lifelong friend Andrew, his roommates, and his girlfriend. The days that I spent with them at BU in the twilight of my summer are days that I won't soon forget, between the beach party with the Komaromi family, to chilling in the launch boat, to SoaP, and of course, the ragers.

After this trip, I returned home to find my re-established friendships in shambles, and once again looked back to my New Year's resolution for guidance. I realized the mistake I had made in trusting that any of it would work out after hearing the "enlightened" words of Ryan Wallace "[blake] just doesn't [like you] nemore really no reason... i guess its been kind of accumulating throughout the summer... ppl are just loosing there fondness of you" [sic].

With that in hand, and the awkwardness of having one of those individuals in probably half of my classes, I went about my life, senior year. What was senior year supposed to be about anyways? Raging drunk parties? Tailgating? Sex? Not so much, apparently, because between that shenanigans and the AP classes I was taking, life was less than satisfactory in the fun department.

Struggling with the grips of where I wanted my life to go (and college apps) for the first couple months, I had much time to think about these things, but I chose not to. I chose not to think about the people I spent my entire summer with, who - to paraphrase Duffy - threw me under a proverbial bus.

Able to once again separate myself from the bullshit, I picked up the pieces and dealt with things as they came - the DISEC fiasco, Mock Trial leadership issues, and questionable grades, to name a few. A trip to University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) occupied one of the latter weekends in October, and I must say, it was a good time. Similar to my BU trip junior year, I met many people there (mostly members of the AXO sorority) that were extremely nice and it was a welcome break from harsh reality of high school.

Fast forwarding a bit, "Holiday" Break 2006-07; in the last 72 hours, I've spent 24 of it chilling with people, better people than the ones I was friends with before. Between the hours of Guitar Hero at Tomayo's house and listening to Dark Side of the Moon at 5:15 AM at Ali's, it has been a great time. I would even go out on a limb and say the New Year's Eve celebrations that I just had were the best that I experienced in my life.

I think about my New Year's resolution from last year, and I realize now that it has truly come full circle. I definitely was open to change this year, and change I did. Not thinking about the events that happened at the beginning of the year was the right choice. I have moved on to bigger and (certainly) better things and with this, I can go on to pick a college, and keep heading in the right direction as a person.

I look to 2007 with hope, rather than pessimism. Life has its ups and downs, people change, innocence fades. Which of these mantras is the truest is irrelevant, life is a journey. This year will be an integral part of that journey and a year to remember. Senior year part deux, college, a serious change in venue whether it be back to the Northeast, to the South, or to another Midwestern state. Rock on.