As a farewell to 2017, I am going to be doing a review/ summary of my year. This year has felt like the longest year of my life and I can't believe that so much happen. So anyways, let me explain what happened this year.
January
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| Before |
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| After |
January was a very bland month, not a lot happen. I was quite honestly pretty unhappy during Janurary, due to the fact that I was having issues with friends and making new ones too. While struggling with that, some new things happen that made my January a bit better. On January 17 I got my braces off! I was super excited to get them off early, the only problem was that I was then informed that I had a small gap in my bottom teeth and I needed to keep my bottoms on for another month. :/ That sucked. Afterwards, I got Veronica Roth's new book that came out that day, Carve the Mark! What happened next was that I discovered and fell in love with the movie La La Land. Whether if you like it or not, I enjoy it. I saw it with my mom first and I loved the music, especially the piano pieces played by Ryan Gosling ;) But in all seriousness, I have family in Santa Monica, where parts of the movie is filmed and I was like HEYYYYY! I know that place. Whenever I got home, I immediately started to listen and memorize the soundtrack. (My favorites are Mia's and Sebastian's Theme, Epilogue, and the Audition) Whenever I start to hear Mia's and Sebastian's theme, I kinda just have to sit/lie down and listen to the music, note by note. I still cry sometimes when I listen to it sometimes. About a week later, I saw it with some of my swim friends and I had such a good time with them because throughout the whole movie, I was just singing along with the songs in the movie.
February
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| Random Austin In - N - Out trip |
February was a lot better than January. I started to become closer with friends I wasn't that close with before. One of the things that I did on Valentines Day was that I chose about 6-8 of my friends and I wrote heartful letters explaining why I was thankful for them and why I "loved" them on that Valentines Day. Another thing that happened on Valentines Day was that I got my bottom braces off! I was super happy after having everything off and having pearly white, straight teeth. Towards the end of the month, my mom was in Austin to take her bar exam when all of a sudden, her key and car stopped working. So right when I got home we drove over 2 hours to Austin to go see her. It was a fun adventure. We ended up giving her a spare key, start up her car and got In- N- Out for dinner! It was a fun February.
March
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| Austin, TX |
March was another pretty good month, I made friends and had lots of fun experiences. I went to go see Beauty and the Beast in theaters, I was kinda a fan of it? I had mixed feelings. I LIKED it, but there were some things that I didn't like. I wouldn't say that it is one of my favorite movies, that is why I have only seen it once. (Even with it on Netflix) I spent Spring Break in Texas this year. I had an awesome time volunteering for the Houston Food Bank one day. It was really cool to pack up bag of food for kids and help go through donations. Towards the end of the week, we went to Austin to go see South by Southwest (SXSW) which a huge conference and several week long event hosted by Apple. It was really fun and I loved the city's atmosphere at that time.
April
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| Loriana and I in Galveston |
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| My friend Thalia and I at the color run |
April! April is my birth month and jee whizz it was fun. On the first of April, I participated in my first color run at my old elementary school and it was so much fun. I ran it with my friend Thalia and it was really fun. I actually made a video about it, go check it out.
My color run video Over Easter, my cousin, Loriana and her family came down from Chicago and we had such a good time playing Cards Against Humanity, going to Galveston, and eating fajitas at Mexican restaurants. We went to Easter mass in Galveston and afterwards we had a great time exploring the island and going to the beach. I turned 14 this year on April 21st (which is also Queen Elizabeth II's birthday too #twins) and it was a very enjoyable birthday. It was on a Friday and I ended up pieing a teacher in the face at a pep rally (2nd year in a row!) and had an awesome time with my friends. For some reason, the first meet of the long course swimming season normally ALWAYS falls either on my birthday or birthday weekend. So on my birthday, I had a swim meet and had to swim the 400 free and 200 IM. I liked to call it my "birthday swim".
May
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| My friends Brae and Julius |
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| Left to Right: Simone Manuel, Max, Sydney, Emma, Sophia, Me, and Jill |
May was a party month for me. I started off the month with meeting SIMONE MANUEL (an Olympic gold medalist swimmer) when she was doing a clinic at my club. I also had some fun at the Houston polish festival, which I had lots of fun eating pierogi and kabanos. May was a fun month because I was finishing up middle school and "graduating" as well. (I just realized how cringy that sounds, sorry?) Anyways, I had my 8th grade dance, which was a blast. The dress I actually wore was the first one I found! The party was really fun and I had blisters for the next several weeks and I have scars on my from dancing the night away. It was super fun to be swimming with my friends as we transitioned into my favorite swim season. I wasn't that stressed with finals, and I finished school with good grades and I got a a special award called the "Citizenship Award" where it is given to a couple of students that show characteristics of leadership among their fellow students. It was my second time getting it! I got it once in 7th grade and then in 8th grade, I was super proud of myself.
June
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| Griffith Observatory, LA |
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| My friend Evan* and I |
I ended school at the beginning of the month and then immediately started my online school. I was taking World Geography over the summer so that way I wouldn't have to take it during my freshman year (and let me just say that IT WAS SO WORTH IT OH MY GOD! I don't have to draw stupid maps, memorize weird vocab and all of that time consuming stuff that my friends are dealing with right now.) In the beginning of June, I went to Los Angeles for about a week to visit my uncle. It was an awesome trip, I explored more of Venice, Santa Monica, and Malibu. I also went to the Griffith Observatory and I was fangirling like crazy! If you are unaware, the Griffith Observatory has quite a large part in La La Land. I also enjoy astronomy so I really liked all of the exhibits they have. Plus the view from the Observatory was awesome! I made a couple of videos about it, so go watch them:
Los Angeles Vlogs The only problem about that trip that my uncle and I laughed over was the fact that I came to LA when they were having "June Gloom", when LA is constantly cloudy and gloomy, I got a total of about 1 hour of sunlight while there. When I got home, I was kinda stressed out about school and soon I figured out the quirks about it and I immediately got a lot better with my grades. At the end of the month, one of my friends that moved away to Nicaragua that was coming back. So all of my swim friends and I had a great time at a water park in Houston. One of my friends actually fell off of one of the big rides! But um... that's a story for another time.
July
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| South Padre, TX |
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| Chicago, IL |
I started off July by going down to South Padre with my family. We spent 4th of July there and it was super fun watching fireworks on the beach and going to go see sea turtles. I made video about it on my youtube channel, so go check it out.
South Padre video ANYWAYS! I had my summer champs later that month and it was kinda stressful. That weekend, I was trying to get my A time that way I could move up to a higher group on my club team. My closest time was in my 50 meter freestyle. I swam it that weekend, and I missed it by .01 seconds! I was very frustrated by it. The next day I swam it in a relay, as the first leg and I got it! I was super happy and I moved up to the group and became faster and trained with a better coach. At the end of July I went to Chicago with my dad to visit family and go to my Aunt- to - be's bridal shower. It was a really fun trip, Loriana and I explored downtown with our dads, tried out Virtual Reality gaming, did LUSH face masks, and had lots of fun together as a family. I was still doing World Geography at this time, and it was a lot better than when I went to LA. I took that final at the end of July.
August
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| San Antonio, TX |
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| Sophia & I reuniting after she was gone in the summer |
August was a weird month for me. I first started it out with a pretty stressful week of trying out for my high school Varsity swim team. My main concern was is that I was very worried that I wasn't fast enough for the team and that I didn't know anyone on the team. I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to make friends with any of the people in my grade and the upperclassman. Fast forward to the end of tryouts, I made it! I made my Varsity team and I was so happy. I actually found out during a movie because after tryouts, a couple of the people from the tryouts and their friends went to go see Spiderman: Homecoming and I had a lot of fun meeting new people. During the movie, my phone kept buzzing from text messages and I assumed that I made it, and it made me enjoy the movie a lot more. ;) Now onto a kinda sadder topic, one of my greatest friends, Sophia, was moving to France. During the summer, she was in Spain and France getting ready for the move and visiting family. I knew Sophia from club swimming, so I didn't see her at practice at all for a majority of the summer. When she came back, I made sure to hang out with her. One or two days before school started, several of my friends and I went out to dinner with Sophia as a goodbye. We took lots of photos and Polaroids, and had yummy food and funny conversations. Sophia left the next day. It was hard for me to say goodbye. I cried when I got home and her being gone has been hitting me hard a little bit too recently. But we all said goodbye to Sophia and her family, because that is the things you have to deal with as you grow up. So, I started high school, freshman year, fresh meat. The first couple of days were fine. I had to meet new teachers, learn the school, and meet new people. The only thing was that I only had 7 full days of school until Hurricane Harvey hit. It was a new type of stress. During that time I was stressing over things that I didn't think I would need to stress over. Okay, if our house floods, where will we go? We don't have family in Houston. The last couple of weeks in August, my neighborhood was starting to flood bit by bit. We lived right next to the reservoirs and bayou so a bunch of my neighborhood got several feet of water in their homes. So my family and I evacuated to a friend in San Antonio before we wouldn't be able to get out of our home. Well before we left, we were out of power for several days and we took in a family that needed somewhere to stay because their house flooded. Like I said, we stayed with a friend in San Antonio for awhile because we wouldn't be able to get out of the neighborhood, or in. Thankfully, our house did not flood and the water stopped right at the curb.
September
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| An example of a mum |
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| Homecoming with the girls |
My family and I started off September with us getting our power back after having it out after 11 days. It was sooooo good to have it back and not constantly hear the wirr of a generator right outside my door. I eventually went back to school and started up a routine and life again. I was swimming at school and club and I ended up making lots of friends among my team mates. I was getting back into the swing of things with school, but it was all so fast because we had to smash in those 2 weeks of curriculum we lost. Because the hurricane was a state of emergency, I didn't need to make up any school, I just didn't have anymore half days throughout the year. Other than that, the first week I came back to school, I had Homecoming! During homecoming week, I had a great time dressing up and taking photos with my friends on the days themes. In Texas, there are these things called mums and garters. You may associate garters with weddings and brides, but in Texas, during homecoming season, after the boy asks the girl out to homecoming, the boy gets the girl a "mum", while the girl gets the boy a garter. A mum is a decorative plate with a flower on it that is decorated with ribbons, sequins, and whatever you like. A garter is the same, just smaller and it fits on the boys arm. Both of them have the girl and boys named on ribbons. I didn't get a mum (or a date) this year, but I still went to my first homecoming game and homecoming dance. I had the greatest time with my friends, laughing and dancing all night and going to after parties afterwards. I had such a good experience with it and passed out immediately when I hitted a mattress.
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Loriana & I as bridesmaids! |
October was a slightly stressful month because I was having so many things in a matter of 31 days. I was having to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to swim practice at school and I would be dozing off half way
through the day. Some days, I would even have club practice and school tutorials awaiting me after school. So, it was hard getting used to my new schedule, but I got used to it. Halfway through October, my family and I flew to Chicago for my Uncle's wedding at Notre Dame. I had a great time with my family and it was also the first time I was a bridesmaid! It was loads of fun and it was great to go be in some cool, fall weather. Whenever I got back, things weren't good. I had a hard time getting back into the rhythm of school and swimming and I was really tired in general. Eventually, things slowly got better and I ended my month with Halloween.
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| My friends, Izzy* and Amy |
November was a month where I felt like I was rolling down a hill at top speed but there were rocks in the way and I needed to figure out how to dodge them. If you don't really understand what I mean by that, it was insane. It was my last grading period of the semester and my teachers needed to cram in grades within a 3-4 week time span. I was freaking trying out what the heck is meiosis and flow proofs were. This year, I thankfully had a week off for Thanksgiving and it was super fun! I went to one of my friends 16th birthday party and also saw Katie Ledecky swim at Texas A&M. My uncle from California came into town, and we went to the Museum of Fine Arts together for the first time together, I really loved it! Then on Thanksgiving, because some of my friends didn't have a kitchen or something to eat for their Thanksgiving, we had them over and I had a great time with them.
Decemeber
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| Sundance, UT |
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| Houston, TX |
Ah! December, this month was a little bit crazy in the beginning with finals and coming back from break. I finished school quite early this year. For winter break, my parents surprised us with a trip to Utah to visit our grandparents for Christmas and also to my cousin and her family, who were also coming. I had a great time in Salt Lake City, there wasn't enough snow to ski, but we saw it snow a lot and it was a winter wonderland. As most of Poland does, my family celebrated Christmas on the 24th and we left for Houston on the 25th. (which i have to say, it was awesome because it was SOOOO QUIET at the airport) For the rest of the time, I was swimming at both club and school. I was spending time with my family and I didn't do anything for New Years this year. The weather was awesome this month because in the beginning of the month, it SNOWED in Houston! It was a big deal and it was so much fun. This New Years, it was actually cold. Whereas last year, I was in a shorts and a t-shirt on New Years.
Well that was my 2017. I had such an awesome year. I just want to thank everyone that was a part of it and I had such a great time with y'all. I cannot wait to see what 2018 holds and what adventures are ahead. Thank you so much for reading and letting me entertain you with my thoughts and comments in 2017, I can't wait to see what will happen in 2018!
Happy New Year,
yo girl emilia
*- Evan and Izzy have their own blogs too! Go check them out and give them some love <3
Izzy's blog
Evan's blog
February was a lot better than January. I started to become closer with friends I wasn't that close with before. One of the things that I did on Valentines Day was that I chose about 6-8 of my friends and I wrote heartful letters explaining why I was thankful for them and why I "loved" them on that Valentines Day. Another thing that happened on Valentines Day was that I got my bottom braces off! I was super happy after having everything off and having pearly white, straight teeth. Towards the end of the month, my mom was in Austin to take her bar exam when all of a sudden, her key and car stopped working. So right when I got home we drove over 2 hours to Austin to go see her. It was a fun adventure. We ended up giving her a spare key, start up her car and got In- N- Out for dinner! It was a fun February.
March was another pretty good month, I made friends and had lots of fun experiences. I went to go see Beauty and the Beast in theaters, I was kinda a fan of it? I had mixed feelings. I LIKED it, but there were some things that I didn't like. I wouldn't say that it is one of my favorite movies, that is why I have only seen it once. (Even with it on Netflix) I spent Spring Break in Texas this year. I had an awesome time volunteering for the Houston Food Bank one day. It was really cool to pack up bag of food for kids and help go through donations. Towards the end of the week, we went to Austin to go see South by Southwest (SXSW) which a huge conference and several week long event hosted by Apple. It was really fun and I loved the city's atmosphere at that time. 
November was a month where I felt like I was rolling down a hill at top speed but there were rocks in the way and I needed to figure out how to dodge them. If you don't really understand what I mean by that, it was insane. It was my last grading period of the semester and my teachers needed to cram in grades within a 3-4 week time span. I was freaking trying out what the heck is meiosis and flow proofs were. This year, I thankfully had a week off for Thanksgiving and it was super fun! I went to one of my friends 16th birthday party and also saw Katie Ledecky swim at Texas A&M. My uncle from California came into town, and we went to the Museum of Fine Arts together for the first time together, I really loved it! Then on Thanksgiving, because some of my friends didn't have a kitchen or something to eat for their Thanksgiving, we had them over and I had a great time with them.
Ah! December, this month was a little bit crazy in the beginning with finals and coming back from break. I finished school quite early this year. For winter break, my parents surprised us with a trip to Utah to visit our grandparents for Christmas and also to my cousin and her family, who were also coming. I had a great time in Salt Lake City, there wasn't enough snow to ski, but we saw it snow a lot and it was a winter wonderland. As most of Poland does, my family celebrated Christmas on the 24th and we left for Houston on the 25th. (which i have to say, it was awesome because it was SOOOO QUIET at the airport) For the rest of the time, I was swimming at both club and school. I was spending time with my family and I didn't do anything for New Years this year. The weather was awesome this month because in the beginning of the month, it SNOWED in Houston! It was a big deal and it was so much fun. This New Years, it was actually cold. Whereas last year, I was in a shorts and a t-shirt on New Years. 
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