yogirlemilia 2023 wrapped!
[LOUD CRASHING NOISE] hEY! Woah! Is this the right room? Wait, yeah it is! There are cobwebs everywhere but yes, this is the place! Tis I, yo girl emilia! Even though it has been over a year since I posted my last blog post, I have returned.
I started off the new year in Poland! Over my sophomore winter break, I took a trip to Poland to go and visit my grandparents and the rest of my family after Christmas. It was the first time I had been to Poland during the winter and I had so much fun. I spent hours talking to my family and eating lots of good food. With how cheap it is to travel within Europe, my grandmother and I also went on a quick trip to Paris to visit my aunt! That was my first time in Paris and it honestly was so magical. I loved walking around everywhere and seeing all of the sights. The little cafes and restaurants my grandmother and I found were so pretty and I loved going to the museums too. Once I got back to the States, I started the spring semester of my sophomore year. Interestingly enough, I had a friend introduce me and some of my other friends to hockey, and started learning about the sport!
February was short and cold, but it was primarily filled with Organic Chemistry 2 and meetings to prepare for March! One of the funny highlights of the month was that someone stuck 3 VEO bikes (rentable bikes on our college campus) onto our engineering building's roof. Now if you have been to A&M, you are probably aware of how tall our engineering building is and that it is all glass. So on Valentine's Day, everyone was looking up and chuckling as the fire department removed the different bikes! I also enjoyed days of studying at a cool coffee shop called Polite Coffee in Bryan, TX. When I go back to A&M, I really want to explore more coffee shops and make a list of my favorites in the area because there actually are quite a lot. 
The big highlight of March was that I went to Costa Rica again! Throughout the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, a large portion of my time was spent being the Director of the Costa Rica Service Learning program for my organization at school. So in the early weeks of 2023, I was preparing a group of around 20 students to go to Costa Rica for Spring Break. We stayed in the rainforest, where A&M has a research center, and we spent the week learning about the Costa Rican culture, and nature, and performing a variety of service projects in the community near the center. It was so fun to return and see how much I remember plus experience new things too. I teared up when leaving because I knew that it would be the last time that I would go back to Costa Rica in that particular way. If I were to return to the country in the future, I would most likely not return to that A&M center and not to that specific town, so it was saying goodbye to that particular part of the world that I made a lot of memories of. Alas, I am happy with how the program went, seeing all of the freshmen I brought with me step into the selfless service was great to see. Pura Vida!
The month of April had some highs and lows. Because I had a thermodynamics midterm on the day after Easter, I spent the holiday alone studying for it. Luckily, I had some frozen pierogi and I celebrated by making some that way. After the second round of midterms, I celebrated by turning 20 and seeing Taylor Swift! My roommate Kennedy, is one of the biggest Swifties out there and she managed to spend all day in November 2022 to secure tickets for us for the Eras Tour. My birthday is the 21st, which was on a Friday, so we were able to drive down to Houston and I had a wonderful evening celebrating with my family. We then woke up the next day to get ready and go to the concert! It was definitely one of the coolest concerts I've been to, the production, costumes, and songs selected, and how long it was, just totally worth it! In the end, April was filled with lots of exams and work, but lots of fun moments as the semester wrapped up!
May was a huge month because... I moved to Los Angeles! I had my first internship in LA this summer, so after I finished my finals, my dad and I packed up and drove out west. The drive out west was so much fun, and I plan on writing a whole separate post on it, but I really enjoyed driving and talking with my dad on the long drive out west. We stopped in Las Cruces, NM, and Phoenix, AZ. It had been over 7 years since I had returned to my birth city so we spent a whole afternoon driving around our old home. Once we got to California, I moved into my corporate apartment and started my new job! There was a lot to try and figure out, from how the 405 works, to the technical stuff in my job, to whether is running giving me shin splints or my new steel-toe boots? (Still wondering on this one) Being from AZ, my family would visit California often, and even after we moved to Texas, I would visit almost every year to visit my uncle in Santa Monica! Some of the interns joked that I was their tour guide of the area and I provided recommendations as to where to go check out in the LA area.
Californians love to talk about "June Gloom", which is basically when the moisture from the sea gets stuck on the coast by the mountains, so it is cloudy and chilly for a good portion of the month. Nonetheless, June was fun! When I was in California, I spent a lot of time with the group of interns I was working with during the week, and also with my Aunt and Uncle who live in LA on the weekends. My older cousin also moved to California for her summer internship this month, so I was able to meet up with her a couple of times! June was a month of exploring new places in LA that I have not been to and returning to places I haven't been to in years, such as Las Vegas! It was so great to go back to that city I had spent so many holidays in when my grandparents used to be there. The weather got warmer as the month went on and I enjoyed time after work reading on the beach!
After the June Gloom fog burned off, July was a month filled with sun and fun! For the 4th of July, my internship roommate had some family and friends come in, so we enjoyed the holiday weekend soaking up the sun in Huntington Beach. Then after the holiday weekend, I had a special guest come and visit! My roommate, Kennedy, came and visited me for a couple of days and I got to show her around LA and Malibu because it was her first time in California. While I was in LA, I actually went to two concerts by myself! Peter Cat Recording Co. and HAIM had concerts around the city, and considering that Peter Cat is from India and doesn't tour the US often (and tickets were $25), I figured why not! HAIM is one of my favorite bands of all time (proud 0.005% top listener in my Spotify 2023 wrapped), so I jumped on the chance of seeing them live in their hometown of LA (It was awesome). One of the other big highlights from July is that I went to Yosemite with my aunt and uncle! I have not been any further north of Santa Barbara in California, so we made it a really fun weekend adventure to see some of the waterfalls at Yosemite!
Towards the end of July, my family (parents + sibs) came out to CA to visit and their stay extended into August as I finished up my internship. We got to visit places my parents have been taking me ever since I was a baby when we used to live in Arizona and escape the Texas heat. August was the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. I finished up my internship in the first couple of weeks of the month and made the drive back to Texas to start my junior year of college. It was a bittersweet yet fun end, I definitely learned a lot from my first internship and it allowed me to come back to college with a different perspective. Going through K-12 you kinda see college as the end point, the pinnacle of not only your social life but the make or break of what you will do in life. After completing my first two years of college, post finish line (getting my degree) seemed very foggy. After doing my internship and seeing what life is like once you have your degree cleared up that fog and gave me a different outlook when I returned to campus. It seemed almost smaller. This could mostly be due to me only having classes in 2 buildings this semester, but I digress. August in Texas is always hot, but it was good to see my college friends and get back into football!
For us engineering majors, September is always a crazy busy month because we have our career fair at the beginning of the month. So going to talk to companies dressed in business professional clothing in the Texas heat for a couple of days is a bit draining. Then there are the interviews in the weeks after. All of this while trying to figure out your classes, when to pull tickets for football games, and performing basic adult tasks. It definitely feels like the Mr. Krabs blurry-looking-around meme. September is also my roommate's, Kennedy, birth month, so I managed to plan a birthday "surprise" of a dinner party and movie! September also had fun at Aggie football games (even if the outcome was not so fun sometimes). It was fun to get back into the swing of things in terms of my job at A&M and being in classes with my friends again, it definitely just took a bit to get used to.
October is what I deem "midterm month" of the Fall Semester because this is typically when I have a majority of my grades due for classes. After midterm grades were due, I went to Savannah, Georgia for Fall Break! I have another aunt and uncle who live there, so we got together and enjoyed the wonderful weather and city that is Savannah. Because it is such an old and historical city, we went on a ghost tour in a hearse car to ring in the spooky season. Nice and relaxing weekend with family and beautiful weather, when I got back to university it was back to reality to continue with the second half of the semester. Hockey season started up again though, and I joined a fantasy football league with some friends! If you were to ask me what are my teams for each sport, I would tell you that are still in development because I have gained an appreciation and favor for different players across different teams but not one team in particular. But I always gotta support my Aggies!
Started off November with chopping my hair! Yes indeed! I haven't gone short in a long time, so I wanted to feel free with a fresh chop. So other than that significant change, I just continued on the tiring grind that is junior year, but I spent my free time seeing the new Hunger Games movie (my middle school self was so happy), going to friends ring dunks, and scoring a bunch of Polish pottery (Bolesławiec) on Facebook marketplace! I then went home for Thanksgiving, when my aunt and uncle came in from LA, and it was a fun holiday filled with delicious food! The weather this year in Texas definitely brought in some cooler temperatures to change some of the leaves and make the Texas landscape look like it is capable of autumn. I hope these fall months don't sound boring, the reality is that I spent so many hours in the Chemical Engineering building (JEB) that my roommate asked me how my boyfriend Jeb was doing. -_- Fun!
So now we find ourselves at the end of another year. When I reflect on it, 2023 felt like it FLEW by... but I also feel like so much happened that it feels like a full year, ya know? Anyway, December in schools always are the same old story- grinding away hours to finish up projects and finals after coming back from Thanksgiving break. I had my yearly Christmas cookie party at A&M and was pleasantly surprised at all of the goodies my friends brought and we all really rang in the holiday spirit. I spent the holidays in Houston, where my older cousin came down from Chicago to spend it with us. It was a relaxing and wholesome Christmas! I got a cold after our main celebrations, but I managed to recover before we all flew to Savannah, GA to celebrate New Year's there! We spent New Years watching football, making and eating food together, and singing lots of karaoke surprisingly! After a fun time ringing in the new year, I spent a lot of time reflecting on this year. Nothing hits harder than sitting in an airport terminal and then on a plane just thinking about all of your interactions and events with people from the year.
"Emilia, where the hell have you been loca?"
I am a chemical engineering major in the trenches with organic chemistry, thermodynamics, and a wide variety of other classes that ate up a lot of my time this past year.
"Wahh wahh, Emilia we get it." OK FINE! While my major and life have been a doozy and that has kept me away from the keyboard, I figured what better way to catch y'all up to speed than a yearly recap. My goodness, the last time I did this was 6 years ago when I did the recap for 2017. Nonetheless! 2023 was honestly a really good year. I got to go to and live in a lot of cool places and experience all sorts of awesome things. This year kinda ended on a weird note, which just caused me to go into this major thinking bubble around New Year's, but honestly, isn't that what the end of the year is for? A time for reflection on all of the moments from this year? So let's get right to it!
January
February
March
April
The month of April had some highs and lows. Because I had a thermodynamics midterm on the day after Easter, I spent the holiday alone studying for it. Luckily, I had some frozen pierogi and I celebrated by making some that way. After the second round of midterms, I celebrated by turning 20 and seeing Taylor Swift! My roommate Kennedy, is one of the biggest Swifties out there and she managed to spend all day in November 2022 to secure tickets for us for the Eras Tour. My birthday is the 21st, which was on a Friday, so we were able to drive down to Houston and I had a wonderful evening celebrating with my family. We then woke up the next day to get ready and go to the concert! It was definitely one of the coolest concerts I've been to, the production, costumes, and songs selected, and how long it was, just totally worth it! In the end, April was filled with lots of exams and work, but lots of fun moments as the semester wrapped up! 
May
May was a huge month because... I moved to Los Angeles! I had my first internship in LA this summer, so after I finished my finals, my dad and I packed up and drove out west. The drive out west was so much fun, and I plan on writing a whole separate post on it, but I really enjoyed driving and talking with my dad on the long drive out west. We stopped in Las Cruces, NM, and Phoenix, AZ. It had been over 7 years since I had returned to my birth city so we spent a whole afternoon driving around our old home. Once we got to California, I moved into my corporate apartment and started my new job! There was a lot to try and figure out, from how the 405 works, to the technical stuff in my job, to whether is running giving me shin splints or my new steel-toe boots? (Still wondering on this one) Being from AZ, my family would visit California often, and even after we moved to Texas, I would visit almost every year to visit my uncle in Santa Monica! Some of the interns joked that I was their tour guide of the area and I provided recommendations as to where to go check out in the LA area. 
June
Californians love to talk about "June Gloom", which is basically when the moisture from the sea gets stuck on the coast by the mountains, so it is cloudy and chilly for a good portion of the month. Nonetheless, June was fun! When I was in California, I spent a lot of time with the group of interns I was working with during the week, and also with my Aunt and Uncle who live in LA on the weekends. My older cousin also moved to California for her summer internship this month, so I was able to meet up with her a couple of times! June was a month of exploring new places in LA that I have not been to and returning to places I haven't been to in years, such as Las Vegas! It was so great to go back to that city I had spent so many holidays in when my grandparents used to be there. The weather got warmer as the month went on and I enjoyed time after work reading on the beach!July
August
Towards the end of July, my family (parents + sibs) came out to CA to visit and their stay extended into August as I finished up my internship. We got to visit places my parents have been taking me ever since I was a baby when we used to live in Arizona and escape the Texas heat. August was the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. I finished up my internship in the first couple of weeks of the month and made the drive back to Texas to start my junior year of college. It was a bittersweet yet fun end, I definitely learned a lot from my first internship and it allowed me to come back to college with a different perspective. Going through K-12 you kinda see college as the end point, the pinnacle of not only your social life but the make or break of what you will do in life. After completing my first two years of college, post finish line (getting my degree) seemed very foggy. After doing my internship and seeing what life is like once you have your degree cleared up that fog and gave me a different outlook when I returned to campus. It seemed almost smaller. This could mostly be due to me only having classes in 2 buildings this semester, but I digress. August in Texas is always hot, but it was good to see my college friends and get back into football!September
October
October is what I deem "midterm month" of the Fall Semester because this is typically when I have a majority of my grades due for classes. After midterm grades were due, I went to Savannah, Georgia for Fall Break! I have another aunt and uncle who live there, so we got together and enjoyed the wonderful weather and city that is Savannah. Because it is such an old and historical city, we went on a ghost tour in a hearse car to ring in the spooky season. Nice and relaxing weekend with family and beautiful weather, when I got back to university it was back to reality to continue with the second half of the semester. Hockey season started up again though, and I joined a fantasy football league with some friends! If you were to ask me what are my teams for each sport, I would tell you that are still in development because I have gained an appreciation and favor for different players across different teams but not one team in particular. But I always gotta support my Aggies! |
| Introducing the A&M Engineering Social Communications team ^ these silly geese! |
November
December
Reflection
2023 was a year filled with lots of new things, it felt like I had so many season finales happen for different things and then the exciting new season premiere for other moments. I am happy about all of the cool opportunities I got to experience this year and all of the lessons I learned. Now, I wouldn't be so cool and mysterious if I didn't happen to have the right to some privacy and let you know that this year wasn't all glittery in gold. There were ups and downs, yet I am very grateful that the ups this year were really fun :) While it might seem weird that I am putting this out in mid-January when so many people have probably already given up on their New Year's resolutions, I still wanted to push in the effort to release this (especially because of my recent internet issues). May this 2024 be a good year for us all! I know how hard everyone, from my family and friends to my coworkers, to the strangers I see in day-to-day life, has been working and I hope 2024 is a year of reward, experiences, and rest. May all of your endeavors, whether personal, academic, or work, be rewarding and bring you great happiness this year! Listen, even if 2024 is a very tough year for me, I know I have the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics to look forward to and hopefully a renaissance of Aggie Football with our new coach, Mike Elko.
If you took the time to read about my 2023, I am extending the tightest and warmest virtual hug to you. My mom has always told me I am a great storyteller so I am trying to share stories and my experiences with those who want to listen, so thank you for sticking around. This might just be because the Summer Olympics are this year, but I genuinely feel like this will be a good year! Happy 2024 to us all and please keep me updated with all of YOUR adventures! <3
love,
yo girl emilia
follow my blog's Instagram: @yogirlemilia
follow me on Twitter: @emiliakmrugala
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