A look back at 2014 and a look ahead at 2015.

2014 was a pretty good year. Yes there were moments that I would much rather forget but overall I started 2015 feeling happy with the previous year. I want to talk about all of the things I accomplished so let’s do this…

Even though I’ve been a college student since 2011, it was only last year that I moved into a dorm. It was my third time transferring colleges so it was about time, wouldn’t you say? I finally got a taste of what it was like to be away from home and to live on my own and it was much less stressful than I thought it would be. I am responsible for my cooking, cleaning, all of that fun stuff and it feels nice to do more by myself. Living with roommates is teaching me patience because they don’t always clean as much as I would like them to….yup.

For reasons I will not go into, my first couple years of college were not fun at all and it showed in my grades and social skills. But when I went to my new college things changed and my grades improved A LOT and I even made it to the Dean’s list. So go me! My improvement also has to do with me finally declaring my major in graphic design and getting to take the classes I’ve always wanted to take. And it’s scary to think that I may actually be a college graduate by the end of 2015. I’M NOT READY.

2014 was also a good year for me Tolkien-wise. I expanded my collection quite a bit and added in a lot of film books that I have had my eye on for a long time. Last year is when I added in a third bookcase which resulted in rearranging my room to find a spot to put everything. In addition to my non-Tolkien-related bookcase, my bedroom is now basically 89% books. The best part about the new bookcase is that I have extra space!! That hasn’t happened for me in years, haha.

I also reached and surpassed 100 articles over on Middle-earth News! And because I run the Middle-earth News Tumblr, I was sooo happy that we now have over 3,000 followers. And I reached 14,000 on my own personal Tumblr. Some other cool things include my two part interview with Doug Adams! (Part one & part two) I’ve done a ton of interviews before but they were all done over e-mail, the interview with Doug was the first time I actually talked to someone. It was very exciting. I should also probably mention that last May me and the other US members of the News staff had the chance to meet up! You can read more about it here. (Sorry that most of the photos appear to not work anymore.) One of my biggest dreams is that one day the entire News team can meet up and have an epic LOTR/Hobbit marathon.

2014 was also the first time I attended a convention as press which was GREAT because I pretty much got a free ticket to New York Comic Con. NYCC was sooooo fun, but it was different than the other two times I’ve been there because I went alone but I did have a chance to meet up with a few friends on certain days. But honestly even though I was mostly by myself I had a BLAST. Weta Workshop had a booth there and I spent so much money. So. Much. Money. And I got myself some LOTR action figures that I found from various vendors. Oh and I also got a kick-ass Balrog figure for only $40, it was easily my best purchase! I met lots of new people, had the chance to take photos of many AWESOME cosplayers and attended two awesome panels: “The Music of LOTR and The Hobbit” with Howard Shore and Doug Adams and “The Hobbit: Designing Dwarves and Elves” with Weta Workshop artists, Nick Keller and Paul Tobin.

Hmmm, what else happened in 2014? Oh! The number of Broadway/Off-Broadway shows I’ve seen exceeded 100! I saw The Phantom of the Opera for the fifth time in 2014 because of course I did…

I think that’s enough on 2014, now it’s time to talk about 2015!!

In 2015 I will turn 22 which is weird because I still feel like an immature teenager. And now that I’m of legal drinking age I’ve noticed that my go-to drink has consistently been orange juice and vodka. I’m mostly in it for the juice let’s be real.

This April are the LOTR Concerts at Lincoln Center and I’M SO PUMPED I CAN’T WAIT. There’s also NYCC to look forward to in the fall! I’m hoping to get a good camera before then so I can actually take awesome photos this time. This year I will also plan my trip to New Zealand that I’m aiming for 2016 around December.

My greatest hope for 2015 is that I will spend most of it feeling happy and not…crappy. I want to make 2015 even better than 2014. It can happen. 🙂