Endings: 2012.

I can't believe another year has come to an end.

I don't have much to say in terms of reminiscing, really. This is the first full year I have blogged consistently, which makes it easy to look back over everything I have done and learned. I just have a few lists of "top five" things that I think accurately sum up this year for me.

My top five most popular posts from 2012:

1. An announcement.
2. It's the little things.
3. I am not engaged.
4. Weeks.
5. One hundred.

My top five songs of 2012:

1. Cripple Me - Elenowen
2. Te Amo - Trevor Hall
3. And the World Turned - The Gabe Dixon Band
4. The A Team - Ed Sheeran
5. Hazy - Rosi Golan

The top five best times of 2012:

1. The day of the Color Festival
2. The month of May
3. Spring Break
4. My birthday in St. George
5. Fall Break

The top five most important books I read in 2012:

1. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
3. Sarah's Key - Tatiana De Rosnay
4. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
5. Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

Okay, I can't really think of anything else of importance. This year definitely did not go the way I envisioned it would. It has both exceeded my expectations and disappointed them, but that's just how life is. I made some resolutions one year ago.

• Work out for 30 minutes or more, at least four days a week. I did pretty well with this actually, if you don't actually count those four months we call summer. I gained weight in France and I still haven't lost all of it, but let's be honest, all that food was worth it. Plus, it's about how you feel, not the number! And I feel healthier than I ever have.
• Don't drink soda, ever. Twelve whole months without a Coca-Cola, check. I drank soda one time, but it was a soda from Japan and therefore a cultural experience. Sue me.
• Visit my great grandparents every two weeks for at least an hour. I did alright with this in the spring, but the fall was a major fail. I could come up with a million excuses, but honestly I just need to go visit them more.
• Be more outgoing and take more risks. This isn't a very measurable goal, but I will say that working for the newspaper and being an ambassador this semester has brought me way out of my comfort zone. I used to never be the first one to talk to people, and I will now. Although no promises about how awkward it is or not.
• Be positive and nice to everyone I meet. I hope I have done well at this! I'm sometimes blunt, but I never try to be mean.
• Take chances. Never settle. No regrets. 2012 hasn't been easy, and there are many things I sometimes wish had gone differently. But I don't have regrets. Every experience has taught me something I needed to learn.

Soon (tomorrow) it will be time to make some new resolutions, but as for right now I'm just worried about sending 2012 out with a bang. We survived the end of the world, if nothing else, right? See you next year! (Ha, ha.)