highlights from the 18th year of me

Hello, Snakey Nation. Long time no see… As you are all well-aware, I just turned 19 years old, meaning I’ve completed another orbit around the sun. Over the several days leading up to my birthday, I was thinking long and hard about all the great moments I’ve had within the past year, and then I had an amazing idea: I should write a blog post about it. So here we are! My top 5 moments (term used very lightly) from my 18th year. They certainly range in context and content, but I when I think 18, I think these times were top tier. Please enjoy this brief recap of my first year as a legal adult…

5. Homecoming Game 2024

Coming in at #5, we have Homecoming 2024. This was my favorite football game I’ve ever been to and so far the last football game that I attended. I had an amazing time. To start off, the weather was absolutely perfect. It was definitely a little warm, especially since the bleachers are directly in the sun, but it was super sunny and beautiful outside. Ashley, Alex, Katie, and I started the day off strong by waking up at like 9:30 in the morning and immediately concocting our drinks for the game. The only I think I remember about those drinks is that they were NASTY and I was completely wasted by 11am. Once we got to the game, we barely watched it because the food trucks looked insanely appealing in our drunken states. I’m pretty sure we got something from each of the trucks. We then finally watched some of the game, but I wanna say we only caught the last quarter of the game. Overall, it was a great time, and definitely the football game that I enjoyed the most. It also showed me the fun of day drinking and nothing will ever beat that.

4. Chicago Performances

My next top moment from the past year is my Chicago performances. For my senior show, I got to play Velma Kelly in Chicago, and it was the best. The whole process of that show was very sweet because it was my last time rehearsing with that group of people, but the actual performances were electric. For the first time ever we had a real set, the costumes looked incredible under the lights, the music was amazing, and we had a packed house for all three shows. The performances felt like the perfect finish to my high school theatre career AND I got to go to a couple of award shows for our production. Chicago was a really important part of this past year, and even with all the drama that production brought with it, I think it turned out really nice and I will always look fondly upon it.

3. Reso Formal

Number 3: Reso Formal (Fall). Before I begin, shoutout to Anna for inviting me because it was the best night ever. Reso Formal in the fall semester was the second most fucked up I’ve ever been (only a recent fall in the ranking, it held the top spot literally until this past weekend). What was most fun about this event beside the music, the dancing, and the drinking, was really that I got to spend the night with all my favorite characters. I got to pregame with Anna and the rest of Reso newbs and their guests, I spent the whole actual formal with Kate, and at the end, everyone started singing acapella together for like 30 minutes. If you know anything about me, you know that these things would make a perfect night for me, and when it happened at formal, it was the perfect night. Despite all the fun and retrospective rose-colored glasses for this night, this is my only function where I have ever blacked out. We also left the formal and went to DU that night, while I was completely trashed, and I slid all the way down the stairs to the basement. Ignoring these two things though, Reso Formal was an incredible night and rightly earns its place in my top 5 moments.

2. Graduating High School

The runner-up for best moment of my 18th year is high school graduation! For me, graduating high school was the biggest sigh of relief ever. I was so ready to get out of there and be done with the whole place, so having a whole ceremony celebrating never needing to go back to Lakeland High School was AMAZING. On a less negative note, I worked very hard in high school. Like so so hard, spread myself so so thin, did a thousand things all the time, and finally graduating felt like it all payed off. I got to put on a cute dress, where cute sandals, decorate my grad cap, and literally relax for the first time in four years. This hit extra hard because senior year sucked so bad (like so bad, I can’t even begin to describe it). Getting to walk that stage in the beautiful weather knowing I was going to a pretty damn good school felt like the best ‘fuck you’ to all of the losers from Shrub Oak, NY. Other than my spiteful attitude, graduation was really nice because I got a nice lunch with my family and then went home and took the most restful nap ever. Graduation was a success.

1. Freshman Year

Finally, my top moment from being 18 years old. Not necessarily one moment, but my freshman year at Colgate! I wasn’t exactly nervous going into college, but I definitely had no idea how my first year would go. I legitimately couldn’t have imagined it going any better. I got to meet so many new and amazing people and do so many things; it’s been amazing. Since there was so many great things, it was definitely hard picking singular moments, so I have decided to just throw in the whole year as a moment. Definitely some highlights are Legally Blonde, Glassapella, any BDS function with Maeve, falling down the DU stairs, Charred Goosebeak, and being one of two girls in my comp sci class. Truly, an amazing year.

Snakey Nation, I hope you enjoyed. Please let me know what your favorite moment of me was from my 18th year because that’s adorbs. Praying for all my sussers approaching finals and my sussers still in trenches performing in Little Shop (break a leg). Stay safe, Snakey Nation, and get ready for summer.

Snakey