As the 2024 year comes to an end, I have concluded that this year has been the most interesting by far. I was originally going to write about my favorite moment of 2024, but after deep contemplation (by that I mean scrolling through my camera roll) I realized that I could not pick one favorite moment. My solution: picking a favorite memory from each month of 2024. Obviously, some months I disliked a lot more than others, but I managed to find a happy memory in each one!
January: Visiting my sister at UC Davis!
On January 21, my family and I visited my sister at her college. It was super fun: we got Thai food, walked around downtown Davis, and had a great time! Although I loved visiting my sister, my favorite part of the trip was when we had to stop to charge my dad’s Tesla so that we could drive back home. You may be wondering why that was my favorite part—or not—I’m gonna tell you why anyway. We stopped at a plaza to charge the Tesla since it had the supercharger thing, and the plaza had a Hollister. I love Hollister, so I decided to go shop around the store while my parents waited for the car to charge and did their own thing. While I was looking around, I saw a clearance section in the Hollister and started looking at the things they had. I found a pair of super cute overalls (pictured above) and decided to try them on (fyi this pair was the only one they had, so if they didn’t fit, I wouldn’t be able to find another pair). Luckily for me, they fit perfectly! I decide I love them and will go and buy them, and then look at the price. It was 70 dollars. 70 dollars. I almost didn’t buy them, but since they were in the clearance section, I decided to at least go and see what the discounted price was. So I go up to the register and they ring me up, and guess what, they ended up being 12 dollars! I almost cried with joy—I kid you not. I got a pair of 70-dollar overalls which fit me perfectly for 12 dollars! Anyways, that’s why charging my dad’s Tesla was my favorite part.
February: Going to Half Moon Bay w/ my sister!
On February 19, while my sister was home during ski week, we went to Half Moon Bay. We left at around10 in the morning, and the entire day ( the entire time we were there) it was pouring rain. I hate rain. But I loved walking around Half Moon Bay with my sister and looking through all the cute stores. We also stopped by this yummy cafe, and the food there was so good that I crave the food thinking about it. Although I loved Half Moon Bay, I enjoyed the car ride back more because of how cold and miserable it was outside. on the car ride back, we were blasting music and singing along at the top of our lungs, which was super fun! At one point, while my sister was driving on the highway, the rain got so bad that it was like a constant waterfall washing over the car, and even with the windshield wipers set to the max, I still couldn’t see a thing out of the windshield. For some reason, my sister kept on driving at the same speed, and to this day I’m still not sure how she saw where she was going, but we arrived back home safely, so whatever. Overall, it was super fun!
March: Sell me This Pen Project
During March, my friends (Gio Arteaga, Agatha Kogan, Grace Duaman) and I collaborated together for this project in English Honors II. The point of this project was to basically sell a random product using logical fallacies (it was a project in Mr. Hadley’s class if that tells you anything). Anyways, we all met up at my house to film the project (our product was this body switching device thing) and the entire time, we couldn’t stop laughing, Gio being the worst (as can be seen by the picture above). At one point we had him go to a separate room, lay on the floor with his face in a rug to muffle the sound of his laughter, and still heard him. For some reason, we decide that Gio should wax his leg for the video (I honestly don’t remember why). Now, let me get one thing straight: Gio volunteered to wax his legs. Volunteered. He likes to accuse me of forcing him, but really what happened was he tried to back out at the last minute and I said no. 😀 I couldn’t upload the video of us waxing his leg, but I attached a screenshot of the moment he removed the wax strip (you can see the full video in the subtle foreshadowing section of Fun & Games 😉). overall, the project was one of the most hilarious things I have participated in!
April: Going hiking w/ my besties
During April, my besties (Domi Tsivyan and Gio) and I decided to go hiking. For some reason, Domi decided to wear crocs (as can be seen pictured above) and Gio and I kept on making fun of her for it, especially when dirt and rocks kept on getting in her shoes. Domi and I also forgot to bring water, so all of us shared Gio’s water (by that I mean I think he got one sip and we drank the rest). Also, none of us had fanny packs/hip packs besides our lifeguard pack (because we all work as lifeguards), so Gio brought his lifeguarding pack with us (some people we passed gave us strange looks). Anyways, we hiked for like three hours and then decided to go to Starbucks and gain back all the calories we lost (but it’s worth it cause it’s like a reward, you know?). Overall, a pretty fun experience (my favorite part was the Starbucks, of course)!
May: Going to the beach for my friend’s birthday party
I don’t really have a lot to say for this one. It was my friend’s birthday party, and she hosted it at the beach. It was lots of fun and was especially relaxing after all my AP tests. My favorite moment was when Gio attempted to do push-ups (pictured above) and failed miserably (me too, king 😓)!
June: My birthday!!!!
I feel like this is kind of self-explanatory. I’ll tell you why I liked it so much anyway. It was my birthday (and birthday party) and my entire party was basically a baking competition, with me as the judge (obviously). I split my friends into two teams, and one baked cream puffs while the other baked a brookie. They were both sooo bomb. The cream puff team won, simply because I prefer cream puffs over brookies, but they were both really good! Then, after most people had left the party, my remaining friends and I decided to walk to this park really close to my house. On the way we found this box giving away free dolls (they were really crusty and looked like they had some undiscovered diseases on them)(we grabbed them anyway). We then proceeded to throw around the dolls while recording in slow motion, and later took turns trying to throw the dolls as far as possible. We also just played around in the park. It was very, very fun!
July: Hawai’i 😍
In late July, my family and I traveled to Big Island Hawaii for the first time. We had been to many of the other islands already, but this was our first time on the main island. It was so beautiful over there, and the amount of wildlife was crazy. Since the Big Island is not as tourist-centered as some of the others, we were easily able to see wildlife like turtles, fish, geckos, and even some weird ferret-like creatures. I don’t actually know what they were called. My sister and I took so many pictures in Hawaii. I think half of our vacation was spent taking pictures (as can be seen pictured above). At one point, we went to get shaved ice at this one place my sister really wanted to go to, because apparently it was supposed to be really good. We stayed in line for about an hour, just for us to not finish the shaved ice because it was nasty. We also got to see so many pretty sunsets in Hawaii! Overall, it was definitely my favorite vacation to date!
August: Going to Santa Cruz to try and see the sunrise w/ my besties (very traumatizing)
One day in August, my besties (Domi and Gio) and I had the bright idea of waking up at 5 in the morning and driving to Santa Cruz to see the sunrise. As you can probably tell from the pictures above, there was no sunrise to see. It was so cloudy and cold, and we could not see anything. It was a bit disappointing. Even worse, because Domi had an electric car, we needed to charge it while we were at the beach, and the closest charger was over a mile away from the beach. So basically, we walked, in the rain, at 5 in the morning, for 30 minutes to get to the beach, just to see nothing. But it was still really fun. At one point we were cuddling together for warmth on the beach on this blanket that Gio brought, and I was trying to take a nap, but every time I tried to lay down, rain would get in my eyes (because of course we forgot to bring umbrellas). Then, like 15 minutes later, we decide to walk to the boardwalk through the beach, and I really need to pee, so I go over to the bathroom on the beach (walking past this creepy man in the process) and try to open the door. It was closed. So I had no choice but to wait until we got to the boardwalk. However, because we decided to walk through the beach during high tide, we had to run through the waves to get across the beach because of this cliff that blocked the way. Then, after that traumatizing experience (I was wearing bell-bottom jeans and they got soaked even after I rolled them up), we had to cross this sewer-water-river thing that flowed across the beach (and of course, it was like 2 feet deep at the shallowest part, and too wide to jump across)(if you have been to the Santa Cruz beach near the boardwalk, you might know what river thing I’m talking about). It was sooooooo gross. So not only did I really need to piss, but my jeans were wet, and my legs were covered in sewer water. My only saving grace was that after we crossed the sewer water, we made it to the boardwalk, and there was a bathroom in the arcade. We also took lots of cute pics. Overall, the experience was traumatizing, but unforgettable. And honestly, I had lots of fun the entire time, no matter how much I complained.
September: HOCO 2024!
Homecoming 2024 was super fun! My favorite part wasn’t actually the dance, but when my neighbor’s cat came up to me and started cuddling me while I was walking to my friend’s house to get ready for HOCO! This cat was so adorable and made my day. Basically, I just really love cats, so petting and holding one made my day (the actual dance was also really fun)!
October: Random sunset
This memory was kind of random. It was October 9th, and I was walking my dog around the neighborhood. I don’t really remember why, but the entire day, I had been super stressed and wanted to take a walk to try and relax. Surprisingly, it worked (normally it doesn’t). I’m not sure if it was the gorgeous sunset (the pictures don’t do it justice—it was such a bright and marvelous color, I don’t think I’ll ever experience a sunset like that again) or the cat I saw while on the walk (which I really wanted to pet but couldn’t because my dog hates cats) or just the act of walking my dog, but as the walk progressed, my stress and anxiety faded, and I felt peace like I had never felt before. It was genuinely such an amazing feeling. This feeling is why October 9th was my favorite day of October this year.
November: Castle Rock w/ Emiii
During November, I went on a hike to Castle Rock with the wonderful Emi Gruender. We were really unlucky because it rained on the one day we decided to go to Castle Rock—it was clear and sunny literally the entire rest of the week. Either way, even though it was wet and cold and miserable, I had lots of fun. We jammed to music on the way there and back, and even during the hike (if you were at Castle Rock on November 11th, and heard two teenage girls screaming along to the soundtrack of Hamilton, no you didn’t). We were trying to see a waterfall, but when we got there, the waterfall turned out to be a small trickle of water which was really sad and disappointing. But overall, it was a very unique experience and I really enjoyed it!
December: Monterey w/ my family!
Recently, on December 1st, I went to Monterey with my family. Since my parents don’t believe in paying for parking (which, like, me too), we parked on some random street (I think it was called 3rd street) and walked about a mile and a half to get to the coast. Me, being extremely out of shape, didn’t enjoy the walk that much, but once we got close to the beach, I was happy. We went to the Wharf and walked around Monterey, taking a lot of pictures on this vintage camera my sister thrifted. According to her, the camera is from the 1980s, which we know because every time she takes a picture with the camera, the date says 1980. She also said the camera was worth a couple of hundred dollars, but she thrifted it for 50 dollars. I can see why it’s so expensive though, because the quality of the photos was amazing. She also got some pictures of a sea otter (pictured above), and we saw lots of fish and seals. At some point we saw this tiny seagull eating this giant fish in the water, it was a little scary to watch. We ended up eating lunch at some random restaurant (it was really good) and then we stopped by Ghirardelli and headed back to the car. The sunset that day was also really pretty, which made everything ten times better! Overall, December 1st has been my favorite day of December this year (which could change, but I doubt it)!