~ 2012 ~

Here's a short summary of 2012:
One picture from each month.
Top 10 albums of 2012.
Top 10 songs.

January

February I turned 15

March

April

May The month I left my life and went to the beach.

June

July

August The month of the best Advance ever.

September

October

November

December

What a year.

Top 10 albums of 2012 in no particular order(in my opinion):

Mylo Xyloto - Coldplay
The Midsummer Station - Owl City
All Things Bright and Beautiful - Owl City
Red - Taylor Swift
Night Visions - Imagine Dragons
The Hunger Games Soundtrack - Lionsgate
The Albatross EP - Port Blue
Rock What You Got - Superchick
The Struggle - Tenth Avenue North
Eye On It - TobyMac

Top 10 Songs of 2012 in no particular order (in my opinion):

Stand in the Rain - Superchick
Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
Red - Taylor Swift
Someone Like You - Adele
When Can I See You Again? - Owl City
Somebody That I Used to Know - Walk off the Earth
Paradise - Coldplay
We Are Young - Fun.
Some Nights - Fun.
Set Fire to the Rain - Adele

This year has been so amazing. So many inside jokes have been shared. I could go on forever about this year, and how awesome it's been, but you've probably experienced it just like I have.

Thanks for being there friends, you guys are the best.

~ He is Near ~

My family and I watch "The Nativity Story" before Christmas each year, much like any other family of the Christian faith. However, this year I watched it with a new understanding I think. I felt like I understood Mary on a deeper level. How must it feel to be chosen by God? She was an average teenager. Not average as in today's world, but in her world. She had feelings too. She thought and had her own personality. I felt like I knew her. Also, in the first part, when Zechariah - the father of John the Baptist - heard God's voice in the temple, I got a chill. What must it feel like to hear the voice of God? It made me realize, God is not far from us. He is close enough for us to hear his voice, and see his hand. I always seemed to view God as someone out of my reach (as in, so far away I had to pray to talk to him) or something I could not get to. Yes he lives within me, and yes, I see him move, but I never truly have felt so close to him. I know this is a stupid simile, but I want to use it; I viewed God (and I would not have admitted this at the time) like a distant relative, who I would write (pray) to when I needed something, and not when I didn't. But my eyes have been opened once more; God is not a "distant relation," but a constant, holy, sympathetic king, who stands beside me in battle, who stands me up on my feet, and who leads me in the way I must go.
He is near to us.

Matthew 1: 22b - 23:

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”(which means, God with us)."

Merry Christmas.

~ Memories ~

Ah, Christmas time. Every year it makes me think of the past. This year I've thought about last year, and how epic last Christmas really was. We laughed, we cried, we danced, we ate some pretty great food...it was awesome. I wasn't worried about finals. I didn't have trouble fitting my Bible reading into my schedule (when really, it should come first). But I was also oblivious. My choices and actions would result in something whether I liked it or not, and that something has been this year. This past year has been one of the best years of my life, and also one of the hardest. I guess, rather than best or worst, I should label them fullest or emptiest. 2012 is definitely my very fullest year yet. It seems like everything happened. I really can't list all the things that have gone on this year, but it sure has been a lot. For one thing, I've made some pretty awesome friends, but I lost a few of them, too. Losing them was hard, but gaining new friends was better.

I look back through old text messages and old gmail chats and see the evidence of long internet video hangouts, I listen to my playlist named "January of Last Year," I see pictures and faces and people who used to mean something to me, and I can't help but feel that atmosphere from last year.

I'm sad it's gone, but I'm glad it's over, and that's all I can say about that.