2012 In Review






In a rare moment of sunshine amidst all the winter rain, I was able to convince my sister to come to the cove with me to take some photographs. About a week ago, we had a huge storm where it was windy and rainy and we (along with a lot of others) lost power. During that, there were record high tides and it caused a lot of issues near the waterfront. One of those such oddities was the movement of driftwood from the shore, to hundreds of feet inland. Of course, I had to go scope this out. For those who came to visit, the last photo shown above is of the parking lot that we parked in when we went and made s'mores. 

But anyways, this year has been quite an eventful year for me. I'm going to steal what Maggie did and post a little timeline of how 2012 went down.

In January, I went to Puerto Rico with the school swim team. It was a great experience and its where I really kindle my friendships with my teammates since I'm too busy with my academics during the school year to socialize a lot. Eventually, school started back up in late January where I began my second semester of college

February I didn't blog at all. It was probably because I was getting into the new semester, and finishing up my first year of swimming. We had our championship meet in the later part of this month, where I did very well. Best times in almost all of my events, and ended up placing 3rd in one of my events, and 5th in all the rest (which was actually pretty impressive considering there are 50+ guys in each event.)

March was a good month. There was no more swimming so I was able to focus on my architecture midterm and socialize more. Spring break was really an adventure though. Going on a road trip from New York to Maryland, where I spent a few days enjoying Washington D.C. and then continuing the trip to Virginia where I stayed at my friend Ben's home. It's the month I realized my love for visiting new places, and the people who come with only make the experiences better. It's also the month that I realized I don't know how to dress for warm weather

Then April rolled around and I attempted to get back into menswear blogging, but sadly it had to take place in my lovely dorm room. I enjoyed Easter with my architecture friends (and with the pair of bunny ears I picked up) and discovered instagram. I also realized that I needed to update my wardrobe to compensate for the east coast heat and humidity, something I never really had to consider with the mild Seattle summers. I also thought about wasted time, and about social implications of actions. 

May marked the end of my freshman year of architecture school where I somehow managed to be ranked first in my class academically. I went home this month and started working almost right away as only my over-productive personality would allow me to. Of course I had to enjoy the city I had been deprived from for almost 9 months, and had a few good days

In June I went to a music festival, made fried pb&j's and finally got around to satisfying my summer wardrobe. I continue to think too much and work too much and try to enjoy the beginning of summer.

July allowed for a few more adventures. I was able to continue my menswear related escapades and had a fun day with my friend who is studying photography. I was able to make a weekend trip down to Portland, Oregon with a friend from college where we enjoyed food, a street fair, and a respective break from working. Speaking of which,  I worked too much. And of course, the Seattle trip of dreams and wonders happened and made this summer one to never forget.

Some free time in August allowed me to consider honesty as I believe it to be, as well as reflecting on how I am living my life as I think it should be lived. I got ready to head back for my second year of architecture school, and on my way back my family and I had a nice trip to Boston. But as soon as classes began the workload consequently loaded up, quite rapidly at that. 

September brought about feelings that I wish wouldn't have happened, but there were fun trips made and decisions to re-evaluate how I perceive the world around me. 

Then, in October I got in a little more adventure going to NYC for the first time and met up again with some lovely bloggers. I attempted to make 20 lists of 20 things in honor of my 20th birthday, but that didn't exactly go exactly as planned. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed having to think about my life as I've experienced it until this point and enjoyed sharing it will my readers too. In looking to the future, I made a list of 20 things I'd like to do before I turn 21. For Halloween events I dressed up for a masquerade and for a costume party, and had a lot of fun at both. 

In November I reflected a lot on the kindness of others, and how much it can mean to the people around them, appropriate for me since Thanksgiving was spent at a friends house. And of course I get stressed out and this time console myself a bit better than in September. 

It's now the end of December I can hardly believe everything I've done this past year. Lately I've just been enjoying being home, and getting back to menswear. But now that I'm back on the east coast, and I'll be traveling once again to Puerto Rico I'll be finishing off what I'll consider to be a very good year.








{On him: boots: lands end canvas >> socks: topman << green pants: lands end canvas >> belt: old navy << polo: J.Crew >> fleece jacket: Uniqlo}
{On her: boots: DSW >> jeggings: true religion << tank: Nordstrom >> cardigan: victoria secret << scarf: Dillon's, which was a gift from the lovely Mayte}

This has been an exceedingly long post and I applaud you if you actually went through it all.
Happy New Year!

Dress everyday like you're seeing an old friend




Although while I'm at school I don't really communicate with my pre-college friends, I feel like I should more often. Especially after today. Coming home, you're bound to run into some people you didn't really want to see, and you're bound to make plans with people you actually do want to see. And today I made plans and saw two people that I actually wanted to see. 

I met an old friend today for coffee, and we do this every break we're both home for. I love talking to her and we just talked for hours until our coffees got cold and she had to go to work. Then, I got to see one of my closest friends from our club swimming days, and before he-went-to-college-two-years-before-me days, and I can't believe he's graduating this year already. He's got a good job set out, and a great girlfriend by his side, and I'm just so happy for them. We saw The Hobbit which was quite good, especially considering the fact that they made a 3 hour movie not seem that long. We had a great dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and they somehow managed to pay for my movie ticket and my meal without me noticing. 

These are people that I should really stay in touch with. The good listeners of the world, the ones who love to smile. The ones who pay for dinner, and the ones who dream of the future. Not only should I stay in touch with them, but I should seek out more like them, and welcome them into my life. (Perfect example- the blogger family.)

To end off the day, my family and I finally got our Christmas tree up, lights on it, and decorated all within the time it took for a Christmas music CD to play. 
Slash to actually end it off all of my grades are finally up and I'm upset because the only class I thought I would get an A in I ended up with a B+ in. Really?! REALLY. The only thing that can make this okay is if I remain ranked first in our class, but I doubt that will happen anymore. Time to fix the resumé again.








{boots: Land Ends Canvas >> socks: H&M << green chinos: Lands End Canvas >> shirt: J.Crew << jacket: REI >> scarf: Banana Republic}

Dress everyday like you're going to see your worst enemy



I don't have any known enemies, but I do like to think that while I'm back in Seattle I'd like to dress like at any moment I might run into an old friend. So of course, even though I just met up with a close friend for lunch and dropped by my old high school to talk to one of my favorite advisers, I wanted to be dressed to show anyone I might run into that this-is-how-20-year-old-Architecture-students-from-New-York do it.

And as you can gather from my pictures and from the fact that I said I'm back in Seattle, I'm actually home. In retrospect, it doesn't seem like that long. Four months isn't really that long, but I have done so much in those past four months. This past semester I designed my first building. It didn't really seem like such a monumental accomplishment until after it was actually said to me. Professionals get the same amount of time, approximately that I got to do almost what I did. Except I didn't have any design restrictions so my work is... futuristic to say the least. I got chosen as one of the top two students from my section to present in an honor review, which is impressive at our school. (Oh, and we get published by the school of architecture, which looks pretty good on resume's and stuff.) Hopefully soon I'll stop underestimating myself, but in the meantime  I'm still trying to balance athletics, academics, two different social groups, and whatever else might get thrown my way. My tendency to over-analyse doesn't help me out much either.

With that being said, I'm going to make it a point to enjoy this break. It's short (only two weeks for me) so I want to see everyone I want to see, go to a lot of coffee shops, and get back in shape for the swim team training trip I have to go to school for.



 { boots: Lands End Canvas  >> socks: Uniqlo << jeans: Levi 511 >> flannel: Uniqlo << sweater: H&M >> jacket: Banana Republic }


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