The One With The End-Of-The Year Post

Ello there mates!

It’s been a while since I have written a blog post, August, to be specific. And I write this in the last hour of 2014. I definitely wasn’t procrastinating; this is just for the added effect. Two Thousand and Fourteen has been a wonderful year, it has been a year full of surprises, happiness, sorrow and love and even some hate. But it has been one hell of a year.

I started the year in January, writing the prelims for my Board exams and doing miserably in them, wondering if I’d get a decent enough percentage to get the subjects of my choice in senior college. It was tough and I hated studying the subjects I never liked but I did it. Come February, I gave my boards and got done with them in March. This blog turned one in February and I turned seventeen, I became the dancing queen. There were quiet celebrations; I had an exam the day after my birthday.

Mid-March, I was free, free from HSC, free from the Boards, free to live my life. And I chose to use the freedom and binge-watch shows, starting with Supernatural, and it was the best show I have watched. The show has taught me so much; it has changed my life and given me a lot of perspective. April and May, I did an internship, I didn’t like it very much, but it certainly told me that having chosen a career as a writer, I might have to deal with writing for things I do not like. Or I will have no money to buy books or pizza or fandom merchandise.

I got the results of the blasted Boards in June. I still remember the number of rumours about the date of the results and the panic and the confusion. It was mayhem when the results did come, and it gave me a shock as well. I scored well, really well. And I got a ninety-six on a hundred in French and that is pretty much what put me in shock. Those grades must’ve been a fluke, because I’m still struggling with the language this year.

The end of June saw me in the college of my choice, with the subjects of my choice: Psychology, English Literature and Anthropology, with the mandatory subjects of English, a Special Course and French. Sigh. French never leaves me alone, does it? And thus began my journey into a life with Autonomy, maintaining my GPA and watching shows that inspire me.

July, I volunteered for Malhar. I did apply for Organizer, but didn’t make it. But that’s okay. Life is full of things that don’t work out; it makes you appreciate the ones that do. The month of August passed in a blur of Malhar and CIAs – Continuous Internal Assessment. Those dreaded exams that take place every month, those that instil terror and irritation in the heart of every Xavierite.

September and October included studying for End Semester exams, making memories with friends and applying for Ithaka, the annual literary festival of the English Department. I did apply for Editor, but again that didn’t work out. But I did get chosen for Public Relations team and I am very thankful for that, I learned so much from PR –the team and the experience. November was a busy month, with Ithaka work to be done. I actually experienced doing work during a fest. During Malhar, I did nothing, no events. Just gave away some copies of the publication I’d written a couple of articles for. I did write for Ithaka, the Journal. I had a research paper printed in the journal, which was pretty special for me. And in all this madness I also did NaNoWriMo for the second year and won! I wrote the bulk of the writing at the end, once Ithaka had ended and I could breathe a breath of fresh air.

Come December, I got accepted to three separate internships, each of them amazing, but I had to decline two of them, because I had to choose one. So, now I am currently interning at Campus Diaries, one of the leading sites for stories in Asia. And so far it has been a good experience. The internship will end in Feb and I am looking forward to the two months I’ll be interning there.

In other news, two of my best friends switched streams or continents for further studies and it has been a changing experience. I still talk to them, meet them and am best friends with them, but the distance and the change has made it harder and all the more sweeter. I have grown much closer to other friends, had three proper sleepovers (I didn’t let anyone sleep in any sleepover) and made new friends and lost some as well.

And the highlight of the year has been meeting Mark Gatiss, creator of Sherlock and writer of Doctor Who at Mumbai Comic Con. This was my first Comic Con, bang in the middle of my CIAs, and I have no idea what I’ve written in my English Lit paper, probably some rubbish.  And to think I was actually debating on if I should go or not. My friend who convinced me deserves the credit for my presence there. I cosplayed too, terribly and for less than fifteen minutes, but I did. I also bought Fandom merchandise, for myself and my friends. This is where I spent my internship money.

This year I haven’t read many books, barely eighteen, counting books I read for college but I have read countless fanfiction and I have new appreciation for literature and what is classified as literature. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak is the best book I read this year. I also reread several books, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Wicked Lovely series among them and I don’t regret it at all.

And I also started a YouTube channel this year, it’s called Nia Carnelio. Feel free to look it up. I’m going to try to get the hang of video editing and creating and everything.  And I have resolved to write more, I actually passed fifty thousand words of my novel this year with NaNoWriMo this year. Last year I had written short stories, paragraphs with prompts so it doesn’t count. So more writing, a (hopefully successful) YouTube channel, more blog posts and frequent ones (I only wrote eight this year, nine counting this one! This is so less compared to the fifty six I wrote last year!) and staying true to myself are the resolutions I’m making for this new year. Whew, this is one long blog post! You’re nearing the end, I swear.

I know I’m probably forgetting a number of memorable moments of 2014, but that’s okay. Each of them are present somewhere in my memories and I am glad to have experienced them. This year has been a great one, and keeping in mind my motto of ‘No Regrets’, it’s been one hell of a year.

Here’s hoping two thousand and fifteen will be as amazing as twenty-fourteen was.

Until next time,

Nia.