Eighteen. Once more on the brink of the 9th. Who I am, as of 8th August 2013:

• Still with the giant, nerd glasses
• Longer-than-shoulder-length but shorter-than-halfway-down-my-back hair
• Very nostalgic for Harry Potter at the moment
• Also a Ravenpuff - huzzah!
• I think that being sorted into Hufflepuff shows how much I've changed this year
• I don't prize knowledge over simple things like kindness and friendship anymore
• And I certainly am not quick to state all the "awesome, intellectual" things I've accomplished anymore
• Really, I used to brush over Hufflepuff
• But I think, now, that it just might be the best house because while the others are fighting for glory and achievements, Hufflepuff just quietly gets things done
• I respect you so much, Hufflepuff House
• And no, I don't disrespect Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin - but they're not places I want to be at (and in the case of Ravenclaw, I wouldn't want to be just there... okay, rambled enough about houses let's move on shall we)
• I still can't drive yet
• And I still don't have a job yet
• But I did manage to make some money with my 365 art project on tumblr
• Also, I bought 42 books online because I'm insane
• And because my sister is in New Zealand
• And I was trying to patch up the hole she left behind
• The most amazing series I've read this year is definitely Chaos Walking and my favourite standalones are The Sea Of Tranquility and How To Save A Life
• I'm not afraid of leaving childhood anymore because I know I'll never exactly leave it
• I'm gonna be eighteen forever.
• We're going to New Zealand in December!!! I might blubber shamelessly throughout the entire trip
• I'm okay with a lot of things I wasn't okay with last year
• I'm mostly okay with going unacknowledged
• And I'm okay with sharing things with others
• I'm also okay with growing one more year older
• I'm mostly okay with not collecting and hoarding expensive Moleskines and NYLONS and Frankies
• BUT I AM NOT OKAY WITH HOW LONG JACOB AND BECKY ARE TAKING TO RELEASE THE HONEY TREES' DEBUT ALBUM... jk but not really
• I had one of the best birthday celebrations ever this year - Marie, Tracey, and Elena stayed over and we did awesome things like long talks over Gong Cha, buka puasa, lunch at Pickle And Fig, shopping at 1U, and lots of bonding [':
• I've learned to let go of a lot this year...
• my sister
• the need to get excellent grades and get my self-worth from that
• my ideal of parents
• being 100% prepared for everything ever in my life
• I've just learned to take a lot of things one step at a time
• and remember that it's okay to my parents that I make mistakes and/or fail
• Two of the best things about eighteen was getting my iPad during Christmas while listening to The Honey Trees, and staying over at Elena's place with Marie and Tracey
• Also, Marie totally helped me with clothes-buying today - it was so much fun
• I'm pretty hooked on Community and Parks & Rec right now
• Last-few-hours-of-seventeen-years-old self wrote: In spite of myself, I wonder if everything will smooth out after all the kinks of adolescence and teenagehood. Last-few-hours-of-eighteen-years-old answers, I don't know. But I don't really care anymore. Life can do whatever it wants.
• This has been the hardest year for me yet - I lost the ability to can, literally
• I didn't find anymore joy in reading, drawing, music, anything
• But in light of everything that's just happened, I think I might be ready for the years to come
• I just realised that mostly every birthday is a little bubble of time where I truly feel at peace and actually in the moment
• Thank God for sweet, contemplative days like these
• Looks like this list thing might just become a tradition
• I'll probably be off to read Paper Towns and then 1984 for the rest of the night after finishing this
• Also, my birthday's not on Facebook tonight
• For once, I don't care about people who barely remember me showing up on my Wall
• It doesn't really matter now - and it means I'm free.
• You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things. — Jamie Tworkowski

(Fin)