having been instilled with the desire to reflect, i feel the need to expand this beyond books.

• may 2 - snow day in may, the (unofficial?) last day of senior year. rio and i had spent the previous month trying and failing to land the desired zoo internship and therefore were technically not allowed to leave with everyone else. we did anyway. it rained, you guys. and we were in the gym instead of on the lawn which was thoroughly annoying. there was food and ice cream. there are videos of our antics on facebook.
• may - we had internship. for some people that meant a shitton of work; for me it meant going to mark's office about twice a week and hanging out for a few hours. janne was busy collecting books for the good of the people and rio was busy translating. rio and i went to the school a lot for various reasons; usually to see mrs shepherd. i ran into rammy every time and refused to explain why i was there because it was hilarious.
• may 30 - my graduation party. a whole lot of people came, ate all of our food, played bocce on the lawn (lol) and cards. most of them left early due to other graduation parties, at which point my family started to get hilariously/awfully drunk so i left my own party and crashed at rio's. (also this is when i finally take off my ankle brace for good.)
• june 1 - graduation rehearsal. we were all in the gym and it was kind of weird. mrs burns gave all the art students a book about ming and qing painting. we got our gowns and stood in line for ages to settle our cafeteria and other debts. the next generation of litmaggers was selling this year's product along with the yearbook and the latest issue of the spoke. everybody clambored after the spoke because it contained the map of where everyone was going next year, which is totally awesome every year. i think reflections was that night and we all went to daylesford abbey. it was a good show, the best part being michael brown's redition of "mario kart love song". mom cried.
• june 2 - graduation. at this point some of my family had left (and were all somehow still hungover) but there was still a large turnout at the actual ceremony. we waited behind the bleachers in lines for AGES. then we marched out and it felt so fucking real and weird. we sat through speeches (andrew olshevski's was the only one worth remembering) and those of us who tried really hard during high school went up to get our all-school scholar awards and vowed to drink champagne out of the unecessarily huge trophies. there's a picture of me kissing mine, sarcastically. then we walked and got our diplomas.
• june 2-3 - after graduation there was much hugging and triumphant yelling/hilarity. we found our parents in the parking lot and went home, taking pictures with our stuff. we opened presents. then we changed and rushed off to minella's for a celebratory brinner. priyanka eats pancakes and syrup out of her trophy. when we go to drop off lyna we end up at the high school and pose on top of the LED sign that announces our commencement. it's fucking fantastic. rio, janne, and i spend the rest of the night driving around semi-aimlessly, taking pictures with local points of interest/places that we frequent. at about 3 AM there's a tremendous rainstorm and we're stuck in a parking lot until it passes. it's intense. at dawn we end up in wilson park. we go home and sleep it off. i don't remember what i did the rest of the day.
• june 8-18 - my family and i fly to bonaire for 10 days of scuba diving, snorkeling, and deserty adventure. it's kind of fantastic.
• june - by this point the parties have died down. i don't see a lot of people, just the few i attempt to. at the end of june we have a going-away dinner for nina as she goes back to switzerland. rio and i vow to visit her next summer. i was supposed to go to pittsburgh on mission but i don't. katherine's is the last graduation party, and it's fun. it's also the night michael jackson dies, which provided for weird and interesting conversation. sometime mid-june i go to summer orientation and meet a few tulane kids.
• july - is it just us or is summer going on forever? on july 4th we're mostly in wilson park for the fireworks. i get my roommate assignment and get used to the idea that college means school too. rio and i spend an obscene amount of time together. we go on an anton yelchin movie marathon, followed by a RDJ one. altogether, we watch a lot of movies this summer. at this point i've all but lost my job and have gotten pretty poor.
• august - rio, janne, and i have our own last day of magic in the city on the 5th. on the 11th? c-day. i'm leaving on the 16th, most everyone else is leaving the following weekend.