Emily and Celia - From Emily:
"This year, Celia and I moved into our own apartment with our three cats: Baby, Lolly, and Kevin. This has been an awesome upgrade from having roommates. We have been playing an excessive amount of the RPG Vampire the Masquerade. we have had campaigns set in 2023 Gig Harbor, WA, 2032 San Francisco, CA, 2023 Athens Greece, and the 1850s San Fran. Celia has been working on her capstone: a series of poems. Celia has been Battalion commander of ROTC this semester and will graduate in the spring. Over the summer I was a paraprofessional. This fall, I have been doing my first-year teaching middle school art. It has proved difficult but rewarding. At the beginning of the year, I got knee surgery - an ACL replacement and meniscus repair. The recovery has been challenging but I am able to walk and lunge, etc. without pain."
Colleen - Sophomore! Jobs - Lifeguard manager, Lifeguard, Babysitter, Hostess at Paul Manno's Italian Restaurant. Best memories - bus ride back from Winter Guard. getting driver's license, end of summer lifeguard party, epic hike around Lake Geneva. Worst moments - Pool backwash flooding incident. Recs Books: Lessons in Chemistry and Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Cried so hard. Music: Lana Del Rey, Hippy Sabotage, Pouya. Top songs - Forever waiting for you at my window - Pouya. Work by Charlotte Day Wilson.
Alex - 9th grade. Highschool attack. Fav memories of 2023 - Cross Country. Getting the crazy PR of 27 at the best course in the cold and rain. Sitting outside reading during the summer. "It was lit" Went to Lake Geneva and running on the lake trail behind all the fancy houses on the edge of the lake. worst of 2023: "Race where expected to do well and read the clock wrong and then realized that it was not that good and everyone else got PRs. Hate that course for ever and ever." Book recs: Vicious by V.E. Schwab. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. Music - Everything thing from Lana Del Ray. Men I trust. Fiona Apple and Taylor Swift - newer stuff not old Taylor. Movies - Dune, Across the Spiderverse.
Becca -- Grade - 5th grade. Ms Williams class. Fav memory: NWA tests especially the math tests are the worst because it has 43 questions, and it has a lot of hard questions because it gets harder if you get them right. One of favorite memories - Going to Cub Creek camp for a whole week. Animals galore, riding horse named Cheyene and new friends. Hoping that school trip to BizTown next week will be the best of the year. Fav summer - No school. Worst summer - Not having stuff to do. Rec - Percy Jackson - Heroes of Olympus and the Insiders. Owl House. Hello from the Hollowood's, Night vale and Taylor Swift. Spiderman, Lana Del Ray
Leila - more detail to come. Leila signed us up for a 18th century ball this year and sewed her dress - it turned out so great. It was such a fun night even if we were late sewing last bits of the costumes. Leila also has new patterns and quilts this year that doing well - check out: Leila Gardunia Quilt Patterns and sign up for the newsletter to get the latest.
I started taking meds for ADD this year. It was one of the worst moments when Leila and I argued about it. I didn't want to admit how desperately overwhelmed I felt and how much my anxiety was getting in the way of my life. Then that first day when the medicine kicked in and I felt at the same time a little buzzy, but also able to make a to do list, rearrange my calendar and just do those things without feeling like I was drowning. Hasn't solved my problems but may help me deal with my life.
Walking with my work colleague and friend in Spain while we argued about some challenging politics and moments at work and the possibility of me changing jobs. It was lightly raining, and we had these intense conversations over coffee and toasted crusty bread spread with fresh tomato and olive oil. I have been spoiled at work where I have been able to make my own job multiple times and this new job means I get to focus on a mix of economics and genetics. I will miss my cotton team, but after two years they're ready to take on the problems without me.
The other two work moments I want to remember really are from trips to Kenya and India. Sometimes the world feels overwhelming to me: climate change, politics, pollution, wars, all of my other anxieties that I don't dare say out-loud most of the time but fill my brain, but on both trips meeting with African and Indian scientists and farmers I felt a growing sense of optimism and possibility for the future that has been inspiring to me all year. Both countries are growing and developing in different ways but trying so hard to do the right things for farmers and the environment.
Travel - Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Spain, US: Lake Geneva, IL, Boise, ID, Tucson, AZ, Illinois farm tours and Farm Progress Show, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, India.
Recommendations:
Books - Run me to the Earth by Paul Yoon, Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin - always will recommend. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The Strange by Nathan Ballingrood. The Last Cuentista by Levine Querido.
Music - Hillary Hahn - Ysaye recording, Brandi Carlile - all of the artists she produced albums for this year is a great list of new and upcoming singers. Tanya Tucker - Sweet western Sound also made the documentary that is hilarious and heart-warming "The Return of Tanya Tucker", Joni Mitchell at Newport, Brandy Clark, Lucious, and The Secret Sisters
