Seventeen.

Short note before we dive into today's content: This week has been absolutely crazy. It seems like all of my professors have chosen this week to have everything due. I've been swamped (so much so that it's even in my dreams.. like, what?). BUT, today was another snow day! So I've had the chance to catch up on pretty much everything that's needed my attention. Thanks everyone for sticking around and continuing to read Keep Not Settling in the last few days, even though there hasn't been much new to see! Sometimes, life really does get in the way.

ANYWAYS.

I turn eighteen on the 27th.
AKA in 3 days.

A lot has happened in the last year, and I thought it would be interesting to writ up a blog post about some of the highlights of being seventeen, by month!

• March: Two weeks after turning 17 I flew back up to Winston-Salem to accept my offer at Salem in person! I also attended Applicant Overnight. Paying my housing deposit in the business office was surreal. 

• April: Frankly, all I can remember of April is my last spring break of high school and lots and lots and lots of homework. Spring semester of senior year pretty much sucked up every second of my day and night.  

• May: High school graduation. Enough said. 

• June: This month actually wasn't too exciting, just normal summer-y stuff like working, spending time with friends, chilling... you know. The usual. 

• July: Keep Not Settling came into existence! Little did I know, when I started this blog, how greatly it would affect my life. Honestly, it was probably one of my best decisions of Summer 2014.  

• August: Salem College! My mom and I flew up (again) about a few days in advance to get everything I needed before move-in. We had an absolute blast. Plus, orientation and the first day of classes about a week later. 

• September: My first FALL FEST! Heck yes. Other than Big/Little, I think Fall Fest is my favorite Salem tradition. It was such an incredible day, and many of my friends and I still talk about it regularly (plus, we're already starting to team up for next year). 

• October: I visited Washington D.C. for the day with about 50 other Salem students early on this month, danced in the rain with west coast friends, and actually started to feel like Salem was truly my home in October. 

• November: I'll be honest, most of this month was spent preparing for Thanksgiving Break: getting caught up and ahead on homework, projects, etc. so I didn't have much to do for those wonderful 4 days. One of my amazing friends brought me home to be with her family for Thanksgiving since I couldn't fly home... it was amazing. 

• December: The first semester of college is officially over. I honestly cannot believe how quickly the months flew by. Most of the beginning of December is a blur, with finals and projects and presentations, but the second half of the month -- being home with my family and friends -- that was A+++. 

• January: My trip to Vienna & Prague! I actually have an installment of blog posts written about this, so if you want to know more, click here, here, here, and here. 

• February: Spring semester starts, lots of good vibes going on this month. I have some exciting projects coming up, both for school and recreationally, and I can't wait until I can actually write about them in an official manner. Plus, I still can't believe it's been a year since my first visit to Salem. 

And there it is, seventeen in one blog post. 

Oh, and if you're wondering how I feel about eighteen... you'll read about that soon ;) 

Keep not settling,