Ready

Straight from my Twenty-Eleven journal, I give you my lists {with the exceptions of the abbreviated Friends and Movies}.

Twenty-Eleven Firsts

First hug: Cassidy

First drink: sparking white grape juice

First food: a brownie

First text: Cody: "Happy new year" 12:50am

First color I painted my nails: deep purple :) Jan. 4

First thing I bought: nail polish Ja. 21

First pair of shoes I wore: Uggs

First time I brushed my teeth: Jan. 2 4:15pm

First time it rained: Jan. 1

First time it snowed: 5:30am Jan. 6

First book I finished: "The Outsiders" Jan. 28 10pm

First eyeliner I used: navy waterproof

First cry: Jan. 3

First cold: Jan 5-7 -__-

First stomach bug: {NA}

First LEGIT snow: 1.10.11

First sleepover: Jan 7-8 Mer's

First PC-sighting: July 7th, Panera Bread

First crush: My Guy

First theater movie: Tangled {AMAZING!}

First hair cut: Feb. 25

tWENTY-eLEVEN bOOKS:

1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan {1}

2. Tex by S. E. Hinton {5}
3. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher {3}
4. Across the Universe by Beth Revis {3.5}
5. No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt {3.5}
6. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger {3}
7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins {4}
8. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins {4}
9. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare {3}
10. Guys are Waffles, Girls are Spaghetti by Chad Eastham {3}
11. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins {4}
12. Fortune by Erica Spindler {2}
13. Divergent by Veronica Roth {3.5}
14. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen {4}
15. Theogony by Hesiod {4}
16. The Magicians by Lev Grossman {4.5}

17. A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley {3}

18. The Iliad by Homer {5}

19. Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah {4}

20. Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller {3.5}

21. Quicksilver by Stephanie Spinner {2.5}

22. MAX by James Patterson {3}

23. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen {3}

24. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini {3.5}

25. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry {and someone else...} {3.5}

26. Dreadful Sorry by Katherine Reiss {2}

27. A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones {4}

28. Prophecy of the Sisters by Zink {3}

29. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare {4.5}

30. Green Angel by Hoffman {3.5}

31. The Year of the Hangman by Blackman {3-3.5}

Twenty-Eleven New Friends

26, including a Spanish boy, a French boy, a Norwegian girl, and someone named Frank Fraank. I kid you not.

Twenty-Eleven {New} Movies

71, my favorites including:

Tangled

Sherlock Holmes {first one}

X-Men: First Class

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Batman Begins

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Inception

Super 8

50/50

In Twenty-Eleven I...

Saw my first R-rated movie in the theater.

Participated in my first NaNoWriMo.

Got my driver's permit XD

Went to my first Renaissance Festival.

Got over someone.

Started working out for the first time.

Finally got my ears pierced.

Went to my first Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.

Got a job.

Ate my first bacon roll-up.

Rode a plane for the first time.

Went to EUROPE.

Refrained from doing something stupid at the Open House for the first time.

Started my senior year of high school.

Wrote my first letter to Santa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two-thousand eleven was quite a busy year. It has come and gone well before I noticed. I was lying in bed last night marveling at the fact that I started all those lists about a YEAR ago. It seems like it's been only a few months.

I changed a lot this year. I hadn't realized it until recently, but I am very much not the same girl who experienced New Year's last year. Last New Year's, I was heartbroken and trapped by the burden of masochism. I was working on those things, very hard, but I hadn't come out of them yet. I know now I had to be there to get where I am now.

In my seventeenth year, I feel that I have quietly become the person I was always supposed to be. I'm not grown up, I'm not done changing, I'm not perfect, and I'm not suggesting that I am. It's just that I've always felt a little "off," a little behind. This year I feel like I finally have both feet where they're supposed to be RIGHT NOW. I feel older and more in control of myself.

It's not so much that I have more answers; it's that I've finally learned how to live life the right way. I have to own my mind and heart and choices. I can't let other people or school or my personal flaws dictate who I am or how I respond.

When it comes down to it, I am my own person, and if I can give it all to God, I'll be doing pretty well.

A lot of my plans and wishes for twenty-eleven didn't happen, but that's alright. {Tomorrow will mark an official year of being erotica/pornography clean though :)} God's got it covered. As a fellow author, I think it's about time I start respecting God enough to give him the pen to my own story. He knows what's he's doing; like an author, he knows the ending and I'll just have to trust him that all the ups and downs are part of the plot.

Twenty-twelve is going to be my biggest transitional year yet. I'll become an adult; I'll graduate from high school; I'll begin college. Those are such monumental events that it makes it difficult to breathe when I think about them too hard. But they're coming whether I breathe easy or not XD

I feel optimistic about twenty-twelve--no matter what the Mayans say. I don't regret twenty-eleven {I'm not running away from it the way I was running from twenty-ten}, but I'm ready to face a new year.

Twenty-twelve, I now stand ready for life-alteration.

~Stephanie