What Happened in 2016

January

• Took a trip to Racine for a week during Christmas vacation, where one day I visited my friend Kelsey's house for the first time and got to ride her horse in the snow. I also got to meet her goats, chickens, and three cute dogs. While being in Racine I also took a trip to Gurnee Mills with my friend Laurette, and bought an emoticon pillow. (Unfortunately emokis went to main stream, and I regret buying an emoji pillow now ;))
• I met Petr, who would become a good friend to me.
• Went through V+C, a 20 week church course about foundational truths that my church believes in.

 

February

 

• In February I got a new roommate, I think my old roommate was only at Parkside for a semester. The new roommate was the best roommate. We got a long really well, even though she understood little English in the beginning, as she was an exchange student from China, named Koral.
• February was the launch of #Canaanite which was there to raise awareness for kids with special needs and spread the message that we are all God's creation and how we are very much the same. #Cannanite was launched before the filming of "In the Land of Canaan" which is a documentary a guy at my church was working on to tell the story of God's purpose for kids with special needs.  To raise awareness for kids with special needs a group from my church went to Chicago to spread the word. We weren't able to stay very long, as it was freezing.

• The weekend after going to Chicago, I went to Chicago again on Valentine's Day. This time with a group of exchange students to watch the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown. (Perks of having a foreign roommate). I got asked if I was from Poland. It was a really snowy day in Chicago so it was too cold to watch the whole parade so we looked around Chinatown. The beginning was the best part anyways. I think we walked back to the train station from Chinatown and stopped at the bean of the way. Someone proposed at the bean since it was Valentine's Day.

 

 

• Saw Troye Sivan in concert in Milwaukee with my friend Laurette
  
• At the end of the month, I entered into adulthood, when I turned 20.
• Saw a local Christian Band "The Spark" then months later the lead singer became one of my teachers at the School of Worship. 

March

• Celebrated my birthday by seeing Risen, and getting Dominos with my good friend Kelsey, and roommate Korah.
• Saw Petr perform
• Gave up social media for 15 days

April

• Went to Chicago with my roommate. One of the ladies that works for the exchange student program at Parkside acted as our tour guide.  We went to Chinatown, where they had me try a variety of Chinese foods. (Both people are Chinese). Then we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

 

• I went to Six Flags opening day with Korah and her friends.

 

• Met Tyler Oakley unexpectedly. While working on a project for Sociology, I checked my Facebook to find Tyler Oakley was doing a free show at Marquette University. After classes I contacted my friend Laurette, then picked her up and we went to Milwaukee right away to make sure they didn't run out of wristbands. We made it and became 5th in line. Front and center for their show. (best seats). After listening to him speak I got to meet him!

• Volunteered through Parkside with Korah and her friends to help spread gravel and mulch at the Racine Zoo.

May

• Got done with classes at Parkside for the year. Celebrated by going to Red Robin with friends.
• Saw YouTubers Dan and Phil do a theatrical show in Milwaukee, with my friends Alex, and Anne, afterwards got lost in Milwaukee.

 

• Moved to Racine for the summer after spending a few weeks at home.

June

• Started working at RADD (Recreational Activities for the Developmentally Disabled).
• Got accepted into the School of Worship
• Went to Milwaukee to see the premiere of the documentary "In the Land of Canaan"
• Went to the launch of the Underground Huddle, a group for teenagers discovering their faith in Racine. I volunteered as a mentor for the young girls there during the summer along with two other women in the church.

 

July

• Went to my first OCM conference. A conference that my church puts together each summer. This includes the three Living Lights in Wisconsin and one in Michigan. The churches in England have their own conference. This one was located in Merryville, Indiana. OCM stands for One Church Ministries. One Church= the unifying of the body of Christ. In Merryville I went to Portillos for the first time. (Such a great place!) At the conference during one session I got to work with the toddlers. Here are pictures of my lovely roommates for the conference!

 

• Traveled to Chicago with one of my friends from Parkside, Cleo to meet YouTuber, Shane Dawson. (Making him my 5th YouTuber I saw this year, and the last for 2016). I actually became more of a fan of him after seeing him in person and reading his book, now I check out his videos regularly. It was one of the hottest days of summer so the meet up was rushed, and by the time we met him we were both drenched in sweat. But it was great.

 

• Came back to Slinger for a weekend and got to see one of my high school friends who had moved out to Virginia. We went to the county fair together.

August

• Went on a spontaneous trip to Zion with my friend Liza, who I hadn't seen in almost a year. In Zion we went to a place called Callie's to listen to live music, and catch up.

• Saw "Suicide Squad" with people at church. (I would end up seeing it a second time in theatres, while on vacation with my parents.
• I watched Stranger Things
• Work ended for the summer
• Took a family vacation to Hayward Wisconsin. (Excited for 2018 when I'll be going to Colorado for vacation :) ) Started out the vacation feeling really sick the first two days then felt better. Went fishing, canoeing, mini-golfing etc.
• Got placed into a home group in my church. Homegroups are a variety of different people (ages, backgrounds, relationship status, etc) coming together outside of church to meet once a week. Homegroup is great. :)

September

• Became a student at the Living Light School of Worship (A nine month music/discipleship program)
•  Moved in with a couple from church in North Racine
• Tried swing dancing for the first time, and I'm pretty bad at it XD
• Lost the best dog ever,  Luke at 14 years old. :( Being home for Christmas made me miss him a lot. Seeing his collar and photograph on the wall. Coming home with extra food, and seeing the peanut jar. (Peanuts were his favorite food).

• Went to a concert put together by my friend Naomi, to raise awareness and money for human trafficking. It ended up being four hours long! :) Some people even did spoken word poetry.

October

• Explored Chicago with a friend I made at the school, Ani. We went to Navy Pier and the Magnificent Mile. It started off being a rainy day, but once the rain passed, the clouds made the city look even cooler.

• Carved pumpkins with people from the school. (There are 21 one of us all together). It was my first time I carved my own pumpkin. I carved a paw print in my pumpkin in memory of Luke. After carving pumpkins I played a German card game. (It's cool going to school with foreign people. In my program we have seven foreign people. Two people from England, two from Germany, and three from Switzerland, as well as a few people from out of state.

 

• Went to my friend Trae's 21st birthday party which doubled as a costume party. I went as a stick-figure. It was a lot of fun being with new friends from the school, and seeing some friends from Parkside.



• Went to a pumpkin farm with some people from the school to end the month, with a peaceful hay ride through a corn maze.

 

November

• Visited one of my good friends from high school, Amber at her apartment in Oshkosh. We made cake then made a blanket fort to sleep under for the night.

 

• To celebrate one of the girls birthdays at the school, went to Millennium Park in Chicago to go Iceskating. I hung onto the railing my first time around and a half. With my friend Kez following behind slowly. Five people took me around the rink, and luckily I didn't make them fall. (I can't believe I went to Chicago a total of 6x this year).



•  Went home for thanksgiving and put up the Christmas Tree.

December

• We had a prophet come to the school, and tell me that I am an anointed songwriting. Here's hoping I come into that calling soon, as I have to have a song written by January 20th.
• Went to an assisted living building in Racine and sang Christmas carols to the residents with the school. Afterwards we all celebrated the Christmas season together.



• Filmed a School of Worship version of the Mannequin Challenge, then it was time for Christmas break.
• Went home to Slinger on December 17th for Christmas Break. Where I spent time with family, decorated Christmas cookies, watched multiple Christmas movies, and enjoyed the joy that the Christmas season brings with it, along with the beauty of all the decorations.  I want to hold on to Christmas!
• For New Year's Eve I went to a Mexican Restaurant with my parents and family friends. Afterwards the family friends came over, and we played games until midnight including: Bumper pool, Scattegories, Bop It, Apples to Apples, and Fact or Crap? I was actually really good at Bumper Pool and had a long winning streak. I came in second for Scattegories, and won Apples to Apples.

Of course this isn't all that happened in 2016. As a lot of my year was spent at Parkside, doing my summer job, or at the school. I just highlighted the interesting things. I feel like I learned hundreds of things in 2016, and I'm excited to learn and experience even more things in 2017. Thank you to all of you who have supported me with the school, and to everyone else who was apart of my 2016. :)