2010 was an interesting year. More on that in a later post, perhaps. I saw a lot of people and a lot of places and a LOT of bands. I’m posting this now because I probably won’t have time later, which means that the last few days of 2010 (which will be spent in Colorado) won’t get included in this. Unfortunately, since I already know I can expect those days to be awesome.
I think it's good to look back at the cool things that happened. I think it reminds us that things like this can and will happen again.
Feel free to steal some or all of these categories for your own blog/facebook, by the way. I love hearing other people look back and remember as well.
First things first...
10 Things I Set Out To Do in 2010: (as mentioned in my 2009 blog post)
1. Learn to drive - Done
2. Learn how to use photoshop - Done
3. Go to less concerts and work more so I can save to buy a car - ...totally failed the first part (I saw more than twice as many bands this year). The rest of it (working more and saving for a car) has gone great.
4. See Switchfoot in concert - Done!
5. Learn to play guitar - Done!
6. See as many of my amazing friends as possible - Done
7. Be a better, more accessible older sister to my siblings - Done
8. Learn to love with Jesus's love, not my own - I probably failed even more spectacularly at this in 2010 than in 2009.
9. Get to know more people at school - Done
10. Let go of the fear of failure - Totally failed this one too.
The 10 Best [Or Most Significant] Events of 2010:
1. CleanPlace Moot 2010, August
2. Switchfoot and The Almost show, October 9
3. Tenth Avenue North show, September 22
4. Disciple show, March 4
5. Jon Foreman solo show, April 1
6. Shalana’s visit, January
7. Skillet show with Anywhere and Mikayla, July 31
8. The Great Snowfall, February 11 and 12
9. Getting my guitar, October 27
10. The Fern family’s two visits
Feel free to steal some or all of these categories for your own blog/facebook, by the way. I love hearing other people look back and remember as well.
First things first...
10 Things I Set Out To Do in 2010: (as mentioned in my 2009 blog post)
1. Learn to drive - Done
2. Learn how to use photoshop - Done
3. Go to less concerts and work more so I can save to buy a car - ...totally failed the first part (I saw more than twice as many bands this year). The rest of it (working more and saving for a car) has gone great.
4. See Switchfoot in concert - Done!
5. Learn to play guitar - Done!
6. See as many of my amazing friends as possible - Done
7. Be a better, more accessible older sister to my siblings - Done
8. Learn to love with Jesus's love, not my own - I probably failed even more spectacularly at this in 2010 than in 2009.
9. Get to know more people at school - Done
10. Let go of the fear of failure - Totally failed this one too.
The 10 Best [Or Most Significant] Events of 2010:
1. CleanPlace Moot 2010, August
2. Switchfoot and The Almost show, October 9
3. Tenth Avenue North show, September 22
4. Disciple show, March 4
5. Jon Foreman solo show, April 1
6. Shalana’s visit, January
7. Skillet show with Anywhere and Mikayla, July 31
8. The Great Snowfall, February 11 and 12
9. Getting my guitar, October 27
10. The Fern family’s two visits
10 Random Specific Moments:
1. Stephen Christian (lead singer of Anberlin) making my picture his facebook profile picture and then writing on my wall to compliment my pictures
2. Getting a high five from Drew Shirley at the end of the Switchfoot show
3. That night at the moot when Joy, Shalana, and I were so sleep deprived that everything we said was completely illogical and somehow completely hilarious
4. Walking around Stone Mountain park with my Opa
5. Being roped in to work merch for Disciple while waiting in line for doors to open
6. Nerding with Daniel (bass player for Hawk Nelson) about Jon Foreman and Switchfoot
7. Driving back from Sixflags with Flynn, Mercy, and Anywhere in middle of the night, getting lost, hallucinating, and talking about the most random things
8. Lying in a puddle with Nia, Jordan, and Angel, stargazing (well, the puddle part wasn’t so great, but everything else was)
9. Having Caleb over for dinner at the end of the Spring semester and watching him explain “melodramatic” to my youngest brother by performing a prolonged, donut-related death scene on the neighbor’s trampoline
10. The campfire at the moot
The 10 Favorite Albums of 2010:
1. Of Men and Angels, The Rocket Summer
2. Dark is the Way, Light is a Place, Anberlin
3. The Light Meets the Dark, Tenth Avenue North
4. Horseshoes and Handgrenades, Disciple
5. Life, Scars, Apologies, Since October
6. Disambiguation, Underoath
7. Pieces of a Real Heart, Sanctus Real
8. Vagabonds, The Classic Crime
9. Me in Motion, Me in Motion
10. For Those Who Wait, Fireflight
(This was absurdly hard. So many good records this year! The top 5 runners-up would be The Chase by Manafest, Who Can Know It? by Showbread, Untouchable by Before Their Eyes, The World is a Thorn by Demon Hunter, and Satellites and Sirens’ self-titled debut.)
The 10 Best Places I Visited in 2010:
1. Manitou Springs, Colorado (it was totally awesome, even with the hippies and druggies)
2. Bear Trap Ranch, Colorado
3. That rad little Starbucks in Nacogdoches
4. Stone Mountain, Georgia
5. Sixflags Over Texas
6. The Prophet Bar venue in Dallas (the small room, which is actually clean, not the big one)
7. The Starbucks in Terrel where we always stop when picking people up from the airport
8. The park with the fountains in Shreveport, LA
9. House of Blues, Dallas (whatever else you can say about the atmosphere, it’s a cool venue)
10. Mangy’s house (yes, it gets its own entry)
The 10 Best Things About School in 2010:
1. My professors
2. Music in chapel
3. The February day when it snowed epic amounts and we made a snow pac-man
4. Hanging out and talking with Caleb and Basil at chai parties
5. Conversations (this past semester has been the first one where I actually had those. Radical concept)
6. Prayer and praise
7. Classes where I can enjoy learning rather than seeing it as an obligation
8. Going to see the opera broadcast (and eating Mexican fast food while dressed up)
9. The English department, both students and faculty
10. The library-- especially my amazing supervisor
10 Awesome People I Met for the First Time in 2010:
1. Yukioh
2. Raine
3. Mimsy
4. Kalessin
5. Mikayla
6. Heather
7. Jon Foreman (yes, musicians count)
8. Kevin Young
9. Soul Glow Activator
10. Amanda
The 10 Songs that were the Most Special to Me in 2010:
1. Dare You to Move, Switchfoot
2. September, Daughtry
3. The Shadow Proves the Sunshine, Switchfoot
4. Believe, Skillet
5. She Says (The Black-eyed Blues), Switchfoot (though it’s not technically released or even officially recorded yet)
6. Dear X (You Don’t Own Me), Disciple
7. On Fire, Switchfoot
8. The Cure for Pain, Jon Foreman
9. Times, Tenth Avenue North
10. Storm, Lifehouse
(Also a hard one. Runners-up would be Thank the Watchmaker (Acoustic) by And Then There Were None, Rebirthing by Skillet, How He Loves by David Crowder, No One Really Wins by Copeland, and Invisible by Disciple.)
10 Good Books I Read in 2010:
1. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (re-read)
2. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
3. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
4. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
5. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (10th complete read through)
6. Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff
7. Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell
8. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (re-read)
9. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
10. Miracles by C.S. Lewis (still in progress)
(It’s a little weird that half of these books are Lewis books. It’s even weirder that I’ve read more than half of them within the last week.)
10 Miscellaneous Things I Learned in 2010:
1. I am not a savior.
2. I am in fact human, and can’t accomplish infinitely more than other humans, no matter how hard I try.
3. Surrender (the process of letting go of ourselves and our ideas and our wants) is vital, painful, and at time feels impossible, and yet is the only way to experience grace.
4. At the end of the day, music can only mean as much as the intent behind it.
5. Love is closer than we think at any given moment. We just have to be willing to say yes. Usually, the only thing holding me back from peace is me.
6. What we happen to feel in a given moment of time is not eternal, and feeling alone should certainly not ever dictate our relationship with God.
7. We cannot make a mistake too big for God to fix.
8. Faith is not just about believing that God is. It’s about believing that He is actively involved in your situation, no matter what it is, and He is going to bring beauty in ways you could not possibly imagine. Maybe a better way to say it is that faith is weak if it only believes that God can act in situations outside of yourself. It’s easy to say “God is strong,” since there is no consequence to that-- that is easy faith. It’s much harder to say “my life is falling to pieces, but He will hold it together according to His love and His faithful character,” and then act as if He will. That is the kind of faith I want.
9. Pride can disguise itself in a thousand clever ways-- even in pain, and especially in insecurity.
10. Sometimes to love somebody means to let go. And I don’t mean to stop loving them; that’s contradictory. Sometimes love means abandoning our control or our right or our desire to own pieces of a person’s life.
11 Goals for 2011:
1. Meet Skillet (seriously, I know it’s shallow, but I’ve waited 3 ½ years already)
2. Get a decent internship
3. Buy a car
4. Write more poetry and songs
5. Learn to play electric guitar
6. Get involved with something at school that is not going to class or going to work
7. Get songs written and polished to the point where I can record and upload them
8. Find a way to get over this absurd leg injury so I can run again
9. Read more
10. Keep in contact with more friends better
11. Find a better balance between work, school, family, and friends
1. Stephen Christian (lead singer of Anberlin) making my picture his facebook profile picture and then writing on my wall to compliment my pictures
2. Getting a high five from Drew Shirley at the end of the Switchfoot show
3. That night at the moot when Joy, Shalana, and I were so sleep deprived that everything we said was completely illogical and somehow completely hilarious
4. Walking around Stone Mountain park with my Opa
5. Being roped in to work merch for Disciple while waiting in line for doors to open
6. Nerding with Daniel (bass player for Hawk Nelson) about Jon Foreman and Switchfoot
7. Driving back from Sixflags with Flynn, Mercy, and Anywhere in middle of the night, getting lost, hallucinating, and talking about the most random things
8. Lying in a puddle with Nia, Jordan, and Angel, stargazing (well, the puddle part wasn’t so great, but everything else was)
9. Having Caleb over for dinner at the end of the Spring semester and watching him explain “melodramatic” to my youngest brother by performing a prolonged, donut-related death scene on the neighbor’s trampoline
10. The campfire at the moot
The 10 Favorite Albums of 2010:
1. Of Men and Angels, The Rocket Summer
2. Dark is the Way, Light is a Place, Anberlin
3. The Light Meets the Dark, Tenth Avenue North
4. Horseshoes and Handgrenades, Disciple
5. Life, Scars, Apologies, Since October
6. Disambiguation, Underoath
7. Pieces of a Real Heart, Sanctus Real
8. Vagabonds, The Classic Crime
9. Me in Motion, Me in Motion
10. For Those Who Wait, Fireflight
(This was absurdly hard. So many good records this year! The top 5 runners-up would be The Chase by Manafest, Who Can Know It? by Showbread, Untouchable by Before Their Eyes, The World is a Thorn by Demon Hunter, and Satellites and Sirens’ self-titled debut.)
The 10 Best Places I Visited in 2010:
1. Manitou Springs, Colorado (it was totally awesome, even with the hippies and druggies)
2. Bear Trap Ranch, Colorado
3. That rad little Starbucks in Nacogdoches
4. Stone Mountain, Georgia
5. Sixflags Over Texas
6. The Prophet Bar venue in Dallas (the small room, which is actually clean, not the big one)
7. The Starbucks in Terrel where we always stop when picking people up from the airport
8. The park with the fountains in Shreveport, LA
9. House of Blues, Dallas (whatever else you can say about the atmosphere, it’s a cool venue)
10. Mangy’s house (yes, it gets its own entry)
The 10 Best Things About School in 2010:
1. My professors
2. Music in chapel
3. The February day when it snowed epic amounts and we made a snow pac-man
4. Hanging out and talking with Caleb and Basil at chai parties
5. Conversations (this past semester has been the first one where I actually had those. Radical concept)
6. Prayer and praise
7. Classes where I can enjoy learning rather than seeing it as an obligation
8. Going to see the opera broadcast (and eating Mexican fast food while dressed up)
9. The English department, both students and faculty
10. The library-- especially my amazing supervisor
10 Awesome People I Met for the First Time in 2010:
1. Yukioh
2. Raine
3. Mimsy
4. Kalessin
5. Mikayla
6. Heather
7. Jon Foreman (yes, musicians count)
8. Kevin Young
9. Soul Glow Activator
10. Amanda
The 10 Songs that were the Most Special to Me in 2010:
1. Dare You to Move, Switchfoot
2. September, Daughtry
3. The Shadow Proves the Sunshine, Switchfoot
4. Believe, Skillet
5. She Says (The Black-eyed Blues), Switchfoot (though it’s not technically released or even officially recorded yet)
6. Dear X (You Don’t Own Me), Disciple
7. On Fire, Switchfoot
8. The Cure for Pain, Jon Foreman
9. Times, Tenth Avenue North
10. Storm, Lifehouse
(Also a hard one. Runners-up would be Thank the Watchmaker (Acoustic) by And Then There Were None, Rebirthing by Skillet, How He Loves by David Crowder, No One Really Wins by Copeland, and Invisible by Disciple.)
10 Good Books I Read in 2010:
1. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (re-read)
2. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
3. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
4. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
5. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (10th complete read through)
6. Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff
7. Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell
8. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (re-read)
9. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
10. Miracles by C.S. Lewis (still in progress)
(It’s a little weird that half of these books are Lewis books. It’s even weirder that I’ve read more than half of them within the last week.)
10 Miscellaneous Things I Learned in 2010:
1. I am not a savior.
2. I am in fact human, and can’t accomplish infinitely more than other humans, no matter how hard I try.
3. Surrender (the process of letting go of ourselves and our ideas and our wants) is vital, painful, and at time feels impossible, and yet is the only way to experience grace.
4. At the end of the day, music can only mean as much as the intent behind it.
5. Love is closer than we think at any given moment. We just have to be willing to say yes. Usually, the only thing holding me back from peace is me.
6. What we happen to feel in a given moment of time is not eternal, and feeling alone should certainly not ever dictate our relationship with God.
7. We cannot make a mistake too big for God to fix.
8. Faith is not just about believing that God is. It’s about believing that He is actively involved in your situation, no matter what it is, and He is going to bring beauty in ways you could not possibly imagine. Maybe a better way to say it is that faith is weak if it only believes that God can act in situations outside of yourself. It’s easy to say “God is strong,” since there is no consequence to that-- that is easy faith. It’s much harder to say “my life is falling to pieces, but He will hold it together according to His love and His faithful character,” and then act as if He will. That is the kind of faith I want.
9. Pride can disguise itself in a thousand clever ways-- even in pain, and especially in insecurity.
10. Sometimes to love somebody means to let go. And I don’t mean to stop loving them; that’s contradictory. Sometimes love means abandoning our control or our right or our desire to own pieces of a person’s life.
11 Goals for 2011:
1. Meet Skillet (seriously, I know it’s shallow, but I’ve waited 3 ½ years already)
2. Get a decent internship
3. Buy a car
4. Write more poetry and songs
5. Learn to play electric guitar
6. Get involved with something at school that is not going to class or going to work
7. Get songs written and polished to the point where I can record and upload them
8. Find a way to get over this absurd leg injury so I can run again
9. Read more
10. Keep in contact with more friends better
11. Find a better balance between work, school, family, and friends
5 comments:
This was great. Inspiring, in fact. I'm going to do one of my own, although it will have less music, more books, and probably WAY less introspection and depth. Because that's how I roll. :P Love you, Elraen! :D --Twinkie
happy end of 2010 mary ♥
*hugs* You never stop inspiring me, Elraen. Thank you for your beautiful heart! :) -Bree
Yay! How exciting that my house made your Top 10 best places!
Oh and the Space Trilogy? SO excellent. One of my favorites of all time.
Sounds like it was quite a year lil' sis! Hope next year is even more wonderful.
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