💌 madeline’s 17th birthday!! ~ cue excitement & existential crises

guess who’s seventeen. THIS DANCING QUEEN RIGHT HERE.

since we seem to have a long running tradition of birthday blog posts here on twirling pages, i thought i would do the same thing! last year, on my sixteenth bday, i listed out sixteen lessons i had learned up to that point ( i can’t believe it’s already been a year, jeez y’all ) this year, i’m going to list a few things i am grateful for, and several things i’m looking forward to in the coming year! since i didn’t do a new year post, this is kinda a resolutions post <<birthday edition>> ngl.

it feels so surreal to me that i am already seventeen … O.o

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so much to be grateful for!

• the gushiness is real right now. much sensitive. very uwu.
• my family, obviously (!) since i only see them during the summer and for a few weeks out of the year when i’m not at school. i love you so much and thank you for the bday wishes today!
• my friends, here at school. y’all are the real ones. thank you for dealing with my BS every single day of the school year and hanging out with me in d-hall, and being the VERY BEST friends i could ever hope for!
• the co-bloggers here at twirling pages. you guys rock! you are so cool and it’s such a blessing to write on this blog with you!
• running!!! and the cross country/track team i get to run with! running is almost always the best part of my day, and i gotta remember not to take it for granted. i wouldn’t be the same person without my sport and people i have met through it.
• books. to be perfectly honest, i don’t think i could have developed into the person i am today without some major help from books and reading! who knew that books would matter so much to a book blogger!
  • Radio Silence: i don’t feel so alone in my struggles at school thanks to you, and i can always find some comfort in rereading you. it genuinely feels like a warm hug when i reread certain sections of frances and aled’s friendship. i love u, my forever fave.
  • Six of Crows: i’m pretty darn sure that i eventually joined the bookish community singularly because of u, and i will always take pleasure in rereading.
  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda: i have become a vibrantly gay human living my very best gay life who is now OUT and PROUD because of you. that’s an enormous accomplishment in itself.
  • The Secret History / The Goldfinch: i am kind of very pretentious as a result of reading you both, and my love for classics has only multiplied. vergil is great fun to read.
  • Girls of Paper and Fire: for being the most beautiful gaysian book i could ever ask to read.
  • Victoria Schwab: can i just thank you as a human for being the most wonderful writer i’ve ever had the pleasure of reading? very grateful for all the books i’ve read from you.
• music, art, design, fashion and all the other random things i take daily enjoyment in. (catcreature vlogs get me through the long weeks tbh)
• mostly i’m just feeling very happy to be in the place i’m in right now. SO MUCH LOVE

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things this dancing queen is excited/scared about.

• uhhh so next term in school i have to write a 15 page research paper which should be…a journey, to say the least. i am both excited and very scared about the organization of this project.
• college applications?? the biggest stress of all coming summer 2019 to the class of 2020. excitement or existential fear?? why choose one when you can have BOTH.
• more running! spring track! massachusetts to maine! run! half-marathon next november! i am both incredibly sad to say goodbye to this years seniors and SUPER DUPER excited to get new team members next year and be a senior on the team!
  • also i’d reaaally love to run a marathon sometimes during this year, but idk if that will be feasible realistically.
• in general, being a senior. entering the last year of high school. only having a limited amount of time left with the people i love. i guess the moral of the story is to be grateful for the current moment and the time you actually do have left. which i am.
• having more time to get back into reading this spring break. sadly, i am already behind in my goodreads challenge and we’re only two months into the year. BUT!! the nature of spring break makes it that i have plenty of free time + plane rides to catch up, and get back into cassandra clare’s dark artifices which surprisingly, i’ve been super enjoying.
  • also blogging!!! i need to write posts in advance this spring break so i don’t keep disappearing off the face of the earth here lol.
• potentially going to italy this summer for archaeology+classics?? maybe?? if i get accepted to the program?? (or else if i don’t, i’ll prob be doing some other undetermined thing this summer that i guess i’m excited for lmao)

• i also really wanna try to start some new creative projects this year: maybe a really casual slice-of-life blog (like 100 word posts kinda casual) or do a podcast. maybe 17 will be the year??

tldr; i have so many things to be grateful for, and so many things coming up to embrace and have excitement for!!! seventeen is gonna be an eventful year, and i’m all for it.

xo, madeline