2014: A Retrospective

So, I want to start out by thanking everyone who has read my blog since its beginning in February of this year, the support and feedback have been astounding and wonderful and I truly love you all.

This post will be both a personal retrospective and me talking about all the cool stuff I saw this year, so it will be broken into two sections.

PART ONE

2014: A Year in Being Bailey.

2014 has been a year of self discovery and growth. And it's partially thanks to this blog, hearing about other people's thoughts and feelings and how what I ramble about affects them has been an incredible experience and one I hope to continue into 2015. I've made a lot of new friends in 2014 and they have made my life so much better just by existing. I have found a sense of support, love, and acceptance that I never thought I'd have and never knew I was missing. I got the lead in my school show which is another experience I never thought I'd be able to have. I feel like I've really found myself as a person this year and I've become someone at least I can be proud of.

I've lost a lot of my shame, I don't feel ashamed for my undying of Taylor Swift's new album. I don't feel ashamed that my Christmas gifts included new Legos, a Lego book, the Lego movie, a Nerf gun and novelty socks. I don't feel ashamed to sing and perform before a crowd. I don't feel ashamed for my laugh or my voice or my smile or my hair or my body and I refuse to let people try to make me feel it. I love the way I dress and the people I surround myself with.

I refused to let people label me as masculine or not masculine based on my interests or personality because that's a dumb thing to base an arbitrary label on. My masculinity isn't based on if I have a pink lunchbox or not. It's not based on what my hobbies are.You shouldn't try to change yourself to better fit this label, or any label, because that is an unhealthy and dumb way to think. You're an amazing human being no matter what people label you as. It's time to grow up and break out of this hyper-masculine way of thinking that makes even grooming yourself and moisturizing your face as something "feminine" and "weak." I like those fruity smelling hand sanitizers and lotions, that doesn't in anyway make me more or less of a man. It doesn't dictate what gender or people I'm attracted to and it doesn't really affect anyone else but me. The fact that I like fruity smelling hand sanitizers doesn't and shouldn't really matter to anyone else.

This year I think I've finally started to truly love myself and not have to overcompensate for my insecurity with my ego. I think I've finally become a good person, I've done a lot of lousy things to people in the past. I've been immature and hurtful and rude and I've done a lot of not cool things to people I've cared about and I'm sorry. I'm sorry to anyone I've wronged. I hope you can forgive me, I'll try to do better in 2015.

And that's what New Years is about, trying to do better. It's about accepting all of the crazy, lame, hurtful, lousy, painful, things that happened in the previous year and then trying to make the next year better. Trying to be a better you. Trying to make your life better and love the people around you better. And that's my resolution. I want to love the people around be more. I want to be a better friend and significant other. I want to be less defensive and more loving. So happy New Years everyone, let's make 2015 a good year.




PART TWO:

2014: A Year in Really Good Movies and Music.

MOVIES/TV:
Here are my top 10 movies and TV Shows I saw in 2014 in no real order.

10) The Lego Movie
9) Godzilla
8) Big Hero 6
7) Guardians of the Galaxy
6) The Skeleton Twins
5) Community
4) Parks and Rec
3) Sherlock
2) Last Week Tonight
1) The Colbert Report (Good night, sweet prince)

MUSIC
Top 10 Albums from 2014 in no real order

10) Hungry Ghosts- Ok Go
9) Everything Will be Alright in the End- Weezer
8) Saint Vincent- Saint Vincent
7) 1989- Taylor Swift
6) Sonic Highways- The Foo Fighters
5) The Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack
4) Strange Desire- The Bleachers
3) Morning Phase- Beck
2) The Lego Movie Soundtrack
1) Wrong- The Airborne Toxic Event



So, I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading the blog this year and I hope your 2015 is the best year yet. Thank you all so much for reading this extra long post. Happy Holidays, I'll write again in 2015!

<3

Bailey S. Fox

I Gotta Feeling 21 is Gonna Be a Good Year

So, 2014 is almost done, thank god. It seems everyone I've talked to is ready for this year to be over. Not to say that this year was all for nothing, I started this blog which at the time I'm writing has over 3,600 views and that is absolutely nuts and I'm so overwhelmingly arrogant and humbled by and about that it's crazy. I love you all, thank you.

But back to the subject of the year ending. It's a really crazy thing that we just assume because we start a new year everything is going to change. That the difference between 11:59 on December 31st, 2014 and 12:00 January 1st, 2015 will make some kind of huge, monumental difference, that this year will be the year I get my life together. But there's no guarantee, there is nothing saying that 2015 has to be any better than 2014. But, every part of my being wants to believe that it will be, it has the potential to be. Maybe I'll get the girl in 2015, maybe I'll be happy with the way I look, maybe I'll get in shape, maybe I'll watch the final 3 episodes of Chuck, maybe I'll get the lead in the school show. New Years is this time of year where you can be ironically optimistic about the future and what it holds. We hold these huge celebrations honoring a date on a calendar, when some person arbitrarily said that this, this is when the year starts and ends. And it's wonderful, I really do believe that 2015 has this huge amount of potential to be a really amazing year, I mean Star Wars Episode VII and Avengers 2 alone make me excited.

New Years is a time to get together with people you love and celebrate and be hopeful. It's a time to tell those you love how much they mean to you. It's a time for change. Where we drop millions of pound of confetti with people's wishes literally written on them on a crowd after dropping a huge ball from the top of a sky scraper.

So as the month goes on remember this.

Happy Holidays, Thank you all, for everything.
<3

Bailey S. Fox

(Copyright Bailey Olmstead 2014)