2024 – A Wonderful Year to Remember
What a year! 2024 truly was a year to remember. Started the year off with a bang with my little sister’s wedding, where I made cookies and her wedding cake and was IN the wedding, but boy was it a fun party. It was so nice to have my family together celebrating someone we love so dearly. However, it was COLD but we partied until the phone died that was playing the music. Want to hear more about my thoughts on making my sister’s wedding cake? You can find them here. It was definitely an adventure!
Not long after, school started and I was elbows deep in all that comes with being a Mechanical Engineering student at LSU. To say I’m grateful for my friends is an understatement. I was in my second design course, fluid mechanics, and a couple of other classes. At this point, I’m in all ME classes and that is a feat in and of itself. Overall, the semester went pretty well and I enjoyed it. I joined the Society of Peer Mentors (a fantastic organization at LSU) and enjoyed getting involved on campus through them. This was one of the first semesters where I felt like I was starting to “figure out who I am.”
My summer started off quite terribly, actually. At the beginning of the summer, I found out that (for the first time in my life) I was being laid off. I had worked at this company for over 7 years at this point, and it came as a huge shock. I was counting on this job (and had recently quit my second job) to pay for school. However, this truly was a blessing in disguise. Figuring out the financials was definitely my biggest hurdle and I picked up a few extra jobs to make it all work. Little did I know the hell storm I was about to enter with school, and I’m not sure I could have made it work with a full time job.
Also over the summer, I spent some time in Hattiesburg, MS visiting a friend of mine. We visited a lot of the sights, including the Lucky Rabbit. This is a great eclectic little shop that has all sorts of things. It’s truly just fun to go and walk around. In addition, I got to visit one of my friends in Kansas City, MO at his internship. While there, we got to explore the zoo and some excellent food. As a self proclaimed zoo nerd, I was GEEKING out over their zoo. It took us two days to get through the entire thing. It had an aquarium inside the zoo, as well. 10/10, can recommend.
Enter Fall 2024: Senior Year. 5 classes, Senior Capstone, and 3 jobs. I had absolutely no idea what I was walking into. It was my toughest semester to date (and they’ve all been pretty tough), but I also finished with some of my best grades to date. Capstone will get its own post at some point, it is an EXPERIENCE like no other, but my group is pretty great. Football season (even though we sucked) was great, spending time with my favorite people on Saturdays. I went axe throwing for the first time and overall just had a really great (and stressful) semester.
After finals were done, things started winding down as we headed towards Christmas. My mom and I host Christmas Eve with games and lots of food for the family. It’s always a great time. Then on Christmas Day we eat lunch and enjoy our post-food coma naps. Definitely a year to remember and I am looking forward to what 2025 has to bring.
