My 2017 was a raging dumpster fire from beginning to end. There were some glimmering rays of hope throughout the year, but overall it was the WORST. I'm going to just break this down by academic terms because that's how I measure time at this point in my life.

Winter term starts out strongly on the shitty side when I tell my family about my sexual assault, and half of them literally refuse to have anything to do with me anymore because of it.

After telling my family and dealing with the trauma, I finally began to feel sexually empowered and in charge of my life.

Then, I have a SUPER traumatic sexual experience that ended with me in the ER (thanks hymen for straight up betraying me and making me think I was actually dying) and made me legitimately afraid of having sex for a couple months.

A couple weeks after I've recovered from the hymen experience, I wreck my beloved car, a 1987 El Camino. This happened on the last day of Spring break, and I got to spend the majority of the following day sobbing openly and sitting in an emergency room. This car was my LIFE, and I'd only had it for a little over a year when it got smashed into a tree.

One of my favorite activities at that point in my life was listening to really loud music while driving alone and screaming all the lyrics at the top of my lungs. That's a major stress reliever and you cannot even pretend you don't do the same thing while driving alone.

Things mellow down for the next couple months as I get my mermaid tattoo and celebrate my 20th birthday. My 20th was the best birthday I've ever had, so that's definitely a highlight of this year.

June comes and I realize I need a job ASAP so I landed this cool job as an assistant where I was supposed to be making $500 a month! Only it turned out to be a job scam which meant that I'm in debt and I lost the privilege to have a bank account ANYWHERE. That sh*t is just wild because now I operate on a cash-only basis constantly.

After that, I had a terrible roommate situation where I literally didn't feel comfortable in my apartment, so I had to find a completely different place to live. That was a terrifying experience, but very worth it in the long run.

This past summer was also when I was hired to write for Odyssey which is a cool moment in my life because I really enjoy writing here, and I adore the work of the people on my team. A couple weeks before I applied at Odyssey, I decided to contact my first band, Creep Creep Janga, and see if they would let me photograph them.

This was the beginning of me making a name for myself in the Eugene house show scene and it was one of my better choices. I absolutely adore Creep Creep Janga and their music constantly blows me away. They've introduced me to fantastic bands as well, and I couldn't be more grateful for them.

Fall term approaches, and I'm working at this food service job that I despise with my entire being. On my first day, I was taking out the compost and the bag exploded all over me and I was covered in biscuits and gravy for the next five hours. Finally, I burnt my hand at work on a pasta strainer and that was the final straw. I worked to make a killer résumé and finally secured a job at the OSAC (which is the perfect job for me and makes me incredibly happy).

Throughout the course of this term, I was working three jobs (Odyssey, peer mentor, and food service/OSAC), and going to school full-time. To say I was exhausted would be an understatement. But somehow, I made it through and I'm grateful I did.

Especially this past term, I've gotten more involved with the music scene here and met some incredible bands and wonderful people. I have houses I've photograhed at so much that they start to feel like home.

So despite my massive sarcasm and overall hatred of this past year, it was really important for me. It taught me how to grow as a person during difficult situations, which is an important life lesson. All we can do is learn from the past, right?