Word of the Year

When 2015 rolled around, I knew that I didn't want to have any super concrete resolutions, especially concerning the blog, but when I thought about my goals for this year, one word kept coming back to me. This year, and every year after, I want to be effective in everything I do. I know that I have the habit of taking too much on, and instead of doing a few things well, I do a mediocre job at everything. I want to be effective in 

+my last semester of high school strong

+running a 10K by the end of the semester

+learning to cook

+journaling regularly

+filling my 2015 memory jar with all the awesome things I'll be doing this semester

+blogging regularly

+scheduling posts for when I won't have time to write

+having fun

So as the sun sets on 2014, and rises on 2015, let the games begin! :)

xo, Hima

2014 in Review

Hey y'all! With first semester over and college applications behind me, I'm finally a second semester senior. All I have to do now is wait for the decisions, keep my grades up, and enjoy my last 8 months at home! I thought that I'd go ahead and do a recap of the year for y'all to know what I've been up to since August, as well as reflect a little bit on the lessons of 2014. (warning: I didn't align my pictures but yolo).

January/February: 
These two months were a blur of enjoying school and getting super involved with my blog. I was on a cooking high, and churned out recipes like no one's business. My personal favorite is still my Healthy Cookie Dough Dip, which I plan to make tomorrow :)

March/April:
I ran for student government at school and won! I have to say this has been an incredibly fulfilling experience thus far, although trying at times, and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Thank you to all of you for being so supportive, even if you couldn't directly vote for me.

May/June:

I finished the #100HappyDays Challenge! Even though the thoughts behind it are nice, I realized that I didn't like being forced to push all my happiness into a picture, every single day. I wrote more about it here!

I also finished my junior year and dove into a summer full of art class (I took it at the community college to fulfill a requirement), working at my lab in San Francisco, and early morning gym trips. OH, and college apps. Lots of those. 

July/August:
I continued to enjoy my summer and actually met Cassey Ho, the creator of Blogilates! (As I type this I'm sore from her new Extreme Abs video- oh the irony). I also did some traveling, with a family vacation to Crater Lake and some college visits. I started off my senior year, which meant lots of schoolwork, in addition to writing my life story for college apps.

September/October: 

A big couple of months- I got my license, turned 17, went to my first concert (Neon Trees, American Authors, Lindsey Sterling, and Matt Nathanson) and participated in our school's annual Homecoming celebrations, a week so big that I broke my blog hiatus to recap it. More info here!

November/December: 

I fell in love with Taylor Swift's 1989 (Is it bad that this is in my highlights of the year?), got into the Christmas spirit (I made my Christmas playlist November 1st!), and Lynbrook won 1st place at our district-wide Olympics, IDC Fantastics. I finished college apps, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I started watching Grey's Anatomy, which is literally the world's most addicting show (On Season 6 and will hurt anyone who tries to spoil it for me). Christmas was amazing, and I got a really cool trio of iPhone lenses (fisheye, macro, and wide angle), and some books. Last weekend, we went to Tahoe, so I got to ski for the first time in 4 years, and play with my new lenses!

And with that, we're out. Cheers, 2014! Happy New Year to all y'all, and let's make 2015 our year :) See you soon- my blog break is officially over!

xo, Hima

Recap: Homecoming Week!

Hey y'all! To any first time readers, HI! To everyone else, I know I said I'd be on a blog break until I finish college applications in December, but this past week was just too amazing not to be documented. This post is very very photo-heavy, so sorry for how long it is. Big shout out to Ian Pearman, Roger Chen, and Dara Jovkar for photos.

Last week was my high school's annual homecoming week, and as a senior, it was my last. Essentially, each class takes one day and transforms the school into whatever their theme is for that one day. We have a gauntlet before school, skits and dances during break, and a schoolwide rally and football game on Friday, as well as a dance on Friday. We start making decorations and working on our performances at the beginning of summer, so it's definitely a labor of love. Oh, and it's a class competition.

this was our backdrop from the skit, completely hand painted. I'm literally obsessed with it. 

The Lynbrook staff is absolutely phenomenal, and they take part in all the fun too! Their theme was travel through time, so my friends and I decided to hippie it out. Believe it or not, the guy in the middle is our wonderful Spanish teacher.

I'm actually really on board with headwraps now. I think it's time to bring that back. 

The freshman theme was pirates, and they were just so cute! Since I'm in student government, I went early to help them out with their gauntlet, and I had a lot of fun.

I borrowed the foam sword from a teacher for a while, but it got too annoying to carry around oops. 

The sophomores were ancient Japan, and they did a wonderful job. Their skit was the best I've seen among all the classes in my four years, so I'm really proud of them. Some of my leadership girls and I got to intro their skit, and we definitely worked some Iggy Azalea (from LA to Tokyo!) in. We even tried to be the Japanese flag hehe.

The juniors were ancient Greece, so what other than toga party??? As usual, 2016's decorations were gorgeous. After school Wednesday, we started setting up at school for senior homecoming on Thursday, and ended up pulling an all-nighter to finish up.

The senior theme was music through time. On Thursday morning, we had our gauntlet, and having had 0 sleep I lost my voice almost immediately. It was definitely worth it though. My stats teacher was a total homie and gave us time to nap in his class- I was out cold for a while. I was in the skit, playing Tupac, and although my shirt was about 7 sizes too big and my bandana fell off immediately, it was tons of fun. I got to introduce the skit again with all the other senior ASB officers.

pretty much the least intimidating Tupac ever but that's okay.

The Rally on Friday was incredible. I was in the skit as our school rival, but sadly there are no pictures of me doing so. My friends and I dressed up in the senior colors and spelled out Seniors XV (15, since we're the class of 2015), and that was a ton of fun.

Friday night I went to the homecoming game, and although we lost, our boys gave it their all, and it was a fitting end to homecoming week with all of my favorite people.

Although I had very little sleep, and was at school pretty much 24/7, I know that this was one of the best weeks of my life, and one of those high school memories that I'll cherish forever! Love you all!

xo, Hima