Growing Up

I noticed something about people my age. Pretty much everyone wants to grow up faster. Get their driver's license, go to prom, get a job. 

But then I noticed something about people my parent's age. All they ever seem to talk about is the times when they were younger, didn't have wrinkles, went to parties, and hung out with their friends in high school.

But people my grandparents age, I don't know, for the most part they seem content just as they are.

Maybe it's just a mental thing, growing up. I had never even really stopped to notice how much I had grown up, even just this year, until yesterday when I worked a job for the first time ever. After a boring week of training for 9 hours a day, I finally took on the job of being a lifeguard at Bon Air, starting for the first time with the longest shift (11-8) and being on trash duty. Even though it sounds like a drag, the excitement of working for real, wearing the uniform, and seeing all my friends come to the pool while I sat up in the lifeguard chair kind of distracted me from the downsides of the job, at least this time. But when the day was over, and I came home, I realized that from now on, I have a duty to this job. From now on I'm going to have to work for some of the money I use to support myself, instead of just relying on my parents. Along with just working for the money, I have a huge responsibility with this job, I'm protecting the lives of the people in the pool, as well as working to keep the pool clean, and my bosses happy. I don't think people realize how much more comes along with a job along with just the pay.

All of this scares me a little bit. I'm excited to be growing up, but sometimes I miss those days when I was younger and happy and I didn't really worry.

What happened to that little girl?

When Weeks Feel Like Years

Just as a fair warning before I begin this post, these photos are definitely not the best quality... they're all quite pixilated and cropped weirdly and just not really that great. But I felt they were worth being shared, so oh well.

So you know that feeling when you miss someone, and even though it may have only been a couple days since you last saw them, it feels like forever?

Yeah, I know that feeling all too well.

So, I was starting to feel that way about a lot of people actually, especially one of my best friends from middle school, Emma, as well as my many friends from camp, even though it's only been about a week since we all last saw each other (not even that much actually...) Anyway, we felt it was time to change that, so this afternoon, Emma came over for a couple hours just to hang out, and later that night I went to Cameron's house along with some of my friends from camp to celebrate his birthday.

 Sometimes I pretend that I don't have the mind of a 12 year old, but then I just can't help myself and I have to take a cheesy jumping picture.

It was ok though, because Emma did it also.

I'm glad I have friends like Emma, because even though we may be the strangest people EVER (refer to the photo above) I'm just glad I have someone to be extremely weird with!

Along with seeing Emma, I spent some time with my favorite person in the world :)

 We were all pretty happy to be back together again.

 I FOUND THIS AMAZING PICTURE OF MY BEST FRIEND AVERY IN THE HALLWAY AND JUST HAD TO TAKE A PICTURE I LOVE THIS TOO MUCH!!!

 Me and Avery feat. Andrew

We all watched some weird football movie the guys chose while eating way too many Dorito's, had a bonfire in the backyard while listening to Mumford and Sons on repeat, walked around the neighborhood in the dark trying to avoid getting hit by cars, and finally played doubles ping pong in the garage. Maybe not that eventful, but it was still great to see everyone again after so long! (As in less than one week...)

I love you all so much, and I am so lucky to have the best friends in the world! Hopefully we'll see each other again soon, before I start to go into deprivation without everyone! 

Ends and Beginnings

Today was the banquet/picnic celebrating this wonderful season on Bon Air swim team! Even though I missed half of the meets to be at camp or the beach or some other crazy thing happening in my life, we still had a great season, and I loved spending the first part of my summer with some of my best friends. I just can't believe it's over already! I guess there's still champs! (eek I'm nervous!)

Anyway, since this was one of those rare times when I see these people not wearing swim caps or drenched in chlorinated water or wearing swimsuits, we took plenty of pictures to celebrate a great season as well as many wonderful years together! Even though it feels like the end in a way, the summer isn't over yet, and we have many more swim seasons ahead of us in summers to come!

Savannah, Kelsey, and Faith have been my friends for the longest. I can't even remember a time without them, and I don't ever see a time without them in the future. We've been with each other through everything, had way too many crazy sleepovers to count, and have too many inside jokes and memories to even remember. I love them all so much.

Congrats Bon Air swim team on an awesome season! I hope everyone does a great job at champs on Tuesday, and win or lose, we definitely have had a season to remember!

Go Blue Streaks!

A Great Day

So today was pretty wonderful.

Despite having swim practice in a pool that felt like bathwater, I spent the rest of the day eating homemade mac and cheese, going to Kings Dominion with my dad, and watching So You Think You Can Dance with my mom while eating WAY too much popcorn.

Tomorrow I have to wake up at 7 for lifeguarding, but oh well.

It's been a great day.

Home Sweet Home

I'm back!

After 2 weeks of adventures canoeing, caving, rock climbing, getting eaten ALIVE by mosquitos, and just hanging out with my amazing friends, I'm finally back home! 

It feels good to be back in Bon Air, although honestly it's only been 8 hours and I'm already in deprivation missing my friends and camp food and even sleeping in an oversized tent.

Just 5 more months until winter camp! I can't wait!

Since no one has uploaded any camp photos to Facebook yet for me to steal, I figured I'd put up a picture of my very first year as a 2 week Winger, the year I met most of my friends who are like my family today, whom I've loved for 5 years :)

See if you can find me!

Happy Independence Day!

You knew it was coming.

Anyway, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO EVERYONE!!! Whether you celebrate the 4th of July or not, you have to admit a day full of fireworks, cookouts, family, friends, and pretty much everything else amazing about summer is definitely a great one! Mine was fantastic, so I figured I'd share a few photos of the day with you.

I ate breakfast on the back porch with my mom, Meg, and my dog. Meg made blueberry muffins, and we watched the cute little kids go by in the neighborhood parade, even though we almost missed it due to their lack of music. My dad and Meg left for Massanetta for a middle school retreat soon after breakfast, so my mom and I drove over to the pool for a little while.

Grace is actually the most adorable person I have ever met. Ever.

Savannah and I won first and third in the inner tube relay

Savannah's little sister Ashley and our friend Tori ended up winning first as well!

I've been going to the 4th of July party at Bon Air for as long as I can remember! Even though some of the things are kind of cheesy, being with everyone on the 4th of July is so much fun!

After the pool, I spent the afternoon with my Mom, watching Fried Green Tomatoes and eating our favorite, Noodles and Co. After dinner we drove over to the Carillon for fireworks, and although we couldn't find Lyla and Ana, we had a great time!

Mother-daughter selfie attempt #1 (my personal favorite)

Mother-daughter selfie attempt #2

So I hope wherever you are, and whatever you did for the 4th of July, you had as great a day as I did! Happy Independence Day everyone!

The Way I Spend My Summer

I love swim team, and I love my friends on Bon Air.

And no matter how many late Tuesday nights I spend at meets or early summer mornings I spend in the pool, nothing will ever change that.

Because freezing to death, eating too much junk food, and nervously waiting for events is worth everything if it means being with my friends and my teammates.

Here's to an amazing season, and many more amazing seasons to come.

GO BLUE STREAKS!

Ginger Cookies and Other Recent Happenings in the Taylor Household

Ok, so I really need to learn to write shorter titles...

But anyway, a lot of stuff has been going on recently, and I felt that even though most of it is irrelevant and probably pretty unimportant in the span of the entire universe, maybe it is important enough to be shared here. So here goes:

1. Bon Air beat Brandermill in the meet Tuesday! 

It was actually a pretty horrible meet for me though, I didn't get anywhere close to any of my best times, and my goggles fell off during my 100 free resulting in my losing epically and having to swim the entire race with my eyes closed to prevent my contacts from falling out. Oh well. After the meet, we stayed after to sort ribbons and then had our annual girls swim team sleepover at my house, where we played a very intense game of Apples to Apples, had a Twister tournament (which I epically failed), ate way too many potato chips and played a couple intense rounds of Mario Kart (which I epically won, due to my sad 6th grade self having no purpose other than to play Mario Kart) We took way too many weird photos but had so much fun!

Awkward selfies after the meet 

Faith being cute with the Twister board

Flexibility

Kayla and Kelsey looking beautiful while playing Twister

Basically my favorite photo of all time

2. Meg made some of her famous ginger cookies :)

Unfortunately, she wouldn't let me eat any. Meg makes the most amazing ginger cookies in the entire world, but this time she only made them for her piano recital, so I had to wait until the reception to eat them. Since it was sunny and wonderful today, she did agree to go on a walk with me though, even though she would only let me take one picture of her. Once I did finally eat some of those ginger cookies though, it was all worth it.

Yummmmmmm

I really like the way the light turned out in this picture.

Meg is cute.

Good old Bon Air

I mean, basically that's it. Nothing really that interesting just wanted to share these photo I guess! I'll write later!