Trust Tommy

December 31st, the last day of the year.

Overall, 2009 was a fantastic year, seeing me getting more stuff done, being engaged almost 24/7, furthering all abilities, and acquiring new ones.

January started off on a high point with my competing in the Esat BT Young Scientist competition, with my project “What are the issues faced by children with Cerebral Palsy in mainstream education?” and which won first place in that category, Social and Behavioural sciences, and also a bursary for my communication abilities, which helped fund a new laptop that I use for school.

The year continued well, with the Irish Blog Awards down in Cork, in which this blog won Best Newcomer. In March, the theatre group that I’m part of that put on a production of the Little Shop of Horrors, which is a delightfully morbid piece but one that was ultimately very fun to perform. I played tired old miser Mr. Mushnik who eventually got eaten by the plant, photos of which can be seen here.

April saw me creating a short lived youth forum which unfortunately didn’t last too long, while May included highlights such as impersonating my brother and using Stephen Fry to show how influential Twitter could be. That was my first ever incendiary post, with people complaining that they’d been used. I won’t lie, it was a hugely useful learning piece for someone who’d never trod on anyone’s toes before. Contrary to what some think, I didn’t just do it to get Fry to link to me, nor do I condone bear-baiting for links.

June was the beginning of my summer holidays, where I interned for a week with Klara Golez in the Life & Fitness Magazine with Derry O’Donnell in Tipperary. A hugely fun week and a big leap in independence. When I got back, after a wicked birthday celebration, I did an acting course with the same folks who I put on Little Shop of Horrors with. The real horror of the week is that our internet went down. That sucked. What made up for it however was my new cane. The tail end of June saw me in Dublin, with my second internship, working with the wizards in Look & Taste. That was an amazing week, although I didn’t get to meet @FakeNiallH. Also, I caught RENT, at the Olympia Theatre, which rocked.

In July, myself and the parents went to France, which I’ll come right out and say that I didn’t enjoy. I was never the world’s greatest camping fan but that feeling seemed to be exacerbated this year. I don’t mind being in France, or even (shock horror) being away from the Internet for long periods of time, it’s just that camping seemed to rub me the wrong way.

August was America month, with me having to visit Minnesota for 4 days to see a doctor who operated on me back in 2004. He was pleased with my progress, and also the fact that I was using a cane, which apparently will push back the time when I’ll need to get a hip transplant. Scary stuff. I spent most of those four days typing away, working on a piece I’d been asking . Definitely a high point of the year.

September saw me back at school, with nothing major happening (for once) on the tech front, although I did go to the zoo with the awesome Aoife, wonder what it meant to the Irish and attend my cousin’s wedding.

I went to Hungary with Dad in October, which was fun. He works over there and probably spends at least a week of every month over there. He doesn’t usually do cool stuff like visit zoos or climb big mountains though. I also got swine flu that month.

November was a month dominated by my trip to Boston, to visit my brothers and, yes, I’ll come clean, to see the Broadway tour of RENT. The four days I was States-side in Massachusetts were probably the best days of my life. It showed me what college life in the US was like and boy did I love it. I was fiercely independent (Mom said, quite seriously, that she sent a 15 year old over to Boston, and got back an adult) and I absolutely adored it. Being independent is my marijuana.

December was exam month, and my daily posting took a wee break while I studied. The visit to Boston had implanted the idea of following John and Patrick’s footsteps and going to college abroad in my head and since they looked at all your results, not just the Junior and Leaving Cert, I longed to do well.

Christmas holidays came, and John and Patrick came home with them. We’ve had a lot of lazy days, playing cards or Scrabble. It’s been fun!

Overall, 2009 was a phenomenal year. Looking over what I’ve written, I realize just how much happened in 2009. That is a lot, but something tells me that 2010 will be even busier. I fell out with some people this year, but I gained a lot more. At the risk of sounding sentimental, I learnt a lot, matured, but most importantly, enjoyed every minute of it.