Happy (Belated) Leap Day!

Leap Day doesn't come too often, so I thought it would be fun to think back to what I was doing on Leap Days past--all seven of them! Starting from my first Leap Year ever, here's a little leap down memory lane.

February 29, 1988: I have no idea what was going on. I couldn't talk or walk or do anything. I don't even remember many photos from this age. I was barely six months old, so I was probably fat and happy, and I probably rolled around and gurgled a lot. My sister would have just turned six a few weeks ago, though, so I had definitely been introduced to the excitement of candles and birthday cake and presents! I also know that by this point, my sister had appropriated my handmade teddy bear as her own--and, never mind that I like the replacement I was given much better, that was still not a very friendly welcome-to-the-world reception. 

February 29, 1992: I was five, so that would put me in kindergarten. I distinctly remember making puppets and a puppet theater with my friend Lauren and putting on a show for the class (and my mom). I think we had a vague plan for the script, but mostly we just talked to each other as we sat behind the screen and made our puppets dance. I thought we were brilliant; it was probably painful for the adults in the audience to sit through. I think I also played soccer in kindergarten, and my one memory from that was a kid telling me that he ate grass and I really ought to try it. I did, and was not impressed.

February 29, 1996: I was absolutely in love with my fourth grade teacher. He was young and creative, and our class had the most fun of any. He assigned us to teams to build rockets that we would shoot off outside, with the caveat that each team had to change something about their rocket to make it fly farther or faster or better. He also held class outside for a full day, and we took turns digging flower beds and planting a garden.

February 29, 2000: I don't remember much from eighth grade, and the two things I remember most distinctly have nothing to do with school. First, I started playing field hockey, just like my big sister, when my middle school created a team. I had grown up watching her games in the afternoons, and it was cool to finally be old enough to play myself. It was also cool to be one of the first people ever to play at my middle school--previously, field hockey was only a high school sport. There were only five or six of us on the team, but we had so much fun running around the gym after school. The second notable event was my learning to tap dance. I had dreamed of tap dancing, and finally, at age thirteen, I started lessons. It was every bit as exciting as I had hoped! For the next several months, I would tap my feet everywhere--at school under my desk, on the kitchen linoleum at home--probably much to the irritation of those around me.

February 29, 2004: Second semester of my junior year of high school. Although I was quiet and not too concerned with my social life in high school, this was probably the best year. My closest friend was a year ahead of me, and we did everything together, from mock trial to field hockey to soccer to dancing in the spring musical. As a junior, I had made the varsity teams of everything. My mock trial team won 4th place in the state that year, so we all knew senior year would be fantastic. With all those activities, I would occasionally start the day with sports training at 6 am and stay through multiple rehearsals and practices until 10 pm. I don't even remember doing any school work during my junior year, although I must have, according to my grades. Actually, I do remember starting calculus that year, and I loved it. It was math that could do really cool, really practical things! Calculus is the basis of much of economics, and although I had never had an econ class in my life, it must have been foreshadowing...

February 29, 2008: Second semester of my junior year of college, and I was a world away in Botswana! It was an amazing semester. I saw incredible places and incredible wildlife -- some days, going to "school" meant waking up at 5 am to go on a safari. I struggled through learning Setswana and discovered that the world was a whole lot bigger than I had ever dreamed. I fell in love with large expanses of open space and began to question whether I was really a city girl at heart. I had always dreamed of traveling to Africa, and I had fought to make it happen. I took an ecology course at Brown that I hated, just to meet the requirements of the study abroad program. I even declared an environmental studies concentration, despite still being undecided, to make myself eligible. And when a recommendation letter was submitted too late for me to get into the more popular Tanzania program, I researched Botswana - a country I had never heard of - and rewrote my application. The effort was worth it. I came home happier and more inspired than ever before, and more than ready for my summer job teaching high school students about environmental issues on the Narragansett Bay of Rhode Island.

February 29, 2012: I wonder what I'll remember from this year when I look back from some point in the future. Right now, I would call this my year in transition. I'm struggling to figure out what I want out of life and what it means to be an adult. I have, once again, left behind good friends as we scattered after graduation. I am adjusting to life in a bustling city devoid of the peaceful green spaces that always make me so happy. But I have also had the amazing experience of contributing to Federal policy, and I'm not even 25! And I get to share adventures in both Boston and New Haven with Colin. And thanks to Skype, my friends aren't so far away after all. So I wait. And I dream. And I write.

Happy belated Leap Day! I can't wait to see what the next four years hold!