Best of 2011 Intro

That's it...the year is sealed. These past few weeks I've pushed countless hours toward all of the last-minute music listening, movie watching, and game playing I could manage. My lists of all things excellent in 2011 are complete, but before they're revealed, let's take a look back on my eventful year, which will certainly remain one of the biggest throughout the rest of my life.

January
Let's start with the end of 2010. I invited seven friends to my house for New Year's Eve and all seven came at some point in the night. That right there is amazing and was certainly a good sign for the year to follow. January saw my awesome orchestra trip to Disneyland...where a good portion of my top 2011 memories come from. At the end of the month I got my patriarchal blessing, something I deeply cherish. I was getting super excited as I did some research into the impressive amount of movies, music, and games that were in store for the year.

February
February 2nd was my first concert as the viola section leader in the Davis Youth Symphony. On the 8th, I was named a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. I counted down my last days of being 17 in the first half of February. As I said goodbye to the number, which is my ultra-ludicrous-extremely lucky number, I drew up lists of my all-time favorite things at that point in my life. It may seem like a silly thing for me to care so much about, but my mindset shifted for the better as I came to define who I truly am through the things that mean most in my life. Type "last days of 17" in the search box if you want to see some of those. For the 17th of February, my birthday, I went to the Barcelona w/ He Is We concert with a few good friends, which was something I never thought I'd do...but it was perfect. I received a stellar bunch of music albums and game for my birthday, many of which appear in my best of 2011 lists.

March
March wasn't too exciting aside from the excellent group of CDs I decided to pick up. I also went to another concert, which was headlined by Wye Oak. Unfortunately, this was my last concert of the year.

April
The single top moment of April was winning the iPad in the Keys for Success drawing for my high school. After that, I was on TV, where I had a chance to win a brand new car. No luck there, but that was mighty fun. I took a long-time friend to senior prom and took part in the Portal 2 craze. Then I buckled down for testing.

May
May was terrible, but also awesome. I did little other than study for my 4 AP and 4 IB tests...that's right: 28 hours of testing. On the other hand, I've never been as relieved as I was when it was all over. I devoted two years of my life to the IB program and it was finally over.

June
Graduation! I thought it would be sad, but I was thrilled to get out of high school when the last week came around. All I really miss now is my orchestra and my closest friends, the rest is already a distant memory. I held on to my 4.0 to graduate as Rank 1 in my class. The All-Night party was a blast, and so was the rest of the month as I collected my A-Team of summer tunes.

July
I had surgery the morning after Independence Day. This was the most life-changing event in my life. I had a metal bar placed in my chest and I will have this bar in me for another 2 1/2 years, but what for? It's to improve my health by freeing up space for my heart and lungs. It's to improve my physicality by reshaping my chest. Mostly, it's to improve my self-esteem by fixing a part of myself I've been hiding for years. Even now, six months later, I sleep on the couch and endure pain, but it's all worth it.

August
In August, I started college! I'm not going to say I love college, but I certainly love choosing my own path, shaping my own routine, and recreating my identity (to an extent) in the new setting.

September
Sleeping At Last released their last EP in their awe-inspiring Yearbook project. 12 months of fantastic music came to an end with the song "Resolve." I don't think I've ever been so passionate about an artist's work. I even got full-size art prints of all 12 EP covers for Christmas! The end was certainly saddening, but not as much of a downer as my struggle to gain friends in college. For that month in college, I was largely a loner. Fortunately, that didn't last.

October
October was the start of the absolutely ridiculous streak of video game releases. Modern Warfare 3 surpassed Avatar's sell record, making it the quickest-selling item in entertainment history. My anticipation was killing me; I knew I'd have to wait for Christmas to try it all out.

November
Video game-craziness continued in November with the release of Skyrim and other superb games. Thanksgiving was particularly nice and was probably the first time since my surgery where I gained a significant amount of weight back (I lost 15% of my weight in the weeks following my surgery!)

December
The finishing month was filled with some of the best feelings. Finals week wasn't too bad, winter break was extra nice. I had a bittersweet Christmas with my mom's mom getting really sick that day and my dad's dad's breaking his hip two days before. That didn't stop me from being ecstatic about my 6 games and 17 (yes, 17!) CDs that I received as gifts. My last minutes of the year were spent with extended family and the song Midnight City (perfect!).

So there it is. 2011. The best year in video game history. In my life, the best year for music as well; my iTunes collection increased by over 1,500 songs to a total of 6,200! I also saw more movies this year than ever before, making my 2011 movie list somewhat more respectable than in previous years. Aside from all of that, I had some of the top experiences of my life: graduation, surgery, college, 17-day countdown...it's been spectacular.

What about outside of my personal life? Osama Bin Laden, Libya, Japan earthquake...I think this year has been a big one for the world. I'm certainly not going to make a list of the disasters and triumphs that shaped this year, but let's not diminish their significance. The world at the beginning of 2011 and the world at the end of 2011 are two very different places. Let's not forget the possibility that it was also the last full year before the end of the world ;)

So what's the point of these Best of 2011 lists? Well, I can't provide a good argument. This is just how my mind works. I like to order things, to critically analyze them, to relive powerful moments of passion, to deeply ponder what this year has been to me. I choose to recognize these things for what they are: my favorite. When someone asks what my favorite song/film/game of the year was, I want to be able to answer with certainty. I want to showoff that item as my number 1. By emphasizing the importance of these items, I hope to convince you to check them out. Would you care about a good song from the year? Maybe. Would you care about my very favorite song from the year? You better! So here we go, I've spent hours narrowing down the choices, ordering them from good to best...let's get to the top lists of 2011!

2011's Top Movies
2011's Top EPs
2011's Top Video Games
2011's Top Albums
2011's Top Songs