Mr. Sean's 2010s Recap

Another decade has flown by. Luckily I've been able to hold on and enjoy the ride. Here are ten things that I think are worth highlighting in the past decade of my life.

2010

Tooth of Time, Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico

In 2010, I finally got to go back out west with fellow scouts by taking a trek through the Philmont Scout Ranch. There is a sentence that has been stuck in my head ever since the Philmont Rangers said it, "I! Wanna go back to Philmont! Wanna go back... to Philmont!"

2011

Manhattan Skyline

With fellow Meade High musicians, I got to finally visit New York City for the first time ever. I saw How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, then starring Daniel Radcliffe, and Company then starring Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, and Yellow Diamo... I mean Patti LuPone (for those who don't know, Patti LuPone voiced the character Yellow Diamond in Steven Universe, a cartoon that aired on Cartoon Network). I only wish that the trip was a little longer as I was exhausted after the trip with little time to rest.

2012

La Tour Eiffel

In late June and early July, I was in Paris with my dad, my french teacher Monsieur O'Neill, and fellow French students.  I ate a lot of delicious French food, saw Versailles, was near the top of the Eiffel Tower and saw my favorite teacher ever Ms. Vlach!

2013

Me taking a crazy selfie

I went on my first missions trip in 2013. It happened to be in Charlotte, NC and was my first time on a roof, the group I was with was re-shingling a roof. Before the hard work, the youth pastor I've known for a long time had a day at Carowinds scheduled. My aunt Tiffany and cousins Michaela and Jessica visited Carowinds and I had a fun day spending time with family. At the end of the week my group celebrated with Cookout milkshakes and I had to get more than that as Cookout has a lot of tasty food.

2014

A double rainbow at Millersville University

This picture serves as an affirmation at my decision to pursue a meteorology degree. Also this picture serves to remind me of the memories made of my freshman year and the friends I made that year and the awesome people such as then Peer Mentor Chelsey and RA Tori.

2015

Somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains

In 2015 I went out west, but not to what I call the west, rather it was to West Virginia and more specifically the New River Gorge. I walked across the bridge, hiked up some of the hills, and ate good food such as pizza. It was a short vacation, but it was still enjoyable.

2016

Crawfish and Tasso Pasta

Although this happened right after New Year's 2016, the highlight of the year was going down to New Orleans for the American Meteorological Society annual conference. My only regret was not eating enough of the local cuisine as there was a mall with a food court next to the convention center and little time for lunch. The University of Oklahoma had a party in the area and I managed to get the crowd to cheer the band for a final encore one night.

2017

Abstract Algebra and some brain food

I didn't have an event with much pizzazz happen in 2017 but this photo represents a time when I was very happy with things. Mall Chinese food (they had good BBQ Pork) and Abstract Algebra (taught by Dr. Ikenaga) were a good combination of things. Maybe I should study some more Abstract Algebra in 2020?

2018

Amber Liggett and myself, Millersville Commencement 2018

I made it! Thanks to good friends such as Amber and all my meteorology friends, I graduated from Millersville University with a degree in Meteorology and Mathematics. Though I do wish time didn't go so fast so I could have spent what would feel like more time with my met friends.

2019

1st Place in my age group at a 5K run

2019 was the year of the successfully ran 5K race as it was the first year I finished a 5K race without walking once. The pictured medal came from a near to me race where all the funds raised were put toward obtaining wreaths to participate in Wreaths Across America, an initiative where the ultimate goal is to have a wreath placed at every gravestone of American service members at the various veterans cemeteries. The largest event taking place at Arlington National Cemetery. This race was to raise funds for wreaths to be placed at the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in 2019.

Mr. Sean's Year in Review

I'm sorry for the not so frequent updates on my blog. I've been busy with exercising, working, and living my life in the real world to keep up with this. Anyways I've made time to post a Year in Review and will also be doing a Decade recap, so stay tuned for that! This Year in Review will be shorter than previous years in review as I pick the twelve most personally significant events that occurred and images that are either directly related or somewhat related to the events.

January

The start of a hand-sewn journey

In January, I had recently started my new job at a cafeteria doing stock work so I was getting used to not having so much time on my hands. I also got a blanket from Christmas 2018 with the purpose of showing off patches. My goal was to have all of my Scouting patches hand-sewn on before I turned 24 in April.

February

More Patches

February was more of the same as January as it was still too cold out to really do anything. I made some steady progress.

March

Almost there!

The weather was starting to warm up but I was still busy with my patch blanket as sewing by hand is a long process that requires a lot of patience. Thankfully my plan worked and I was able to finish the blanket on 1 April, but for April I have something better to put down than a fourth month of patch blanket.

April

Maybe training for a 5K will work?

As the weather got nice for April I got serious about training for a 5K run. I've had poor luck until this year in 5K races as I've had to walk in every single one prior to 2019. I was going to change that and the C25K app was helpful in getting me from zero to 5K in eight weeks.

May

Two Medals?!?

I actually ran two 5Ks on back to back days. The one on Fort Meade I ran in about 30 minutes and I ran the entire course, finally! The next day I was in Bel Air running the Dawn's 5K Dash and the course there was a lot more hilly than on Fort Meade. I almost twisted my ankle and had to walk yet I managed to get 2nd place in my age group. I'll take it!

June

1000 Swans or 500 each of Miller and S'Ville?

So I had a box that was full of tiny origami paper with the intention of folding 1000 tiny swans. I started folding a few swans in 2018 but I wanted to finish the 1000 tiny swans in 2019. I completed the swans before the end of June and took a break from origami in July before tackling tiny cranes from August onward.

July

The Francis Scott Key Bridge, Baltimore

Instead of doing nothing on Independence Day like I usually do, I went up to Baltimore to participate in a Fourth of July run with a few dozen runners. We ran from a local running store to Fort McHenry and around the fort and back. I stopped inside the fort to do 76 burpees with fellow Team RWB people. Team RWB is an organization that is open to all people and their mission is, "to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity." The 76 burpees was a capstone to the inaugural 1776 challenge that started in mid-June and involved 18 days of exercise with one exercise per day where the goal was to do 100 repetitions of the exercise. The fact that one only had to do 76 burpees on Independence Day was so that the total number of repetitions associated with the challenge was 1776.

August

Let's Go O's!

The Baltimore Orioles might not have been doing so well on the diamond this year, but I always enjoy going to see a baseball game at Oriole Park. This year I went along with fellow people from Team RWB. I didn't get a crab mac and cheese hot dog but there was good food in the suites box where military related groups can see some of the games and the Orioles thank veterans and active duty alike for their service. 

September

Cranes!

Although I started in August, with the weather cooling down I focused on my second origami goal this year, finish folding 1000 tiny cranes. I did manage to fold more than 200 cranes in August and September. So at the end of September I only had less than 600 left to fold.

October

Bright Lights!

In October I got to see Carrie Underwood in concert. Although I was in the nosebleeds it was a good view. I also had some of the best stadium concession food I've ever had as there was a stand that sold burgers from Lucky Buns in Washington, D.C. The burger I had was the "Lucky Bun" with gouda, pickles, arugula, grilled red onion, and their special "lucky sauce".

November

1st place? Alright!

In November I ran another 5K. This 5K was a fundraiser race to raise funds to buy wreaths to place on gravestones at the Maryland Veterans Cemetery as part of the Wreaths Across America initiative. The ultimate goal being that there is a wreath at every gravestone at every veterans cemetery. I may have been beaten by my dad and one of his friends, but I still got 1st place in my age group!

December

Two origami challenges completed

Finally I completed the second set of 1000 origami cranes, this time the tiny cranes and thus both the 1000 tiny swans and 1000 tiny cranes were completed in 2019. I don't know what I'll do for origami in 2020 but I have a few ideas on what I could do. Onward! To a new decade!