#TBT: Where Was I in 2010?

Dear, guys – welcome back to Letters From Liz!

So, it’s really crazy to believe that we are now at the start of a new decade! In the spirit of a new year beginning, I like to reflect on where I was 10 years ago; we spoke about where I was in 2009 last year! So to start off this new year (and decade), let’s talk about where I was at the start of the last decade, 2010!

• In 2010, I was turning 16. I didn’t have a sweet 16 though, but for my 16th birthday, my family agreed to the idea of me getting a nose piercing, so I did! I still have the same nose piercing 10 years later despite me getting other ones and then taking them out because I was tired of them. After that, we went shopping. The Friday before my birthday, the boy I had a really huge crush got me a cute birthday card, which even though it has been 10 years and things changed, I keep it for sentimental reasons. It was a good birthday.
• I was a sophomore in high school, aka the best year of my high-school career. I had a really good group of friends, I was performing every other weekend with the choir I was a part of, and I was truly learning about life and what it was like to be a somewhat of a normal teenager. During that season of performing, we performed at a competition called NYSSMA, and after performing some of the hardest and highest levels of pieces, we not only got gold, but we got gold with distinction! Our whole choir traveled on the B44 bus from Marine Park and celebrated the whole way. It was truly iconic.
• I was a bit rebellious when I was 16. Well, more like a lot of rebellious. You see, I spent a lot of my time with this boy that I really liked. He became my best friend and the one I’d talk to day and night, and because we were both rebellious teenagers, we both did some rebellious things. After being an innocent prude for most of my life, I was now doing things that contradict the things I felt so strongly about. I had lost my virginity when I was 16, and when I told my friends at the time about it, they were livid. It was definitely a difficult time trying to grow up but still be friends with the people that saw me one way, y’ know? Nevertheless, 2010 was a rebellious year for me.
• I went to the first and last school party of my high-school career because, again, I wanted to hang out with the boy I was really into. The scene was definitely not mine, and guys wanted to “dance” (dance as in dub) with me and I really wasn’t feeling it. It was a fun party nevertheless, but I don’t think I’ll ever get the mental image of girls literally riding guys when Ciara’s “Ride” came on. It was truly something.
• At the end of 2010, things were definitely changing for me and I didn’t know how to express them in an efficient way. When I started my junior year and I wasn’t under the wing of my upperclassman best friend, I started to become more open and friendly to a lot of the people in my own grade. When I started to make new friends of my own, I began to like someone else that I had gotten close to, and this time it was someone of the same sex. I wasn’t gay though, nor have I ever saw another girl in a romantic type of way. I remember telling my girl best friend at the time, and because of her religion then, she pretty much told me the “resist the demon” story, which was something I didn’t believe in myself. I didn’t do anything about it because I felt that liking girls was not right for me, and I tried to end it there.
• Although I was invited to a sweet 16 of a person who did not really like me, I went to one of my friends sweet 16 and it was seriously the most fun thing I did in 2010! Although she was my age, she was a grade below me, and many of her friends were from her own grade, it did feel good to interact with other people outside my circle and get out of this shy bubble that many people saw me in.

2010 was definitely a year to put in the books because of so many things (a lot not told just because I keep them close to my heart). It was truly the year of a new chapter of my life, which left behind some of the more naive, innocent, one-sided thoughts I had in the previous decade, and it’s crazy to see that 2020 might just be another decade starter where I begin a new chapter of my life. So, although the beginning of last decade was one to remember, here’s to a new decade with new opportunities to make new memories!