fifteen for a moment.

Listening to: 100 Years by Five for Fighting.
Lyric love: "I'm 15 for a moment/ Caught in between 10 and 20/ And I'm just dreaming/ Counting the ways to where you are...15 there's still time for you/ Time to buy and time to lose/ 15, there's never a wish better than this/ When you only got 100 years to live."

Fifteen has been one of the best years of my life. There's been change and adventure, new friends and old ones.

I traveled across the world and back. I made favorite memories (the time I came home from the dig. I was gone three days, tops. When I walked into the door,  Gabriel, age five, ran out of the kitchen, grabbed me around the waist, and whispered, "Katie, I missed you.") and best friends. I wrote my first letter to Bleah and met her less than two weeks ago.

Fifteen was a good year. After fifteen years, they wrapped up Toy Story. There was Tangled -which, actually, I'm watching right at this moment- and the Dawn Treader and I discovered Charlie.

I learned about ISO and aperture and shutter speed and how they work together. I bought Darcy during my Pride and Prejudice phase. I read Pride and Prejudice three times during that phase and watched the movie at least once.

I read. Oh my goodness, I read. The Book Thief and the Hunger Games and half of Les Mis and Save the Date and Paperdoll and Matched and Anne of Green Gables and so, so much more.

Fifteen was Paris and cameras and college. It was mail twice a week and a new passport photo.

It was you. You, dear followers, are the most amazing people ever. I love hearing your stories, reading your comments. Fifteen wouldn't have been the same without you.

Fifteen was the best... here's to sixteen.

In true Katie-ness, my summer of sixteen promises to be amazing. At the moment, the plan is this: my parents and I. Red white and blue striped flag. Macaroons. (my favorite almost cousin knows exactly where it is now.) Tourists. Sidewalk cafes. Berets. Escargot, but not this trip, because that's something I'm eating with my brother.

Have you guessed? Yes! I'll be in France for a month early in the summer. And yes, I'm completely excited. My dad is going to be teaching a few classes there, and I'm tagging along for the fun of it. Hopefully there will be some language study, and maybe a trip to England for a few days. And in England maybe I'll get to hang out with Libby for a few hours.

I'm so.excited.

Basically that's my big news. I'll fill you in on some more details about the summer, and all next week you can hear about last summer.

ps: fan of the Hunger Games? Paper Bird and Little Fairy are hosting a link-up featuring Prim Everdeen. I'll be linking up my own post in a week or two. Definitely something you should check out!