The Five: 2013 Edition

Five Things I Accomplished This Year
1. Graduated from Duke with a double major in Biology and English
2. Got into medical school
3. Started my first full-time job
4. Wrote a senior thesis while overloading on coursework
5. Completed my first short story since 2010 

Five Things I Crossed Off My Bucket List
1. Watched Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
2. Got a second set of earlobe piercings
3. Saw Vermeer's Girl With the Pearl Earring in person
4. Went to a Steve Aoki concert (and sort of finally understood why people are into EDM)
5. Explored NYC on my own

Five Things I Learned to Do This Year
1. Iron a shirt
2. Cook a salmon filet
3. Unclog a shower drain
4. Write a scientific research paper
5. Play poker (except I've forgotten all the hand rankings)

Five Lessons I Learned This Year
1. Don't take your relationships with people for granted.
2. Refrigerate rice ASAP unless you want food poisoning from Bacillus cereus.
3. Trust your gut--it's probably right.
4. Leaving Facebook for a month will do wonders for your actual personal relationships.
5. Happiness is a state of mind under your control. 

Five Songs from 2013 Stuck on Replay
1. "Sacrilege" | Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. "Do I Wanna Know?" | Arctic Monkeys
3. "Young and Beautiful" | Lana del Rey
4. "DOOM DADA" | T.O.P
5. "Black" | G-Dragon ft. Sky Ferreira 

Five Songs I Found and Fell in Love With This Year
(aka "Don't ask me why I never heard of these songs until now")
1. "Unravel" | Bjork
2. "Lullaby" | Low
3. "Loveeeeeee Song" | Rihanna ft. Future
4. "Twice" | Little Dragon
5. "Blue" | R.E.M. 
Honorable Mention: Beta State's cover of "Unravel" is phenomenal.

Five Favorite Books I Read This Year
1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone | Laini Taylor
2. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales | ed. Kate Bernheimer
3. The Bloody Chamber | Angela Carter
4. Jellicoe Road | Melina Marchetta
5. Burial Rites | Hannah Kent
Honorable Mention: Quoted a line from John Green's The Fault of Our Stars in my medical school personal statement. The eulogy scene slayed me.

Happy Birthday Aurora