I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions, mostly due to having a summer birthday that feels like a more organic time for reflection. But I think it’s interesting to look back at what new experiences I had in a year, not because I strive for them endlessly, but because life is always bringing new things your way whether or not you try.
It’s hard to rate experiences on a number scale, so I will instead be assigning each one a simile. You’ll see what I mean.
Listening to the radio more
Due to both rushing most places without time to fiddle with Spotify and the lack of an aux plugin in my car, I’ve been spending most days listening to the radio. As someone who’s only been driving since 2021, this is a fascinating part of the experience. Listening to the same stations reveals which songs they’re allowed to play, and you quickly learn which hits make you immediately turn the knob away. It’s also been fun to actually feel like I know which artists are big right now—I’ve been watching SNL every week, and it’s a very foreign experience for me to actually recognize each week’s musical guest.
Rating: Listening to the car radio is like meeting up for a weekly euchre game: It’s a little repetitive, but you get to know all the classic moves.
Square dancing
My partner and I decided to join some weekly square dancing classes back in July that have persisted well into the winter months. It turns out, square dancing has a lot of moves. While I don’t know how I’d like square dancing compared to other styles, I’ve enjoyed the way it forces me to use my brain to keep track of patterns (a tall order for someone who forgets her lefts and rights under stress), and I’m surprised by how exhausting simply walking in circles can be.
Rating: Weekly square dancing is like doing your astronomy lab homework: it’s more mathematical than you hoped, but at least you’re having fun.
Getting stung by a bee
Getting to age twenty-seven without getting stung by a bee felt like how I must imagine people feel if they’ve never had COVID. The anticipation. The “surely any day now?” The carefully inspecting a field of clovers (okay, maybe that one doesn’t apply to COVID). I was surprised by how painful the sting was—it reverberated through my whole foot. It then took twelve hours to get the stinger out, because I couldn’t find any information online about whether it hurt to remove (it didn’t).
As someone who’s afraid of pain and anticipation, this one would rate pretty low on an actual numeric scale.
Rating: Getting stung by a bee is like getting in a minor car accident: it’s an unpleasant surprise, but the aftermath is the real headache.
Visiting Mackinac Island
Saying you’ve never been to Mackinac Island while living in Grand Rapids is the kind of admission that prompts most people to express shock and vow to take you someday with such haste that you suspect they’re forgetting how far away it is. I went in July for the first time, which makes it pretty easy to appreciate an island where you get to walk around and eat fudge and stick your toes in the water. I particularly appreciated the living history elements of it, especially the ones off the island, and I was glad that they’d apparently recently updated their exhibit to include the Anishinaabe people and their experiences.
The only problem with rating an island visit is that anytime I have to ride a ferry to get somewhere, the ferry ride immediately becomes my favorite part of the experience.
Rating: Visiting Mackinac island is like going to the beach: The water’s always my favorite part.
Getting my ears pierced
I am so afraid of pain (see #3) that I put off getting my ears pierced for years. Now, granted, I don’t wear much jewelry, and I was perfectly fine with plain ears for most of my life. But there are simply too many dangly earrings of a mouse/dessert/moon/pencil/other adorable noun available, and I couldn’t wear a single one. It was time to bite the bullet.
The process included an immense amount of anticipation where I nearly chickened out, but the actual piercing was about as painful as a blood draw. More painful than I’d hoped, but certainly bearable. The recovery process was eerily simple, and I could almost celebrate the lack of any goo or grossness, if it weren’t for the small infection I got around Christmas.
Rating: Getting my ears pierced is like pulling an ice tray out of the freezer before the ice has had a chance to solidify: it’s not as hard as I expected it to be.
Hannah McNulty graduated from Calvin in 2021 and stuck around Grand Rapids, against all odds. She has spent her last few years singing in choir, teaching herself to love reading again, and trying to learn every fiber art simultaneously. She currently works at Eerdmans Publishing, where you can find her burying her nose in old paperwork and forcing anyone within earshot to listen to her bad puns.
