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Before going to Guatemala for the second time in the last week of February (photos by former IU journalism dean Jim Brown on the trip website), the Star sent me on four photo assignments. The first two, on the first Saturday of the month, could not be more different: a regional high school wrestling tournament in the early afternoon, and, stretching into the wee hours of Sunday morning, Nelly's concert at The Vogue. The latter photos, for some reason, never made it to the website, but they most certainly happened.

The following weekend, I covered a child's birthday party put on by a kids' spa treatment company. I never before had taken a photo of seven-year-olds with cucumbers and masks on their faces, so cross that off the bucket list. And the day after Guatemala, I was thrown back into the mix of American culture with the most Hoosier thing imaginable: a high school basketball game played in an overflowing gym. Southport played Evansville Reitz, previously undefeated, and pulled away in the final minute for an 88-80 victory. These are probably my best basketball photos since my time at the IDS, not least because of the enthusiasm of the players and fans (but also because I wasn't afraid to use 3200 ISO).

Also, photos I took in December were finally published. Local DJ Oreo Jones has a cooking show with all the trappings of a public access show a la "Wayne's World." It's called Let's Do Lunch, and it features local chefs and music acts. I covered the filming of an episode the night before my biochemistry final (don't worry, I got an A in the class), and the photos and story finally ran online on Feb. 4, and seven color photos made it into the next day's local section (four on the front!).

There. Now I'm all caught up.

Rosie Lockwood relaxes under a face mask and cucumbers during her friend Kate Hollingsworth's birthday party and spa treatment provided by Pretty and Posh Parties in Fishers, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015.

Yes, yes, yes, I'm posting January photos in March. Life (e.g. two medical school interviews, work in Seymour), got in the way of posting, but not in the way of taking pictures. I was assigned three events for the Star: A high school wrestling meet featuring the indomitable Carmel High School girls' swim team, a sandwich cook-off during a Colts playoff game, and a little thing they like to call Bacon Fest. Also, my college housemate Steph, featured here, got engaged to her British boyfriend, so I made the trek to Chicago for the party. It almost goes without saying, but I will be taking her wedding photos.

Next post will be up within the hour!

Ally Benedyk of Love Handle doles out a sandwich containing Ovaltine brioche, hickory bacon, blackberry-miso jam and koshered carrots, during the Taste of the NFL Sandwich Cook-off at Recess on North College Avenue, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015.

Today, I end 2014 with, oddly enough, a few words about 2013.

Only over the distance of a year can I feel that I fully understand how transformative 2013 was. I started out the year thinking I would spend my life as a photographer, covering weddings & newspaper assignments and flying a kite with a GoPro for fun. I ended the year heading into a second semester of pre-med classes and becoming ever more convinced that I would spend my life, not as a photographer, but as a doctor. There was such a hairpin turn in the middle of that year, and I could feel the turn as I drove through it, but only now can I look back and see how sharp the turn was.

I also see how much happier I am after that turn. There are many reasons for this contentment, some of which appear in great detail in my INPA post, so I won't recapitulate everything here. I'll simply say that returning full-time to my love of science has been an awe-filled, fulfilling, and oddly goal-oriented experience (what with the requirements that medical schools place before their applicants). At the same time, a part of me will always miss pizza in the newsroom and telling a good story on deadline, and that part of me will always live vicariously through my reporter friends. I'm really glad that I have friends who do journalism as their way to make the world a better place, and I'm extremely lucky to have friends like Ryan Dorgan who use great photos to tell an even greater story. I will be watching those friends from afar, appreciating their work, awed by their skill, and confident they will improve the world.

This year doesn't feel quite as transformative as did 2013. At least, any transformation that occurred was nowhere near as sudden or cataclysmic. The theme this year is progress. I finished my medical school requirements (while bumping my GPA past 3.8!), I earned a good score on the MCAT, I got a job in medicine as a scribe for ScribeAmerica, and I scheduled interviews for January with the IU School of Medicine and the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. There were many other small improvements this year, as well, like taking more high school basketball assignments and finding a better way to capture stars trailing through the night sky. Each improvement, small and large, assures me that I chose wisely to make that hairpin turn. There will be hills and mountains and further sharp turns to come, but now that I've lived to tell the tale of that consequential turn, I'm more and more confident that I can make it through those, as well.

But let's leave tomorrow for next year. (ba-DUM, tish.) Today, let's look back at the year that was. Have a good night, and I hope to see you here next year.

Engineering and Technology Alumni team members Akram Khatib and Jerry Hohn capsize after an exchange during the IUPUI Regatta in the Downtown Canal, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. In the regatta, teams race up and down the canal from the head at Fairbanks Hall to the Walnut Street basin and back. Two of a team's four rowers paddle from the start line, then exchange the canoe with the other two team members at the basin.