I know this about a month late, but I've been meaning to do this for awhile. These images are presented in no particular order. I'm not calling them the "best" or even my "favorite," they're just representations of some of the things and people I've had the chance to cover and meet last year, which began with my last semester at Mizzou and ended with a seven month internship in Oklahoma with plenty of stops in between. 2011 was a year of honor…as World War II veteran Bill Hulsey observed a Flag Day retirement ceremony at American Legion Post 1 on June 14… and of celebration…as the Sol Azteca Hispanic folk group performed in downtown Tulsa on July 15... Salsafest and of overcoming all odds…as Marines Josh Wege and Spanky Gibson played in a Wounded Warrior softball game... In politics, it was a year of civil dissent…that spread from Wall Street all the way to Oklahoma ranchers in October... which led to pepper spray…when John Harlien and nine other Occupy Tulsa protestors were arrested downtown on Nov. 2. For my capstone project, it was a semester-long search for the human and environmental impacts of the elk in southeastern Kentucky... Elk I was in the Bluegrass State again for the Kentucky Derby and all the hats that went with it... Kentucky Oaks followed by the second leg of the Triple Crown in Baltimore, full of Preakness infield characters. It was a year of blood…as Missouri's Marcus Denmon got whacked with an elbow at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 12… of sweat…as Alejandro Vaccquez worked on a utility project in the heat of a record breaking Oklahoma summer... of tears of victory…as Baylor knocked Missouri out of the Women's College World Series on May 13… and tears of defeat…as Broken Arrow receivers Quad Ware and Jaylon Calhoun reacted after losing to Union in the state championship in Stillwater on Dec. 1. It was a year of fire…as Tom Salyer sat on a trashcan with a firefighter while his grandmother Loma McGee's house burned after a wildfire outbreak in Turley, Okla., on Aug. 2... Turley Fire and also of ice…as John Fussner fished and caught four trout on a frozen lake in Columbia, Mo., on Feb. 1. Ice Fishing There was no shortage of the crazy…like Buster Garrett and hundreds of other competitors who blindly stuck their arms into murky lake water and down the throats of giant catfish for the Okie Noodling Tournament on July 9… or the even crazier…like William Boyd Sturdivant III, who climbed a Tulsa radio tower and engaged police on a six-day standoff in August. Elderly couples fell in love…like Jeanette Austin, 80, and Roy Hughes, 85, who decided to get married after meeting in their retirement community... while imaginative kids enjoyed childhood...even if they secretly wished they were wizards playing Quidditch with magical broomsticks. There were old-fashioned county fairs…with good old-fashioned cowboys in Pryor, Oklahoma... Mayes County Fair and a lost Indian election…as former Cherokee Chief Chad Smith was ousted after a disputed race in Tahlequah... meanwhile , an all-Indian wild horse race took place at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Fair in Rosebud, South Dakota. It was a year of kids getting their feet wet…at a backyard Fourth of July party in Glenpool, Okla... 4th of July and of me getting my own feet wet (and published in the paper)…after I followed campers on a 14-mile canoe trip through a thunderstorm. There were serious portraits taken under extreme circumstances…like Joplin athletic director Jeff Starkweather, standing on the site of his destroyed school and athletic facilities… and less-than-serious portraits when subjects just don't cooperate… Thanks for looking. Photos © Jeff Lautenberger, Tulsa World, Columbia Missourian.