Author: Lily Ross

This is an activity blog! 

This blog contains a form of activity the whole class can take part in. If interested, please scroll to the bottom of the blog for the resources required and for the description of the activity! 

Recently, dating back to a month or so ago, I’ve been drawing in a journal using only pencils and some charcoal here and there. However, I only ever drew on the left side of the journal whenever I had a spontaneous idea to draw something. Usually, I’ll have more visual art tendencies rather than a writer’s tendency.

Then something occurred to me. 

I applied to both disciplines at the beginning of the school year and had got accepted into both but could only choose one, so I went with my first passion, literary. I love literary with all my heart; it’s always been a part of me and a part of my life but sometimes the literary brain needs something more, that’s where the journal came in handy. 

Thinking about how the right side of the book had always been empty and dry whenever my drawings on the left were completed (and too tired most the time to draw another image on the right.) I decided one day to fill the right side of the book to be a form of writing that contributes to the drawing on the left, and then suddenly I had a new piece and a visual representation. 

This idea has been with me for a long time now. It’s not every day I draw or write in the journal. I treat the journal as a collection of poems and small flash descriptions of what I have drawn or what I felt in the moment. I’ve also gotten many new ideas just from revisiting old drawings and poems I’ve written. 

Some poems I have written have returned and have been added to my journal and instead of drawing first I entered the literature first and drew the visual representation last. 

If you’re not much of an artist in the visual department, you don’t have to draw. Photography is another great utility for a writer. Almost anything can be pulled from a moment in a photograph, hidden feelings, secret messages, colors, and so on!  (I also think photography would be a great idea for our class to practice as well. It’s a type of literary art and builds skill with having to use a camera and your surroundings to your advantage as a writer. This would be enjoyable for the Media discipline also) 

Or you could just simply journal. <3

I think this is a healthy idea for our class and can be repeated throughout your life as a writer to log ideas and pieces in a creative way and to your aesthetic: 

For example, a few fellow bloggers who I follow along with have very unique aesthetics and it perfectly fits their character and personality: 

Sarah: Ladybugs, Love, kid cartoons

Nick: Westerns, Ghosts, Trans

Robin: Music, Theatre, friendships

Jaleigha:  Red and Blue foods, Stitch. 

Danny: Mythologies, Astronomy, Trans 

So on, so forth! 

At the start of the next school year, I would like to share some of the works I have done within the journal that will have hopefully be completed. You do not need a specific genre, or anything attached to the journals contents unless you want there to be one. This is all you! Your creativity and your ideas. 

Activity: 

Due to the fast-approaching conclusion of the junior year at Mississippi School of the Arts, I thought it would be a good idea for everyone who will be attending next school year to do something like a writer's journal. It's like Morning Pages, suggested from "The Artist Way" by Julia Cameron, but in my eyes a lot more engaging, fun and gives you a lot more time. 

Resources needed:
 
. A journal, notebook, sketchbook, or pieces of paper in a binder. 
. Pencil, Pens, or other visual art utilities you'd like to use. 
. Camera/phone, for pictures if you want them. 

ALERT/NOTICE: These are your journals; you do not have to partake in sharing anything you have written over summer break if you are not comfortable. If you would like to show you at least participated in the activity: simply place your thumb gently at the edge of the pages and pull back, the pages should flip rapidly. You DO NOT have to complete the journal it can be just a few pages. 

Fill the journal with whatever comes to mind. If you plan to continue and make a series of journals, I highly suggest numbering journals in volume form with the date the year you began and the date year you ended with.
If you think the journal needs such; Give it a title! Hell, slap some stickers on it, doodle in the corners, enjoy the process! Make it yours and something to reflect on when you grow as a writer and who you are and what you wish to accomplish in life! 

Tip: It also gives you topics and ideas to blog about next year! 

The country. 

What I thought was possibly going to be the worst of the move was how there was not much to do in the country. I’m sure I ranted about it already and I’m sure I’ll rant again, but there’s really not much here compared to what was on the coast. 

You’d be surprised to hear me say this is a good thing.

I’m not calling all of the coast “bad” in a sense, just the people. People and money as I had mentioned ran that small town into the ground. Despite all the new restaurants and bars a lot of it was just fake. You’d meet some drinking buddies but after a while they get bored of you and leave, that’s just kinda how it went. 

Here, it’s a little different. 

The country, although not as attractive as the coast, it has something more unique. Good, hard working people. Money isn’t something that you spend idly here. You work for it and use it in a way that benefits you and your loved ones or friends. Usually, country towns are strict on drinking and following the bible but most the time that’s usually strongest on Sundays since Brookhaven, the town itself, doesn’t sell beer on Sundays, but you will find good company in those who work just as hard as you most of the time. 

Now to say is this the absolute dream? No. It’s not everyone cup of tea and sometimes expenses can be rough. Most country towns are working towns. Gas, food, stock. Everyone has to make a livin’ so expenses can be high but it’s a simple life. 

I suppose why I fell so in love with the country so fast was because of the company we (my family) keep. My father had roots in this town so everyone knew him and he made life-long friends that I’ve met and love to this day. It’s honestly them that make me wish I was 21 a bit sooner, they’re good people and don’t lie to your face or care how thick your wallet is.

Country friends are a bit different. They rather have cook outs and grill steaks and invite a few friends over. Drink and have a good time just being in the company of each other then play golf the next morning. They include people, like me. Even though I’m younger and less mature they still asked about me and extended an invitation to me. 

That never happened on the coast. 

Theres something about country music that’s just so freeing. 

I don’t know if it’s the instruments, the beat or the message but whenever I listen to country music I suddenly feel at peace. I want to say that there’s a country gene in me from my dad that makes me feel that way, but music and your interpretation is all neurological. 

But for some reason, no matter what the science may be behind it, country music to me and my family has always been relevant. I’ve listened to a lot of music and none of it was strictly just country music, it still isn’t, but it seems to be what connect with me the most. 

It was like that with Rock a lot as well for my brother. Raised the same way, he also practically raised me, and he connected the most with Rock music. My other brother, the middle child in the family connected with the more alternative music. It’s funny how parents can raise kids around a genre and they end up liking a new one, then there’s me. 

I don’t like country music because it can be depressing or loving or about sex, it’s mostly how at home I feel. People raised around this genre have a comfortability because this genre also teaches life lessons. Country music isn’t just plainly what’s written, sometimes it is, but not all the time. I also think it’s what just comes with maturing from the south. I sing the songs all the time.

My dad was raised with Old or Classic country. One of his favorites being Keith Whitley and today in our generation we have people like Luke Combs, Chris Stapelton, Jason Aldean, and Morgan Wallen, who are all great!

But my dad and how he was raised, country was their whole life. He grew up with buddies who’d drive around Brookhaven singing Keith Whitley at the top of their lungs, (They still do- but minus the driving.) and we’d have get together and we all sing!

To this day it’s still one of my most listened to genres and my most listened to genre while I’m writing. 

Part 1: The Coast. 

As a teenager, the idea of living in the country was appalling. Originally from the coast with so much to do. Good drinks, food and places to go would stick with you like tree sap between your fingers. Although raised on an open pasture and a big red barn, some wild oaks and dogs further out of the city limits (to the coast that was more “country”) It wasn’t what I have now and despite the memories, I prefer what I have now. 

When I was younger, not thinking much about life as a teenager does, I never expected our move to Brookhaven to have been premeditated (sort of). Back on the coast, my family had moved down there in the years my brain can’t remember, from my youth, when my dad had gotten a job as a football coach for the Ocean Springs Greyhounds and would work there up until retirement from public school as the Head Football coach. 

And that was my life, for the first half. 

But there are somethings the coast will teach you differently. Somethings, that when you grow up around it shapes you in an odd way. The coast will teach you a lot about people, money and generation.  From a child’s perspective, you don’t question much about your parents lives but more your own and your friends, suddenly the month before school lets out for summer, new kids move in to newly built (highly expensive) houses. Parents meet other parents and introduce their children. And over the summer some friends grew apart and the return to school after the summer was always the worst. Trends, Manipulation, Hypocrisy and Betrayal spreads like wildfire within young minds and attitudes.

(I would really enjoy to deep dive into the behavior and shaping’s of this, but I keep reminding myself this is a blog not a biography, sorry.) 

Point is, this was the newly developed trend in the generation that bled into a part of the world that wasn’t fully associated with the new change and in my opinion adapted in the worst way possible. 

I plan to write more about this on my own free time on a more expansive level, but I miss the coast that was. Not what it is now. 

This is a good omens rant, if you’re tired of hearing me go on tangents about this then just scroll on by because this is about to be another very long tangent. 

Previously I had done a listicle on Good Omens in listing some of-not only my favorites-but also just super well-suited songs that fit the entire series as a whole but most importantly suited the dynamic of the two main protagonists: Crowley and Aziraphale. 

Now, in doing this listicle, we had a limit of 10-12 things to list, I had the full 12 but what if I told you that I had found a hidden gem, another song that so perfectly suited Good Omens as a whole? 

The song in which I speak of is titled, Love from the Other Side by Fallout Boy.

It is one of the most accurately fitting songs I’ve heard that precisely   describes not only the relationship dynamic between Crowley and Aziraphale but also adjacently delves into the exact antagonizing dilemma they face in their different natures with Crowley being a demon and Aziraphale who’s an Angel. (And an extra bonus of Aziraphale’s final decision the audience was left with at the end of s2)

Now to spare you the majority of this small rant, I’ll describe some of the lyrics in the song that pins these 3-4 claims. 

1.) “Sending my love from the other side of the Apocalypse.” Love of two different natures that used to be one in the same. Crowley and Aziraphale have to face both their natures head on and struggle with their own principals and loyalty to both Heaven and Hell, especially Aziraphale who desperately clings to Heaven as a principality. They also have/had to face Armageddon. 

2.) “Every Lovers got a little dagger in their hand.” This can be seen between the divine intervention or miracles Crowley and Aziraphale attempt to make two humans Nina and Maggie fall in love; however, Nina was bound to a toxic partner and Maggie had already fancied her. The second perspective would be Crowley’s point of view. Instead of a physical dagger, (which I mean Aziraphale did once have a flaming sword-) think of a more verbal dagger. Aziraphale hinted to a moment in the last episode of s2 that he would have loved for himself and Crowley to be together, but he’d prefer Crowley to return to his more angelic state. Another lyric that truly emphasize more on Aziraphale’s perspective in this moment would be “Nowhere left for us to go but Heaven.”  

3.) “What would you trade the pain for? I’m not sure.” Aziraphale had done a complete 180 to what the original battle was in the first season of Good Omens which was formulating a peaceful life on earth for Crowley and himself. But after the Metatron (the voice of God as described) had offered Aziraphale a position I presume to be an Archangel (technically taking his old boss’s (Gaberial) position). Between the two, Aziraphale argues with Crowley that Heaven were the good guys and that earth would be a lot better in their supervision even if the world ends; however, Crowley makes a very valid point to Aziraphale that the earth would be just as dead either way even as if hell were to end it. It didn’t matter which side they were on. So why trade the lives of the people and your own on earth if it were to all amount to the same thing in the end? 

Theres a lot more to this song that I could continue on about, but I’ll stop here for now. Let me know what you think. 

Later.  

So… If someone ever were to tell me they never spent more than at least five minutes on a character customization file, then I’m calling you a liar.

When it comes to video games, Dungeons and Dragons, characters I own I can get pretty technical down to their every design. I don’t know why but whenever I see a really advanced and technical character customization screen come up (and I mean you’re changing this whole character’s BONE structure) I swear I light up like a Christmas tree. 

A lot of my most well developed characters that I use in my writing activities also get thoroughly detailed descriptions. Their clothes, the way their hair is styled, if they have leather straps on their boots. All the technical designs you normally wouldn’t think about, I do and It’s NON-STOP. When designing my characters I don’t just simply start with a shirt, pants, and a pair of shoes. I go literally loophole diving in multiple different eras. I’ll stick my nose anywhere if there’s so much as a spectacle of good fashion or something I can use and turn it into a character significant stylistic taste. 

I really like taking from real world History designs, because we don’t really have anything else to refer to. I’ll even mix era fashion, [I mean its history, worst case scenario they come alive and smack me over the head.] Some of the older historic fashion designs actually pair really well with some of the newer designs. The French and the Victorian Era and maybe some of the Renaissance and dare I say Greeks and The Romans (Danny-stay seated) have also really well-developed fashion taste. But again, It’s all about the timing of the era. Some of the more royal and noble clothing some higher-class pedestrians would wear just would look silly. It’s more of the fabrics and materials used in the clothes that makes it so high coin, not the design. 

I mean come on… 

I don’t want my characters looking like that…. Lord Farquaad got it handled…

The point is, there’s no actual fun for me in just being stuck in one era, and this is why it takes me FOREVER just to design a character on a simple piece of notebook paper. I think of literally everything. Weight, Height, Age, skin types, skin color, moles?, Teeth, smell, accent, dialect, and I’m not even remotely close to what I consider “Halfway” done with character designing.

But when it comes to video game characters, I’m limited, which helps it keeps me from diving down another rabbit hole.

Now I’m not saying you HAVE to spend that much time on a character, I do it by accident mostly I just get locked in too quickly, but it’s good to do, just make sure your notes and paper or clear and eligible. 

Hello everyone, I have a particularly new idea for a blog this time. As the title suggests, I have a  birthday Idea for my mother and this idea involves including the literary department. 

My mother has been a big inspiration in my life and my future desires. She’s been the vision at the end of every dark tunnel I’ve taken. She’s also the main reason I decided to attend MSA. 

In return, I’ve told her all about MSA and what has been going on since August. She’s heard all about you guys (all good things of course) and told me how much happier I look with you guys compared to my old school.

So, if it isn’t too much of a task for any of you.  This can be done at any time at any given point, even after her birthday:

February 9th is my mothers birthday, she will be turning fifty-one. I would like to buy a bouquet of flowers for my mother and stick small cards throughout the bouquet wishing my mother a happy birthday and some smaller treats with it. 

My mother loves jokes and sweet things. 

I’m not asking any of you to go out into the wilds and spend money, Lord no. You can make the card on your own, decorate It, bedazzle it, do what you want with it. Nor am I asking any of you to spend money on treats unless YOU want to. 

Some of her favorite things are:

• Sour stuff. (Sour Icebreaker mints, Sour Patch kids.) 
• Canterbury Eggs (It’s a chocolate egg with filling) [She keeps a stash of em] 
• Gift cards. (Starbuck or Amazon) 
• Chex mix. 

THE CHALLENGE: 

Inside your cards, if you have enough room or even on the back or front, I would like you guys, to challenge the literary department, write a small free verse poem about some of your favorite things about mothers, how you feel when around yours, or how they make you feel, or anything that comes to mind. 

As I said, she’s my biggest inspiration in this world and the main reason I decided ultimately to attend MSA. So, in return I want to bring some of it to her.  

The wound in being held back doesn’t scar the age, but the mind and behavior.

I often find myself adrift to these emotions that come and go between fleets

Docked at the harbor, they’re sailboats with tied masts, whilst I drift further away. Perhaps I subconsciously let it happen or was it the confession that masks their willingness to converse with me? 

The bond broke two, yet only one was still tied. 

Mapping these seas, I’ve sailed for nearly thirteen years. Countless of times I have endured the aftermath, storm that follows rejection. Their looks, their quiet responses, the silent distance. 

But a bruised ship has a hardened hull.

The stronger titanium of change after every reckoning.

I do not simply wish to remain idle and expect a sudden sunshine and gusts of wind to blow them to my side.

I can dock, I can read the pools in their eyes, their otherworldly waters filled with unspoken words. 

I will not sink because of one measly iceberg when there had been three others just like it with the same proclamation. The same number of familiars and more.

Because through a storm comes warmer, newer waters, waters that some sails and hulls can’t bear unless put together. 

The white, beautiful sails of youth will be lost. So many holes and tears it has had in my lifetime.

By the date in April, when the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. The mark of the sixteenth day, I’ll raise my black sails and sail away to the new and unchartered waters in the night beneath the nose of others. 

After all, the life of an adult is much colder…