Category: Junior Literary

So soon it will be my birthday, and I know the title might just make it seem that I’m waiting for some big surprise or seeking attention, but genuinely I don’t want to celebrate it. If there is anything I hate more in the world than the government, it’s probably when I celebrate my birthday at school. It’s basically the equivalent of celebrating a birthday at work. It’s seen as this terrific thing to all the students and teachers, and yet I still have to show up. And here especially. At least at my old school I could fake sick and do whatever I wanted. Here if it was my birthday and i decided to sleep and extra ten minutes Mr. Moe will probably get in my room and drag me out of bed. Oh, and don’t get me started on singing happy birthday. Singing it with five to ten people at a party, fine. The whole school singing happy birthday to one person, yeah im out. Even when it happens to other people I still don’t sing. The embarrassment of already having 89 people singing your name is not going to change if the number is 90. And what is this thing about having to sing happy birthday. Sure I understand it acts as the acknowledgement of the person’s “special” day, but what if I don’t sing I go to hell. I think we, as a community, have to change the happy birthday song being mandatory BS and change it to a nod of acknowledgement. Yeah I nod, that’s fair and simple. Besides, men do it all the time to each other, so I’m sure that everyone else can figure it out just fine.

Now happy birthday in school is already pretty bad, but what’s worse is when your friends or family tell the waiter at the restaurant that it’s your birthday. And they think it’s cute. ITS NOT, ITS NOT CUTE ONE BIT. It’s bad enough when about 50 people you know sing you happy birthday. It’s ten times worse when fifty drunk men at the sports bar of a Texas roadhouse singing it. Even if it’s for a joke i dont want to do it. I was with friends back home and they tried to put me through that and I almost walked. Now looking back at this I can see that this kinda seems a little gloomy and down, but I feel that I’ve reached a point where my birthday is just another day. I no longer have that child-like mentality about it. For the past four years my birthday has gone by and I treated it as just another day. The only real time I actually celebrate my birthday is when I’m with my family, and I can’t even do that here. So in about three weeks from tomorrow I don’t want to hear any happy birthday songs or anything. I will accept a small gesture or a slight nod because by God if someone starts singing happy birthday to me at 7 in the morning I’m throwing hands.

Sometimes I wish I had been born in the 60s.

Not because I want to do my homework on a typewriter..(actually that’d be cool..) or wait three days for someone to call me back. I just want to know what it felt like to be young when everything seemed like it was so cool

I want to wear ridiculous clothes and have flowers in my hair. I want to sit on the hood of an old car with the radio playing while the sun goes down. I want to go to a record store and actually have to look through records instead of typing three words into a search bar. I want photographs that aren’t taken ten times because everyone is trying to get the perfect one.

the 60s that feels almost unreal from here.

The music, the colors, the posters, the cars, and the peace signs..

Of course, that’s the version that looks good from 2026.

The other version wasn’t as pretty.

There were major civil rights struggles, intense political conflict, war, protests, discrimination, and a lot of people who didn’t have the freedoms we casually expect now. Being a teenager in the 60s wouldn’t have meant living inside a vintage movie. Some of the things I love about the decade existed alongside some very ugly realities.

And then there’s the inconvenient fact that I would have to live without the internet. No Spotify. No Google. No texting. No more immediately finding out what happens at the end of a movie before you even finish it..that might take me out.

Still, I wish I could visit it. Not permanently. Just for a little while. I’d want to walk down a street in 1967(omg I said the thing)  and see what everyone was wearing. I’d want to hear music coming through an open window. I’d want to sit somewhere crowded and watch people who had no idea that, decades later, someone my age would look back at their ordinary lives and think they looked magical.

I’m missing a version of the 60s that exists in my head. That version has really good music.

Hey guys! Today we are going to dive into what was discussed in the Congress of Vienna and the dynamics of the group.

 

If you were here last week then you know we ended the blog by introducing the congress of Vienna. The Congress of Vienna consisted of all of the European nations that suffered severe consequences from the Napoleonic Wars and other conflicts from France under the ruling of Napoleon.

 

These nations had meetings after Napoleon’s first defeat and after his last defeat they exiled him. During his first exile the Congress of Vienna met in Vienna,Austria to forge a new Europe. A man named Klemens von Metternich led the meeting with the goal to restructure the political map of Europe and bring stability to the continent. There were many other leaders present such as Robert Steward of Britain, Czar Alexander the 1st of Russia, and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord of France.

 

The French Revolution and other movements similar to it argued for freedoms like freedom of speech, representative governments, and an end to monarchies. Metternich and some of the other leaders argued that these movements brought nothing but chaos, mob rule, and a plague of violence in Europe. They argued that a return to absolute monarchies would create stability.

 

Conservative Reactionaries were those who felt the remedy to cure the problems that came from the Enlightenment Revolutions and the Napoleonic Wars was to return to the old system of absolute monarchies. Liberals were those who felt that, despite the chaos that came from the movement, the Enlightenment’s priorities of individual rights, representative governments, and the like should be a part of Europe’s future. While Conservatives andLiberals differed on these areas, one thing most nations agreed on was steps should be taken to ensure France never tried to conquer all of Europe again.

 

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars had devastated Europe. The Congress of Vienna did not want severely to punish France for fear of antagonizing the nation to pursue future conflicts. Yet, the Congress wanted deliberately to take steps to ensure France was never positioned to try and conquer Europe again. One major step toward this endeavor was creating buffer states that bordered France and could challenge the nation, if it expanded again. The buffer states included the stronger Kingdom of the Netherlands, several areas in the German Confederation combined as a group, and renewed independent Switzerland. This new political map of Europe looked more like Europe did before the Napoleonic Wars.

 

Thats it for today guys… See you next time!!!!

I’m sure at least one of you has heard of Cameron Winter. He’s the lead singer for the band Geese along with being the creator/artist behind his debut album “Heavy Metal.” (Very misleading name and I love it so much). 

If you haven’t heard of him, I get why. He’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. Actually, I couldn’t stand his album on my first listen, but I’m so glad I gave it another chance.

At first, I found his vocals amateur, but as I got further into his work, I realized that they weren’t bad at all; instead, they were rather raw and emotional.

His work has been the background of my days recently. Whether it be his solo album or the album “Getting Killed” by Geese, I’ve just been putting him on loop and getting to work. (Especially in this class).

His voice is just so amazing to me, so unique. I don’t fully know how I found out about him. I think my friend Rj told me about “Heavy Metal” and then my boyfriend pushed me to listen to it. Then it was just a sort of rabbit hole from there. 

I definitely don’t know that many of his songs in comparison to the other bands I’ve talked about, but I still wanna share my favorites of his and Geese with you all.

So for “Heavy Metal” and “Getting Killed,” I highly suggest listening to both in their entirety since I’m a big fan of all of those songs, but if you’d rather have a shorter list to ease you into his work then here’s what I highly recommend.

1. Cancer of the Skull– Heavy Metal
2. Love Takes Miles– Heavy Metal (his most popular so far)
3. Husbands– Getting Killed
4. Getting Killed– Getting Killed (my absolute favorite on the album. I’m sure the energetic opening will really hook whoever listens to it)
5. Islands of Men– Getting Killed
6. 100 Horses– Getting Killed
7. Long Island City Here I Come– Getting Killed (a very big fan favorite that gets a whole lot of praise)
8. Bow Down– Getting Killed (one of my personal favorites)

I will say that Geese has a little bit of a country tune to their music. Not like “I love guns and trucks and hate minorities” kinda country, but a “we’re not bigots, we just like making interesting music” kinda country. (You’ll see what I mean if you even glance at their album covers) 

Again, I strongly recommend listening to both of these albums in their entirety, but as always, I would also suggest listening to this list at the very least. 

I also suggest exploring their other albums and EPs and would love it if you guys find some favorites from those and share them with me and others.

Hello guys!!! I wanna talk about music again!!!

Recently, I’ve been really into trying to learn music theory. I’ve been at it for around a month, and let me tell you its SO FRUSTRATING. For instruments I’m stuck with the piano, mainly because that’s all I really… have… so, obviously, I start with learning how to actually read sheet music. My dad’s side of the family was always big into music, so I could at least already understand tempo, half notes quarter notes allat, the keys on the piano and how they looped, so at least a BASIC understanding to this. I even used to know how to play some basic things when I was a little kid!!

So I go into it thinking hmm.. I already have basic understanding of this, this should be pretty right? WRONG!!!! Surprise!! Theres ONE MILLION DIFFERENT CHORDS TO LEARN and YOU WILL NEVER FIGURE THEM OUT!!!!

I’m being dramatic, but seriously, it is NOT easy. A big struggle is reading the keys on the sheet music. Why are bass and treble clef on two entirely different scales that makes absolutely NO sense. It’s a little discouraging when it takes me like an hour to decode ONE sheet just to find out I was reading the notes wrong and THAT’S why it sounds wrong.

I play insanely slow since I don’t have the hands of the FLASH and playing isn’t something I can just master by learning it, and I think that might be the most frustrating part. Almost anything else I enjoy doing I can just learn and adapt to get better. Like with drawing or writing, if I want to improve my style I can study anatomy or I can study other peoples works, gain inspiration from other people and turn it into something of my own; but with music it isn’t that easy, and it makes me mad.

Maybe its because I’ve been drawing and writing my whole life so I have a stable grip on it, and it FEELS like I’ve been involved with music most of my life in the same way, but its never come to me as easy. I can’t just see someone do something and be able to mimic it like a chameleon, I can try to but it’d be more like the backrooms trying to remake something from memory. It doesn’t understand in the same way humans can copy things from memory, something we’re made to do.

But this isn’t to say I CANT figure it out. really, I like the challenge, even if I am easily discouraged. I get frustrated and walk away but I’ve consistently found my way back after a few minutes trying to convince myself that just one more hour wouldn’t hurt. I can be proud of myself when I accomplish something I’ve been working towards rather than just knowing when I’m capable of it. Maybe I’m trying to subconsciously trying to prove something to myself, or maybe I’m just coping with the fact I suck at playing the piano, either way I’m happy it keeps me motivated.

This was relatively shorter than usual but if you have like ANYTHING you’re working towards trust, your doing just fine!!!! Whatever it is I believe you can achieve it and that more than likely means absolutely nothing to you so if my encouragement doesn’t help, at least try to have faith in yourself

Honestly this was kinda rushed I’ve been so worried about other stuff I completely forgot to write this, hopefully I don’t do that next quarter 🙁 anyways, good luck on your exams, try not to stress out TOO much, and have a good day!!! bye bye!!!

I believe in my second or third blog, I spoke about what I thought was the perfect horror and its subgenres. A subgenre that I really love is folklore of any culture: Japanese, African, Southern, Indian, Hispanic, etc. Some folklore of the American South and Midwestern region is Appalachian. Urban legends such as Wendigos, mimics, crawlers, and other cryptids go viral on social media daily. One of the most popular cryptids being skinwalkers.

If I’m being honest, I fell for the sensationalism too. The thought of a humanoid creature out in the woods mimicking your loved ones or pets is horrifying, yet it is all made up. Kinda… The real skinwalkers are much more frightening.

They definitely exist, but they aren’t exactly what you think. First of all, geographically, they aren’t even located in Appalachia or nearby regions. They are actually on the other side of the country in the northern parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Utah.

This is important to highlight that Skinwalkers originated in the southwestern part of the U.S. because they are in the same region as the Navajo Nation. (If unfamiliar, Navajo “Na-va-ho” are Indigenous Americans.) And according to Navajo culture, Skinwalkers are humans who went down a dark path in exchange for power. No, they are not demons, cryptids, or whatever. They are real human beings who practice witchcraft for evil intentions.

How would someone even become a Skinwalker? Well, based on some research of videos and articles online, it seems that an indigenous individual learns about good and bad magic, yet abuses their knowledge of it. Eventually, they do an unforgivable act against someone close—usually the murder of a parent, sibling, or child. Obviously, the community that they were part of will severely reject them for violating cultural standards and morality.

The term “skin” comes from them wearing the pelt of a predatory animal—coyotes, wolves, etc. This is especially forbidden in Navajo culture. The walker part is a mystery to me, but it is known that they shapeshift into whatever animal they wear. In Navajo Nation, they are called “yee-naaldlooshii” (ye-nal-doe-she) or “one who goes on all fours” (take that translation with a grain of SALT). 

They are used as a cautionary tale or an example of misusing powerful spiritual knowledge for evil, greed, or even betrayal. Or to highlight the values of Navajo Americans’ community, such as morality and respect for human beings and the natural world. Many Navajo members choose not to speak about this topic with outsiders, as some believe it is taboo or want to keep foreigners safe; therefore, some information about this may be vague or slightly incorrect.

That’s pretty much everything I learned over the weekend about them, but I don’t want to end my blog on such negativity. Instead, I found some facts and celebrations done by Native Americans. Indigenous American culture is one of my favorite cultures, along with my own and pacific islanders, so why not?

Starting with the Snake Dance from the Hopi people in the northeastern part of Arizona. This celebration is one of the oldest multi-day ceremonies in Native American culture. It was originally a water and rain ceremony where snakes would be labeled as guardians of springs and messengers. They would carry prayers to gods and ancestors and are seen as partners instead of something to worship. I think this perspective of snakes is very beautiful, especially with the Western culture I’ve grown up in, where snakes were seen as evil or demonic. This is still celebrated today and alternates with the Flute Ceremony.

November is known as Native American Heritage Month. Former President George H.W. Bush signed the Public Law 101-343 in 1990. It is recognised for every tribe’s unique identity. language and traditions, as well as promoting cultural preservation. This month is also used to educate other races about the injustices that Native Americans have suffered and still suffer from, as well as Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP).

The last thing I wanted to highlight in Native American culture is the American Indian Movement (AIM) and its flag. It was founded in July of 1968 in Minneapolis by a group of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) activists. Its original purpose was to address systemic issues in urban areas. Poverty, police brutality, and discrimination in economic, employment, and court systems. After a few years, AIM was recognized by multiple Indigenous groups because they all suffered from settler colonialism. AIM provided aid to those displaced, monitored police activity, while advocating for legal rights and healthcare. (Kinda similar to the Black Panther Party now that I think about it!!)

That’s all for this blog. Thanks for reading, and take care!!<333

SOURCES!!

Skin-walker – Wikipedia 

Hopi Snake Dance  – Legends of America

Native American Heritage Month 2026: November Observance Guide | TheDayOf 

National Native American Heritage Month | Indian Affairs 

American Indian Movement – Wikipedia

Hey my peeps!! Side note before I start ranting but is it just me or my mind goes completely blank when it comes to these things. Like trust, I have plenty to talk about, but when it comes time to write a blog I have no idea what to do. Sooooooo. Yeah. 

Now back to the topic I chose for this week, let me rant to you about my hair. If you haven’t noticed, I have curly hair, and this wad on my head is both a blessing and a darn curse. ‘Cause tell me why my hair decides to look glorious on my lazy days, but whenever there is an event I need it looking tame, it goes haywire. Like– Brother, what! 

Another point is the fact I’m the only one in my family with them. (And yes mine are real. I have had people ask– like my uncle. 🙄) So for most of my life I had no clue on how to treat them right. When I was little my mom would just sit me down and brush them out. Up until like the 7th grade I went everywhere with a big puff ball on my head. I will say, I am happy I never really straighten my hair, only like once a blue moon. Which I hate anyways because I look funky and my little baby curls stick up like nobody’s business. 

Now the thing with treating your curls right and living with people who only have straight hair, was that I didn’t have any guidance. I had to either go with the flow, experiment or watch a YouTube video. Fun fact: YouTube videos on how to wash, style and blow dry your hair is very boring to me. They weren’t just boring, they were also not helpful. Why? Because they had a different type of curl than I had, so what worked for them–didn’t work for me. Also I’m lazy and I don’t have the patience to twist every single curl on my head or sit down and diffuse my hair for 45 minutes to an hour. Cause boo that is sooooo boring, and don’t get me started with how expensive hair products are, like bruh. I did eventually find a routine that works for me by watching videos for tips and experimenting. (And I do love my hair, some days it’s just more difficult to love them than others) 

My last point of annoyance is finding someone who knows how to cut my hair. I only bring this up because I tried a new girl once since my normal lady was having a baby, and the new girl messed my hair up. She didn’t mess them up that bad and it was fine because it grew back, but for a while I had to go out with a bob. It wasn’t pretty. See I told the girl I wanted it to lay about mid boob (yes this was shorter than I had ever gone but not too short). So she happily agreed and got started. First she brushed my hair out (this was new to me but i trusted her), then cut my hair the length I wanted dry (i was like ok this is different), then she washed my hair, cut it again wet (at this point I knew it was going to be shorter than i asked so I fought my tears and said it’s ok. It’s only hair), and when it dried my curls sat on top of my shoulders. Y’all it was bad. I mean really bad. But hey it’s ok cause at least I didn’t cry in front of her. 

And yeah that’s the end of my hair journey right now, so I hope you liked it and thanks for reading. Peace and Love. 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw a llama out in public this past weekend, and it made me very happy. Soothed my soul. 

Also, be blessed by these absolute DIVAS:

They’re called Nicobar pigeons and are native to Southeast Asia. They are also the closest living relative of the dodo, and they consume small rocks 😀 ARGHGHGHGHJDGIOUIREUERVHSD I love them so much they’re such stupendous little masterpieces.

Now since I have nothing better to write, here’s more random poetry

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I hope you all have a fabulous fall break <333