I feel like no one talks about the experience of coming back to school after a break! I mean I know students talk about it from one to another and parents always complain about how much time their kids get off, but no one really talks about how much it affects some people. I know coming back from this break was extremely hard for me. I treated break like we were going into summer, which is my fault, but I just didn’t (and still don’t) feel very prepared to continue out the year. I wake up every morning counting down the days till the weekend and feel stressed like nothing I’ve ever felt before with this semesters work. I think it may have to do with the fact that I have never been at a school that holds me to such high standards. Before I went to a school where just passing by was good enough and was all some teachers expected. So, I never really put myself out there or felt driven to do better. I of course never want to go back to that mindset, and I love MSA for taking me out of that environment/ Which is why I’m so thankful to be a part of the Mississippi School of the Arts, but it still has definitely put me through the ringer. I think and hope that this feeling will fade once I get into the groove of things. I have already done many things this year with the school that has made me go out of my comfort zone. Things such as staying a weekend to go skating with friends, putting myself out there in new classes so I can learn better, and even developing a maybe not so tiny crush on one of my new classmates. All of these things (except for the crush of course) are things I have done in hopes of getting back to my old mindset of wanting to go to class or even the school itself. I have never in my life felt homesickness until this year and now I do not know if it is even homesickness or simply that I miss my evil cat and angelic dogs. All I know is that I’m just going to keep trucking one day at a time until I feel back to my old self again. I also recommend anyone reading this to try something new if they are feeling like I am feeling currently I promise it can lift your spirits!

I’ve always had this weird hyperfixation on my family history. It might be what led to History becoming my favorite subject. There are so many different lines in a family tree, and these lines represent a history made by the connecting people. My family tree dates back to when Americans crossed the Atlantic to free themselves from British rule. 

This is just a small portion of my family, it links back to the Cherokee Nation in Kentucky. The last red box at the bottom is me and above that are my parents. They both have “trees” sprouting from each side. My father was Native American, German, and Swiss. This is interesting since I thought I was mostly Irish for the longest time there’s not much Irish in me at all. On my mom’s side, there is French and English. I am a mixture of all of these different nationalities. That’s crazy to think about. During my research, I met my 2nd cousin on my father’s side twice removed (I’m not sure what that means) but she messaged me on the Ancestry website and told me about my dad’s father’s history and where I come from. She was related to my grandfather, who I found out during my research had passed away a few weeks ago. This was bone chilling considering I had just seen him for the first time in years not too long ago. I messaged her back hoping for more information about my family since it has been a big mystery to my brother and me who just wanted to know more about the history of our family. This is going to be interesting, I’m excited. I’ll update you guys when she messages me back.

This blog took me a really long time to arrange because I kept forgetting and remembering the timeline of my relationship with Animal Crossing. This actually led me to dive into my childhood memories, but of course not really “childhood” more like… tweenhood? Pre-teenhood? I really don’t like those words. Actually, I don’t like anything that has to do with the ages 9-12.

It’s really unfortunate that I have to start this blog by telling you that I never played Animal Crossing as a little kid. Obviously it’s not a big deal to anyone but me, but I swear it’s important for the context of this blog.

The Animal Crossing franchise was a huge part of many people’s childhoods. I hear so many stories from adults about how they spent most of their childhood playing Wild World and City Folk. I wish I was a part of that, but I was born when Wild World was released so there’s not much I can do about it.

My first Animal Crossing game was actually Pocket Camp, which is a strange mobile version of Animal Crossing. It has most of the characters and some really cute decorations but it’s not really an Animal Crossing game. Of course, Pocket Camp was built around the whole idea of camping. You did all of the Animal Crossing stuff like fish, catch bugs, and I think that’s it… I spent my entire 11 to 12-year-old life on Pocket Camp. I don’t remember much about it, but I remember sitting in my (empty) church’s youth-group room playing Pocket Camp in the corner. I was in some sort of puppeteering club so I would get to Wednesday night service like 2 hours before it started and I would spend that entire time playing Pocket Camp. That also led me to discover my favorite villager, Goldie! She’s just a golden retriever who likes to read and eat apples and whatever else she does and I love her for it. 

The talk about Animal Crossing died down for years and I stopped playing Pocket Camp because it was taking up half of the storage on my little Motorola phone (I think).

 Then (many years later), Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released on the Nintendo Switch right as quarantine started in 2020. March 20, 2020. 4 days before my 12th birthday. Also, super crazy that I was 12 in 2020, like that is just so weird to me. Anyway, I couldn’t scrounge up enough money to buy a Nintendo Switch and New Horizons, but I was able to get Animal Crossing: New Leaf for my 3DS!

So I spent most of 2020 playing New Leaf, and it was a total blur. I know I really liked it, and I know I spent a lot of time on it, but I don’t remember anything else. Except my other favorite villager, Pashmina, who’s a goat with blue horns that likes to wear colorful sweaters and eat oranges. New Leaf is mostly known as the best Animal Crossing game. When you first start up a save, you wake up on a train and answer the questions of a cat named Rover to determine your appearance, name, and town name. It’s a great way of immersing players with something that would usually take them out of the game rather than pulling them in. When you arrive in your town, the villagers mistake you for their mayor and now you’ve got a bunch of mayor duties so get to work! It’s such a cute beginning and I had so much fun replaying it when I restarted my save for this new year.

It’s kind of hard to explain how I felt while playing New Leaf for the first time. It felt like I was reliving my childhood, or dwelling in déjà vu. I never played New Leaf before, yet it felt so familiar.

Anyway, Christmas of 2020 came around and I ended up getting a Nintendo Switch early! Of course, I got New Horizons along with it. It was just my luck that everyone on the internet started talking about how they thought New Horizons was boring and everyone (but me and my friends) stopped playing it.

There are so many memories that I have from playing New Horizons with my friends and it’s definitely a time that I look back on very fondly. I never got around to making my island cute or even making a 5-star island because the game did get boring. I hate to admit that, considering how much fun I had, but I am not hard to entertain. It’s not a hot take that New Horizons is boring. Lots of people think the same way.

So now I’m replaying New Leaf and it’s pretty nice. It’s a great feeling to hold a 3DS again after so many years. That little game console has found itself in my hands time after time and I think that’s really sweet. I should give my 3DS a name…

Anyway, I hoped everyone liked going back in time with me to my dreaded pre-teen years to look back on my relationship with Animal Crossing. I miss Pashmina and Goldie now.

One joy in life everyone can agree on is traveling/sightseeing. There are so many colorful, mystic and beautiful places among us. Anyone can tell you about the Grand Canyon or Taj mahal or the Great Wall of China. However, I’ve visited 0/a billion of these amazing monuments and areas. In my whole life, I’ve visited two states: Mississippi and Missouri. In Missouri I got to see army monuments and old machinery used in World War 2. The trip was quite fun, and I appreciated everything I got to see, but I wish I could see more amazing things around the world. So, in today’s blog I’ll be talking about interesting landmarks I want to visit one day.

               Alcatraz island: 

Alcatraz island is one of the most mysterious and beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It sits in the middle of an island in San Francisco, and it use to be home to America’s most wanted prisoners like Scarface and Machine Gun Kelly. However, Alcatraz closed in 1963 because it got too expensive to continue running. Today it looks more like a museum than a prison. I even heard that they offer an audio tour that tells you about the famous prisoners and guards that used to be there. Some people believe it’s haunted because it’s literally an abandoned prison in the middle of an island, but I still hope to see this gorgeous landmark one day.

Rainbow Mountains Peru (also known as Vinicunca):

This Landmark is in the Andes mountains of Peru, and it is breathtaking. It’s famous for its bright colors that mimic a rainbow painted over the tops of rolling mountains. The Rainbow mountains include more than 12 different color minerals! And what amazes me is how this occurs naturally. Like I would think this only existed in my imagination if I didn’t research it. I’ve seen videos of people visiting the rainbow mountains and I still can’t believe it actually exists. I heard the weather there changes incredibly fast, but other than that, visiting this place would be magical.

(What it looks like from the reflective angle)

(what it looks like originally)

Salar De Uyuni:

Salar De Uyuni is a salt flat located in Bolivia. It’s well known for its unbelievable reflective surface. This place is the world’s largest salt flat, and it was created by lakes that evaporated millions of years ago. This landmark is so beautiful and it’s also helpful to us. Now, Salar de Uyuni is responsible for at least 70% of earths lithium supply, which is one of the reasons were able to charge our phones. I love learning about this landmark and seeing the videos tourists make about it.

Barry is a T.V. show that is available to stream on Max. Recently, I have been seeing a lot more people watch it. So, I wanted to write this blog for anyone else who may have been interested. Just a heads up, this is a show full of violence and trauma. Watch if you want.

Barry was a show that I watched a while ago before its season four even came out. The series started as if it were a more serious comedy. This is probably because Bill Hader plays the main character and wrote part of the show so there is going to be a decent bit of comedy. But basically, Barry is about a former marine that could go back to civilian life, so he became a hitman. While on a new mission, he had to go into an acting class. This sparked his dream for acting and then became something he runs back to many times in the story while he gets entangled with nearby mafias. His worlds begin to crash together as his acting life starts getting too close to his killing life. Eventually, when all seems lost for Barry, he looks for any way possible to fix it.

Barry is a much deeper show than it seems. On the surface there’s the main story, but underneath that, there’s nods to the end of the story and character details that become a lot more prominent near the end of the show. Whether that be narcissism, a weak will, pride, courtesy. This show has so many likeable characters in it. NoHo Hank is one of those. He is by far my favorite character in the show. When you see him and how funny his character is, you’ll see what I mean. He also has a big character arc and becomes way bigger of a character than he was in the beginning. There are also very unlikeable characters in the show. But, for some reason you know they are perfect for the show and help develop it more.

This show really kept me entertained at the start of the post covid times. I really think that it was a very wonderful creation by the makers of the show. It’s quick action and deep story forces you to binge the whole show in one sitting. If you watch this show, please let me know what you think. Thank you!

Tyler, the Creator is one of my favorite artists and I can confidently say that I have heard at least two songs from every album of his!! Now I know J.T. did a blog his ranking songs, but I’m ranking albums so this is different >:] Also, I cannot put Cherry bomb or Goblin in this ranking, I have only heard two songs from Goblin and I’m kinda scared to listen to it!! And I only know like three from Cherry Bomb.

1. Call me If you get lost

I love this album so much, specifically the estate sale because it’s the one I always listen to and the record I have. This has to be one of my actual top 10 albums. I don’t listen to it as much as I wish I did, but I definitely need to. I don’t know many of his songs by name because I listen to most of these on my record player, so it just goes, and I always have a good time when this album is playing. This album has a couple of popular songs like “Sweet/I thought you wanted to dance” and “Dogtooth” It is 1 hour and 17 minutes long and has 24 songs. My favorite song is “Massa”.

2. IGOR

I’d say this is one of his most popular, having a bunch of songs we all know and love as “A boy is a gun*”, “Are we still friends?”, and “New Magic Wand”. In this album Tyler is in love with a man who is dating a woman. To me the album is pretty collected in the way. You can hear his desperation, but it’s clear he’s upset. He’s goes through these many stages. He’s sad, then he accepts it, then he gets angry. This album is 39 minutes long and has 12 songs, my favorite song is “Puppet”.

3. Wolf

Oh my, I love Wolf so much. The album is oddly aggressive, and I just love when singers are like this. Truthfully, I don’t know many of these songs by name because I always listen to them on my record, but whenever I do it makes me just wanna hop around. One of his most popular songs is in this album, “IFHY”. There’s also “Colossus” that everyone has been talking about since “Noid” came out. Tyler will always be one of the only male rappers I can listen to and actually enjoy. This album is 1 hour and 10 minutes long and has 18 songs. My favorite song is “Awkward”.

4. Flower Boy

So, I really enjoy flower boy as a whole. Everything about it just makes me happy, the aesthetic, the vibe, and definitely the music. This album has one of his most popular songs “See you again.” Flower boy also has some of my favorite music videos. (I’ve only seen like three, but I never watch music vids please spare me.) I also just love that his albums have different vibes to them, it’s my favorite artist thing when all of their music sounds different but still like them. This album is 46 minutes long and has 14 songs. My favorite song is “Who dat boy”.

5. Chromakopia

Yummy, Chromakopia. Originally, I was gonna do a blog ranking these songs and I still might, just not now. This album and Kendrick’s album both dropping after I had the worst breakup ever literally got me over it faster! Being able to hear two of my favorite artists make the amazing music they did just makes me so happy. Chromakopia was everything to me when it came out, I listened to it over and over and I still enjoy all of these songs. I don’t care how much they get overplayed. The vibe in this is amazing and all of the features he added just makes it all the much better. The vulnerability in this album also just makes me wanna sob when I listen to it. Anyways, this album is 53 minutes long and has 14 songs. My favorite song is “Judge Judy”. 

So, I’ve been listening to this band for a few months. It’s called Beulah. This band is particularly small, but they have appeared in a few popular movies and tv shows. I remember hearing one of its songs (Popular mechanics for lovers) as the credits rolled in the movie “Youth in Revolt.” In fact, that movie is how I discovered the band. Beulah is an indie rock band, and their music is out of this world. They combine genres like pop and rock, and they include sound elements of 60’s music in their songs. What I love most about them is their ability to pair cynical/upsetting song lyrics with a happy tune. It makes you guess what they mean and it’s surprising to hear really. Here’s a few songs I love:

                                       Popular mechanics for lovers

Popular Mechanics for lovers is my favorite because it sounds like the theme song for a cute little K- drama series. It has a happy, soft and playful rhythm. It’s the perfect song to pair with a happy ending in a movie or an easy beginning. It’s about an unhealthy relationship and the thoughts/challenges a person faces in one. If you’ve ever been a fan of sad love songs, this song is just that. The name of the song plays on the magazine series “Popular mechanics.” Which was basically a well-known “how to” magazine back then. What makes this song so great is the guitar!!! In almost every Beulah song there is a guitar tune along with the rest of the beat and it’s always amazing. It’s subtle and it compliments their music so well.

                                             A Good man is easy to kill

This song sounds and feels like the 70s-80s. The intro (to me) sounds like the theme song to a popular 80s sitcom. It’s just ba da ba ba ba da da x5 until the first line begins. I don’t listen to a lot of 80s music, but from what I’ve heard, I can tell Beulah takes a lot of inspiration from those past music styles and artists. This song is about a man mocking/ridiculing a person close to him because of the personal choices they make. Although the lyrics are very coded and have tons of figurative language and metaphors, it’s clear that the intense lyrics are about someone intentionally jeopardizing themselves. This song has the most engaging and colorful lyrics than any other Beulah song. When I listen to this song, I follow along with the lyrics because they are an entirely different experience.

                                                Wipe those prints and run

Wipe those prints and run is probably the best song to listen to for an escape. Other songs can’t compare to it because of its slow unique rhythm and catchy tune. What I love most about this one is the message about freedom. A lot of Beulah songs are about love or relationship experiences or trauma, but this song’s message is about taking back freedom or escaping something that steals freedom. For a while, I thought it was about fleeing from the law or trying to avoid karma because it describes someone running from a crime scene. But as I listened to it more and understood the underlying meaning, the core message is about freedom and the consequences if you don’t fight for it. This is an amazing song to listen to if you are looking for a song with poetic lyrics and a good message.