Category: Junior Literary

To say I am a chronically confused person would be an understatement. I have spent my whole life, waking and sleeping, trying desperately to make sense of this bizarre, terrible, glorious thing we call life. I have never known success, no matter how hard I try. Until a few days ago, when I saw the cricket on the floor.
There I sat, legs crossed, uncertain about anything and everything. The wood under my palms was cold and grounding, but everything else in the room seemed to spin. There were so many people, so many noises. So many rules and changes and thoughts all bombarding me at once, exploding my brain in an anarchy of noise and overstimulation. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the chilly floorboards touching my skin because lord knows how impossible it would be to focus on the administrator giving me instructions. After my breath slowed and my muscles ceased their twitching, I gathered the courage to open my eyes again. What I found when I regained my vision was something quite unexpected.

I saw a cricket on the floor.

It took me a moment to figure out what it was. I had never seen a cricket up close. I had only heard them singing their lullabies outside my window before I drifted off to sleep or chirping distantly at my nighttime soccer practice, always under the protection of the shadows.

What was this little creature doing in here? With all the students, the bustle, the blinding lights? Surely, he knew that this was not where he belonged? I could see it in the nervousness with which he hopped his way under strangers’ legs – begging for a silence, a hideaway that he could not seem to find. I made my way through a crowd of bent knees and booming voices and waited, fingers outstretched, for him to find his way to me.

Only after he had explored the terrain of my limbs and deemed it safe did I make him a cave with my palms. He sat there for a while, quiet and still, occasionally stirring to click his legs together in the habitual way that he did. I decided that his name was Charles, due to a resurfaced memory of an electromagnet I made in fifth grade named Charlie. I was very proud of the electromagnet, being the first in the class to finish making one. The coils were perfectly placed, neat and tight around the perfect rivet that I had chosen. I grew immediately attached to it, and in my head, it had a personality. In my head, he cared about me, and he was proud of the meticulous manner with which I put him together. Now, here I was, six years later, attached to another spiritless object that I had personified to think was my friend. I’ve always had a tendency towards maladaptive daydreaming – lost in one fantasy or another, never staying in one place for too long. I thought I had gotten better about it, but something about this little bug reignited that long-suppressed imagination. I found myself slipping away from the chaos of orientation, safety meetings, and socialization so invasive it made me want to vomit, and I was shot instantaneously into the perspective of the cricket’s cave.

I imagined what could have brought him here. Perhaps he was new to the world, young and sensitive, and all the colors of nature overwhelmed him. Perhaps he scurried under the cracks of the doors to find somewhere peaceful to rest. Perhaps he lost sense of direction, and wandered into this room, lost and weary, trying to find his way back home? Or trying to find his way to a new home, one that he planned to make for himself? I had so many questions for him. Would he like to accompany me into the darkness of my dorm room? It’s quiet in there. I have a few houseplants for him to explore, and many caves and corners in which to hide. I wanted to ask him how he felt about loneliness, and if he, too, was not able to live without like-minded beings, but not able to function around too much of them. Up until the moment I had to leave him alone again, when we all packed up our things and went on to our next meeting, I wondered if he was like me.

After snapping back into reality, I walked outside and placed him tenderly on the softest blade of grass I could find, in the shadows of a flowering bush. It was cool and dim, and I stood there silently watching him retreat further into the darkness. As I whispered goodbye and turned my back on the little creature, I realized that I found some of that clarity I was looking for.

I had spent an hour lost in a trance, making up stories about a bug. A bug.

The sense that I was searching for – the purpose or meaning of life – is not real. You can find yourself in the most mundane and spectacular of things. When you use your imagination and storytelling to process the world, it doesn’t have to make sense. All that matters is realizing that you are part of that absurdity – that you are a human, but you are also dark and light, you are shade and sunshine, you are wind and rain. You are a part of everything, whether it makes sense or not. Therefore, it is okay to be a little strange. It is okay to find your life’s purpose in something idiosyncratic. It is okay to achieve happiness through metaphor and fantasy. And it is okay to escape from the relentless chokehold of loneliness by making friends with a mere cricket on the floor.

Since this is one of my first Blog posts, I’ve decided to write about something that I know I’m familiar with, movies. Specifically, a movie studio that I have been a passionate supporter of for the past few years of my life. This studio of course is A24. Like most people I learned about A24 through some of their famous horror titles like Hereditary or Midsommar, but I have found that if you dig a bit deeper than you will find yourself among some of the most incredible pieces of modern twenty-first century film.

There are a number of contributing factors to the rise of A24 but one of the biggest being its unique values that helped develop it as a prominent production studio. A24 was founded in late 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hedges, all three being prominent names in the studio production and finance industries. Having this prior experience, they were able to start farther ahead than most of the bigger names in the studio production industry at the time. Having that experience they were able to make risky decisions smarter, decisions that began with their untraditional way of picking up movies. That being that they would send members of their relatively small team at the time to attend some of the world’s most prestigious film festivals and pick up films as seen.

 

Another very prominent aspect that contributed to the individuality and integrity of the films that they produce is also the almost unlimited amount of artistic initiative that they give to the directors of their respected films.  I have personally found that giving more freedom to writers and directors is what makes such an incredible film its own personality. Big box office flicks might have a wider appeal to bigger audiences, but it strips any artistic integrity from the piece itself, whether it comes from a place of constant restrictions from big production companies or the need to appeal to a larger audience so you can receive a larger profit.

Going down this tangent I have started I think it is necessary to explain my predisposition contempt with bigger movie corporations. Though some of my favorite childhood movies come from such large corporations such as Dreamworks and Disney, now that I’ve grown and matured, I have become more aware of the past as well as current underlying issues with these larger production companies. Past examples of these controversies might include the problematic history of Disney’s past portrayal of people of color in their films, or even more recent issues like Disney’s attempt to monopolize holidays that have been held culturally significant to people for many years. 

 

A24 is most notably known in the film community as being the producer of very psychological and modern film, modern in a way that a large community of people might call pretentious. Films such as: The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Lighthouse, have experienced a large number of critiques from general audiences for not adhering to specific guidelines that cater to larger audiences. However, I would say that this comes predominantly from a group of people that aren’t sufficiently educated on the topic. A24 has created some of the best movies that I have ever had the privilege of watching. Notable titles such as Lady Bird, Hereditary, Moonlight, Everything Everywhere all at once, are just a few of the names that have received prestigious film awards such as best picture, best performance as well as an extensive number of academy awards. 

 

Even though I think that this post was relatively informational I really hope that I can go farther in depth with a number of the movies they produced and the artistic backgrounds and interpretations of those films.

If you’re a fan of story mode games at an affordable price, do I have the game for you.  The Walking Dead Tell-Tale Game Is by Far one of my most favorite and most played games of all time.

this game is action packed, and the story is heart wrenching.  one of the things that makes this game perfect, is the beautiful storyline. There are five episodes in this game. It took me roughly 50 hours to complete this game, and it was worth every second. The story follows our two protagonists Lee Everett who is a middle-aged man. and Clementine (No Last Name is Given) who is a young eight-year-old girl.  Before the apocalypse, Lee was a Happily Married university Teacher from Malcom Georgia.  If memory serves me correctly, I believe he was a history teacher, but I could be wrong.

Not much backstory was given for Clementine, but in the beginning of the Zombie apocalypse, Clementine was left home with a babysitter while her parents went to savannah Georgia. 

Minor Spoiler alert, I’ll just give a brief Overview of How Lee And Clementine Met in the First Episode. 

Events lead up to Lee looking for Help after a recent car crash, but everything is abandoned. He stumbles upon the house where clementine was living After walking through the woods. Lee made his way inside looking for medical attention, but he was surprised to find the house Empty. the kitchen was stained with blood, windows boarded, and doors blocked with furniture.  Keep in mind that Lee wasn’t fully aware that he was even in the zombie apocalypse. (I Believe this was the first day of the apocalypse too.) So, he’s totally oblivious as to why this fortification was in place. 

Lee is looking for supplies, and in the living room there was a desk with a drawer where he finds a Walkie Talkie Radio. He tries to make contact with someone who might be on the other walkie talkie.  And Low and Behold, Our Second Protagonist Responds over the Walkie Talkie. A Young girl Named Clementine. 
Lee Was surprised to Hear such a Young Voice on the Walkie Talkie, He asked how old She was, and She said she was eight. 

Lee was a Little Surprised by this, and he asked about her parents, and why Her house was in the shape that it was. Clemetine Replied Telling Him That her Parents Had Gone on Vacation and Left her there with a babysitter.
Lee Finally Asks Where Clementine Was hiding.  Clementine Told Him that she was in her treehouse out in the backyard.   Lee Looked through the window in the Kitchen that was facing the backyard and saw clementine in the treehouse waving at him.

And that’s how our two protagonists Meet, later throughout the Five Episodes, they grow and learn from each other. 
I Highly Recommend This game if you’re looking for a Well-planned and thought-out story mode game.

And you won’t get this reference unless you play the game, but Ben Paul is the worst character to ever exist. 

 

 

 

 

Of course I knew my very first blog was going to be about something chaotic and creepy.  The reason is that the things I watch and read about are psychological, scary, and make you want to bang your head on the wall and rethink your whole life.  That’s a good thing though because there are a ton of people out there who are like me.  They’re the people who analyze true crime in their free time. This is most likely why you decided to read this today. So, stick with me and pay attention, please lovelies. 

This past Summer I forced my siblings to allow me to pick their brains about certain shows and their plots (and there have been many of them).   I did this to bring up the question, “What would you do differently?” and all of those answers led to 3 a.m. girl talk conversations about a particular person who didn’t or did deserve what happened to them.  This is lucky for you because I want to give you the same experience by telling you about the plot of the movie which led to my questions.  The movie is called The Perfect Host.    

                                                                                                                                                                     Our hypothetical 3 a.m. questions would be “What Would You Do as The Bad Guy in this scenario?” or my personal favorite, “Who Is the Villain in This Story?”  Keep these in mind as you journey into what you are reading.  Side note:  Please don’t read this if you mind spoilers.  In my opinion, though, I would still go watch this just to make sure the person telling me this didn’t make it up.  

 

The movie stars John Taylor (a smart man who’s good at chess) and Warwick Wilson (an interesting man at best) whose lives join together in the most wicked way.  At the beginning of the movie, we learn about John Taylor and his life story through clips of his memories with his girlfriend Simone while he’s robbing a bank.  After robbing said bank the next day, he’s in another robbery but instead of him, there’s a woman.  John just wants to mind his business but instead, the writers make him become the “hero,” leaving John with tackling the gun out of the woman’s hands and she ends up shooting him in his foot.   Of course, John gets mad and of course the t.v. tunes in at the right moment with John on the news for a robbery because the cameras caught him.   After that, everything else is John limping to his car and driving as far away as he can until he ends up in a country bumpkin-looking neighborhood.  The next part after this was impressive to me, but I recommend not doing it.  John Taylor is bleeding badly, and he needs somewhere to go and wash up.  He also needs to hide from the police that’s looking for him. Want to know what he does next?  He starts reading people’s mail to find information on the person’s lifestyle, who they live with, whether they are rich, and whether they could potentially be outside of town.  This keeps going until he finds Warwick Wilson’s house. Warwick’s house is big, shiny, and dated with an open mailbox.  In Warwick’s mailbox, there is a postcard from someone named Julia explaining her fun trip to Australia and how she wishes that Warwick could join her.  After John sees that, he is like “I got a plan”.  John walks up the road and rings the doorbell.  He had already come up with the backstory in his head that he was Julia’s cousin, and she was supposed to have someone pick him up from the airport.   Julia forgot and he doesn’t want to be out so late while bleeding from a cut he got at the airport.  It was going to be easy. That’s what he thinks when Warwick opens the door and asks his credentials, “Who are you?”  “How do I know you” and things like that.  John answers him with his full backstory while Warwick sips the wine glass in his hand.   When John tells Warwick his story, Warwick is hesitant; so, he tells John “I’m hosting a dinner date tonight. My guests are arriving soon.”  John assures him he’ll be out of the way.  Warwick being the person he is, lets John come into the house.                                                                                             

 Everything past this point is John looking around and Warwick being hospitable while asking too many questions.  John had the answers prepared for the questions up until the point when Warwick called the police.  He reports a missing suitcase for John which terrifies John because he is LYING.  So instead of telling the truth, John blows his cover and threatens Warwick with a knife.  This scene is so chaotic I can’t even explain it.  Just please watch the movie.  After their little petty fight, John admits he doesn’t know Julia; he starts drinking the wine Warwick had put on the table.  Warwick is hopping around the place cleaning the blood trail John left on the floor.   John is like “I threatened to kill this dude and he’s cleaning?”   What is wrong with him?  John then gets up to kick Warwick in the face because somehow, he’s on the ground when he falls like a limp rag doll.  Next, Warwick springs up and takes his chance by hitting John in the head with a wine bottle.  Then the next scene blackens. Soon after, we see that John awakens and he’s scared more than he’s confused.   This leaves the viewers wondering but we soon get our answer.  The reason why:  We see Warwick talking to a bunch of people who we are guessing are his dinner party.  We also see that John is looking at Warwick talking to plain empty chairs. 

I’m stopping right here because it’s enough for you to get the idea of where the questions came from.   Now, my rating on this movie is 8/10, with 2 points deducted because there were some questions left unanswered.  In my opinion, the movie was weird but in a good way.  Some things could’ve been redone or better explained.  Overall, the movie was great, and I hope whoever watches it enjoys it.    

Like many other kids, I had a dragon phase when I was younger. I still enjoy dragons to be clear, but dragon phases… they are DRAGON PHASES. All I ever drew around the time was dragons, and people even recognized me as that one girl who could draw dragons. 

The books that kicked off this love of dragons was the “Wings of Fire” series by Tui T. Sutherland. (Major and most minor spoilers will be avoided in this post.) I was looking through my middle school English teacher’s bookshelf when I found the winglets book “Assassin.” Winglets are side stories centered around side characters from the main series.

The cover was composed of beautiful green shades and curious spires, completed with a purple title with a dragon emblem underneath. Curiosity piqued, I picked up the book and flipped it over, read the description, then began the first pages. Yes, this was the second Winglets book. My younger self would read things out of order if a book was missing.

I loved the book. I don’t remember much of it now, but it got me hooked enough for me to ask for the rest of the series during Christmas. Little me didn’t realize that winglets were only side stories, though, and I didn’t specify that I wanted the winglets specifically. I face palm at this memory, but it turned out great. Christmas came around and I opened up the entire first series of the main wings of fire series. I read the first and fell and love. This series holds a special place in my heart, but as I grew older I remembered less and less of it. Recently, I decided to reread the whole first two arcs, courtesy of my collection. I was able to appreciate the writing more now, and though I knew major plot points I still had fun. The perspective switching between books is done well, in my opinion. The main character of each book has a plotline surrounding them, but the other characters are still included and the story stays on track to the ultimate goal.  Though both arcs have their ups and downs, the second arc has to be my favorite. The main antagonist is such a cool idea, and I especially liked all of the characters, their struggles, how the characters dealt with said struggles, and the setting. Sutherland also brought back side characters from the first arc and expanded upon them in the second, namely with Peril, Anemone, and Kinkajou. Peril had some great potential in the first arc, so I was especially happy to see her get her own book. While I do love the first arc main characters, the main characters of the second arc were more fun for me to read. I don’t even think I can pick a favorite from the second arc. I will say that I liked the dynamic of the first arc group- there was clearly ‘favorite friends’ and frustrations between the characters, which I felt highlighted how relationships would be strained under their circumstances, having been trapped under a mountain for years with only each other. Despite their arguments, the first group still loved each other, even if their desires conflicted. I also found the plot twists included in both arcs to be satisfying. 

There’s one thing I forgot about, though- these books are extremely violent. The first arc takes place during a war, but there’s no sugarcoating any of the violence and gore. Eggs get crushed, dragons die horribly, and more. There’s plenty of examples I remember, but I don’t think they’d be allowed to be mentioned on this blog. I don’t know how these books get into middle schools, but I don’t remember younger me minding the violence, and current me loved it. I wonder if I reading these played any part in the darker aspects of my stories… There’s also a lot of side-romances in these books. They didn’t impact my experience harshly, and I did like some, but for me side romances aren’t always my thing. I remember one that was discussed, but it wasn’t ever expanded upon, nor did the mentioned characters interact “on-screen.” At least give me some tasty material if you’re gonna propose a ship. However, surprisingly, I didn’t mind the main love triangle included in the second arc. Said love triangle did fall into my category of ‘would have been better as a poly-pair’, though.

At the end of the day, I still do love these books. If dragons are your thing and you don’t mind reading something of a lower age level, I’d recommend them. Yay for dragons!

I have been a part of the “Buffy Verse” fandom for quite a while now, and this has actually been something I’ve wanted to discuss but didn’t have the means to as not that many of my peers have seen this show. And I have my opinion about a lot of characters some good some bad but there’s some that I feel people are too hard on, Dawn being one of them. This blog seems like the perfect place to share my feelings about this character.

To fairly and fully defend Dawn Summers then I have to introduce you to her character in the show. Disclaimer her story is going to mention the loss of family members, mention of bullying and a mention of self-harm.

Dawn Summers was introduced as Buffy’s little sister to the series at the end of the first episode of season 5, her debut shocked the viewers quite a bit as there hadn’t been a mention of Dawn having any siblings (although looking back there was foreshadowing, one of which even having a character mention that a, “little sis was coming), but in my opinion this implies that one was soon to be born, but Dawn was fourteen when she appeared on the show. The most perplexing part about Dawn’s arrival is that the other characters were treating her as if she had been there the whole time, but this wasn’t the case. You see Dawn wasn’t actually Buffy’s sister, well not always. She was actually a “ball of energy” or “key” that had been transformed into a girl and sent to Buffy to be protected from “Glorificus” or Glory, a god/goddess who was stuck on earth and Dawn was her key to get back to her dimension. The monks even distorted reality as to not raise any eyebrows about Dawn’s appearance, which is why everyone was acting as if Dawn was already there cause they geniunely thought she was.

The reason I’m presenting you with this information is the give you some insight into Dawn’s story before my defense. Now some people have deemed Dawn as whiny, bratty, and ungrateful. People even have compared Buffy’s life to Dawn, saying that Buffy’s had the harder life, implying that Dawn’s life was somehow easy. Now I don’t deny that Buffy has had a hard life, after all she’s been slaying demons since she was a sophomore in high school. However, I don’t think that people take into account how traumatizing her experiences could be for someone. 

So I will be listing these experiences in a numbered list. 

1 . Finding out she was a key. 

Buffy did a good job at hiding Dawn’s true identity for her for a while but eventually she did find out. This understandably sent her into a crisis, in which she wounded herself to prove she was human. I don’t think people fully grasp how world shattering this revelation could be for someone, realizing that every memory you have didn’t actually happen and that they were orchestrated by these mystical beings to essentially play a game of hide and seek with a nutjob demon goddess. To find out that the last 14 years of your life never happened.

2. Her mother’s death

Soon after her whole period of questioning of her humanity, Dawn (and Buffy) lost the only mother she’d ever known to brain aneurysm in the fifth season.  I think this speaks for itself, i recognize Buffy also lost her mother but I don’t think people account that she was Dawn’s mom too.

3. Buffy’s death.

Buffy later died in finale of the fifth season, in order to save Dawn. However, Buffy wasn’t gone long due to the nature of her death and the powers of her witchy best friend Willow Rosenberg who was able to resurrect her (an event I also hold many opinions about). Now I don’t think I need to mention how losing two of the most important people in her life could affect her.

4. Feeling like a burden. 

Due to Glory’s persistent nature and literal god like capabilities she wasn’t very keen on letting people get between her and Dawn (her key). Going as so far as to hurt people, including Dawn’s loved ones to get there. At one point leaving Tara (a big role model in Dawn’s life and Willow’s girlfriend) a shell of her former self after sucking the sanity out of her. Dawn obviously felt responsible of all of this even going as far as referring to herself as a “lightning rod of pain”. 

5. Tara’s death. 

After a haunting encounter where Warren (one part and the ringleader of this evil trio that had been terrorizing Buffy) intending to kill Buffy, came into their backyard with a weapon where he struck Buffy (who ended up surviving) but ended accidentally hitting Tara fatally wounding her. Tara was very important person to Dawn, whom she sort of had restricted contact with due to the awkward tensions of her being around after her and Willow’s breakup(they ended up getting back together right before she died. But Tara’s loss was very hard on Dawn, who found her laying on floor hours after her death. 

6. Willow’s chaos. 

Willow went through a period where she was abusing magic hardcore (something Joss Wheadon used as an analogy to drug abuse, something I want to discuss, but that’s most likely a whole other blog post) but in the midst of her addiction she put Dawn in great danger almost getting both of them killed in the process. Willow was eventually able to get clean but after losing Tara, she lost it and went on a crazy magic binger and ended killing Warren and attempting to kill his two other friends. Her Dawn ended up being confronted with one another in which she threatened to turn Dawn back into a ball of magic after Dawn tried to get Willow to end her chaos. Even saying she would be much happier with dawn gone.

7. Dawn’s insecurity

Dawn attending the same school Buffy once did is obviously regarded as just “Buffy’s little sister” but you see this come full force when they were both put under a love spell and ended up competing for the same guy. Soon after she caught Buffy kissing him and Willow and Anya got involved Dawn decided she didn’t stand a chance at competing with Buffy, so she decided to stand in front of a train in order to give up her life to prove her love for him. Buffy ended saving her and they later put an end to the whole spell.

After all these events combined with just being a normal teenage girl, I can understand some of Dawn’s whiny behavior. I think people could’ve been easier on her character.

Sources used: 

Buffy Summers | Buffyverse Wiki | Fandom 

Dawn Summers | Buffyverse Wiki | Fandom

Agh! I can’t believe junior is already almost over; I swear it was like yesterday we were all outside ringing the bell. This is my last post for the school year which means that the next time you hear from me, I will be a senior(that’s a slightly scary thought). For my last post, I will do a self reflection of how I’ve grown as a person and a writer. This is is simply a long, boring paragraph of how much I have changed as a person for the better and as a writer and artist. If upcoming juniors ever read this post, I would hope this could relieve some of that anxiety that comes with moving into a completely new learning and living environment. Anyways, without further ado, please enjoy.

Ever since kindergarten, I have attended North Pike which, if y’all don’t know, is a very big school and not the best place to be(I won’t get into details). One of the things I will say though is that I was always self conscious about certain things, including how I was around friends and my style of clothing(to name only a couple). The students at my old school were in general just not the best people to be around and it was especially difficult for someone who really  loves art and reading like me because of course that was considered very weird. When I started coming here, I deeply appreciated how weird was the normal and that different kinds of weird were welcome and embraced. One of my biggest worries was that I wasn’t gonna be able to make any new friends, but that was changed quite literally on day one. Throughout the year, I gradually became a more outgoing person although I still consider myself very ambiverted. I was not at all the kind of person to spend her days going out just doing whatever and to this day that is still not my go-to thing but if invited by friends, I’ll be more than willing to go and have fun. I like to think that I also became a more assertive person since attending here the details of why that is are some that I’d like to not share, but you get the general idea. 

As a writer, I used be very meticulous in my writing, meaning I paid close attention to adding vivid descriptions and image and I am glad to say I have been good at that, but the overall plot and theme and other essential writing elements  weren’t quite as strong. I have gotten a lot better at it since coming here and learning to balance out the amount of imagery inclusion of plot and theme. I also liked that I have been able to learn about and write stories, poems, etc. in different formats in styles. I had some favorites of course, but it fun in general exploring those different writing styles. The process of workshop and revision is also extremely helpful because it’s where you can gather what impact its made on readers and they can give positive feedback and critique based on what you wanted them to gain and experience through your writing. There are incidents and projects(such as coffeehouse, Poetry Out Loud, podcasting, etc.) that also have taken me far out of my comfort zone and, I will be 100% honest, I really didn’t like at first but they have overall helped me for the better. This experience that I have had so far makes me very hopeful for my senior year and I am excited for it.

That is all I have to day about my journey so far, and I do hope to grow even more as a writer and person throughout my upcoming senior year. It’s a little scary but also very exciting. I hope you have enjoyed this, and I will see you later, MSA<3

     Hey guys!!! This is my very last blog of the YEAR! For the last blog I thought I would do sort of a recap of the year and tell you guys things I’ve learned what I would or would not do again, talk about the friends that I have made, my plans for next year, how I’ll decorate my room, etc. Okay so let’s get into it. Oh my gosh y’all first and foremost I will be a SENIOR in high school next year. TIME IS MOVING SO FAST. I’m ready but I’m not ready. This is so bittersweet. The juniors next year will be looking up to us to help them and that’s kind of scary honestly. I’ve loved everything about MSA since I’ve been here and I feel like I’ll love it even more next year. The first day I got here I was building stuff, unpacking clothes and saying goodbye to my family members. I never imagined I would change this much in less than a year.

     My style is so different. I’ve always worn black but I like my clothes way bigger than I used to. I feel like I’ve grown so much more confident in myself and my body. I used to only wear like tight clothing. Not for attention but because that’s what other girls would wear and I thought it was what I should wear too. Now I only care about what I want for myself and how I feel about me. I’ve always been independent and haven’t let other have too much influence over me but in the back of my mind I wanted to be like those other girls and now I only want to be me. I’ve made so many fantastic friends here. My roommate is so special to me and it’s crazy to think that I didn’t even know her when we got here. We originally met on instagram like 2 days before our official move-in day and she was not my original roommate. I used to room with my friend from my hometown and old school and I moved in with Shakeera in September. We’re polar opposites yet exactly the same. We have so much fun together, there is never a dull moment, and I’m so grateful that we were brought together. My suite mates Asia and Kaydence are some great friends I’ve made as well, they have great taste in music we always have dance parties in the bathroom and do each other’s hair and makeup. My entire suite is simply a vibe. Ronada is another friend. We always laugh when we’re together and if one of us dances the other has to dance too. I have loved dying her hair this year. SHE HAS AMAZING HAIR. That reminds me earlier this year Shakeera and I bleached our roots blonde and kept the ends of our hair pink and twinned for a while, it was so cute.

     My passion for writing and becoming a published writer has flourished tremendously. I’ve seen my fellow literaries accomplish some things that I want for myself and this school has shed light on so many competitions, and writing camps that I can attend and I plan to take part in each one. There were so many things about writing I had no idea about. Haibuns, abecedarians, kwansaba’s and so many others. My teacher is amazing and I can’t thank her enough for pushing me and my peers through this year as I thought I couldn’t finish so many of the assignments she gave us. My plans for next year are to apply for as many colleges and scholarships as I possibly can so that I have money to work with and options to choose from. I want to major in creative writing and probably minor in something such as English or psychology.

      Next year Shakeera and I plan to decorate our room with a hippie theme. You know all different sorts of colors, patterns, and designs. The bathroom will be more of a earthy, plant vibe. I can’t wait to see what the summer has in store for me and what next year brings.

PEACE OUT!

I LOVE YOU GUYS (mwah)