Tales of Tenth Grade

I started this school year by writing my first blog post about both my favorite memories from freshman year as well as my aspirations for this school year. Given that this is the last blog post of the year, I thought it would be appropriate to come full circle. I should start by admitting that I was not particularly excited to start this school year. As somebody who doesn't really like change, I came in on the first day in September wishing that I could just continue freshman year. Of course, time doesn't work that way, so as much as I longed for the past, sophomore year began. It didn't take me very long to change my mind. I can't tell you exactly when I started to really enjoy sophomore year. My guess is that it's because it didn't happen overnight-- it happened very gradually. As I started to get used to my new schedule, my new classes, my new classmates, and my new teachers, I think I slowly started to realize that while this year certainly was not freshman ...

You wake up on an ordinary July morning in 2012. The breeze brushes your hair back as your eyes slowly open. You take in the warm sunlight, shining through your window. Before doing anything, you run into the living room to see iCarly playing on your large TV. Your mom serves you a small bowl of Cheerios with a welcoming "Good morning".  As soon as your favorite show ends, your mom hands over your pair of light-up sketchers, bedazzled with glitter and rainbows. You both walk out of the house and walk to your local park. Your ponytail sways from side to side as you watch each car drive past, nothing ran through your mind, not a care in the world. That was a different time. This is now... You awake. This time it's a school morning. your phone sounds it's alarm. You wake instantly by the blaring, repetitive noises. In your dark room, you shelter yourself under the covers wishing for just a little more time to sleep. After fighting yourself out of bed, you wash the tire...

Guess what guys??? It's Creative Writing month!! (Woot woot!) Guess what else it is? ... almost winter... (this I'm not as excited about.) And what better way to commemorate the oncoming of winter than with a poem about summer? (I'm a genius, I know.) Now, for my past two posts, I've already done some form of creative writing—a poem, a short story—but because it's Creative Writing month, I've now got a reason to go all out! So, I'm not doing any ordinary poem this time, no, no, no. "Summer" is a spoken word poem, which is basically just a poem that is made to be performed aloud. (Here's a brilliant ted talk on it if you're interested:  https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter?language=en .) Thus, I present to you all... Summer - A Spoken Word Poem Summer A time for bad decisions But no regrets For the beach and the sand and oceans and tans For copious amounts of sunblock because sunburn ain’t cute A...