As I mentioned before, I'm going on vacation to Hocking Hills State Park! Any trip can be stressful, especially in today's times of social distancing and quarantine. I thought I would write this article about how I packed to help someone to reduce a little bit of stress. Vacation should be fun, and this is a cool snapshot into my life at 17.
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You know them, you may or may not like them...ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you...Taco Bell! [Crowd goes wild.] Okay, okay. I'm not very funny. I do have my moments though. Like 20 minutes ago when I decided to ask Taco Bell to sponsor me! (It's a long shot.)
Ever since I was a child, I told my parents that I wanted to be a writer. I told everybody I met that I wanted to be a writer. Most people would smile politely, nod, or give a small encouragement. They were sure I would "outgrow" this dream.
Life was crazy in May! I finished up junior year of high school. I battled with personal struggles. I started this blog! It was a month of ups and downs. While I'm definitely coming out of it with bumps and bruises, I lived. I didn't do everything I was hoping to, but I kept going. I'm proud of myself!
June 2nd is my dad's birthday, so starting this Sunday, June 1st until Wednesday, June 3rd, we will be vacationing in the beautiful Hocking Hills State Park. It's a much needed getaway for all three of us and a lovely way to celebrate my dad-at one of our favorite places! This means I will likely not be very active, but I'm working on posts to pre-schedule so they'll send while I'm gone! As you saw at the beginning of this article, I upgraded laptops! I was previously using a crappy school laptop from 2012. Now I'm writing from a brand new baby, an Acer Chromebook 14! She's absolutely gorgeous and functions like a dream. I'm so excited to have a good laptop to do all my writing on! Ahhh, my heart is full and my head is swirling with new writing ideas. This has already been longer than the short little update I planned, so I'll try to wrap this up soon. Thank you everyone for the support so far! If you would like to support me further, please keep reading and clicking the like button on these posts, and interacting with my other content on social media. Everything helps a small content creator like myself and I do pay it forward as often as I can! I'll leave you with this: "Wherever you are is the entry point." -Kabir Warning: Review may contain mild spoilers for As Many Nows as I Can Get by Shana Youngdahl.
This book was a wild ride from start to finish. From the very first page, it gave me Looking for Alaska vibes and I just knew it was going to break my heart. I really liked Scarlett at first. She recognized her privilege, and though she did nothing to combat it, she at least recognized how lucky she was. She does do good things like volunteer with kids though. I wonder how much of that was for her college applications and how much of it was because she actually cared. That started to change when I realized that she knew David and Cody were addicts and didn’t report it to anybody. She never even tried to help, she just snubbed them and in a few instances, partook in their illicit activities that she looked down on. She got to college and spent the whole time complaining about how it wasn’t MIT when she was the one who had turned down MIT. She’s a judgmental snob, her best friends are a religious zealot and a dead drug addict, and she still thinks she’s better off than everyone else around her. Scarlett is also pretty awful to her roommate, Mina, who is a sweet girl who just wants to help. Mina seems like she could’ve been a built-in best friend, but Scarlett is a snob. Mina offers her good advice, forgives her for the accidental damage done to her things, brings her breakfast, etc. She does a lot of things for Scarlett and Scarlett lashes out at her for no reason other than Scarlett didn’t get her way. Scarlett has parents who care about her and want to communicate with her, and she blows them off and lies to them frequently. I did really love Mina and Professor Bradshaw though. Calvin and Sai were also amazing. I hated every single main character and found them to be insufferable, but the supporting cast was incredible. I loved the ending. The necklace was perfect. The “journal” was perfect. Professor Bradshaw is a wonderful woman. We all need a professor like that. As far as debuts go, this is a pretty solid one. ⅗ star read. Warning: Review may contain mild spoilers for Jenn McAllister’s Really Professional Internet Person.
“You go through life trying on a bunch of identities, seeing what fits and what just kind of feels wrong.” Jenn McAllister hits the nail on the head at several points in her memoir Really Professional Internet Person. Despite having a large social media following, the young YouTuber and social media influencer, known widely as 'jennxpenn' manages to make a connection with her audience through her humble and honest approach to life. It rings clear in her writing. As a teenager, it’s really nice to see an adult I look up to openly admit that high school sucks and isn’t the best time of your life. Jenn is refreshingly honest about not being the nicest person at times and regretting some of the things she’s done, while also acknowledging that she was a child when she did them. She takes accountability. All in all, Jenn gives her readers/viewers a huge glance into her headspace, a ton of carefully cultivated advice, and tales of her life experiences in Really Professional Internet Person to share everything that led her to where she is today. It’s all done in an honest manner that readers young and old alike can connect with. 5/5 star read. Warning: Review may contain mild spoilers for Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and its movie adaptation from famed animation house Studio Ghibli.
Though Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is very different from its movie counterpart, both weave a magical web of tales that are easy to get lost in. I watched the movie adaptation years prior to reading the book, and when they started to diverge, I wasn’t sure what to think. Ultimately though, I fell in love with both. Both book and movie make my top ten list for their respective media styles. Howl’s Moving Castle caught my attention from the very first page and kept it captive through every twist and turn. The characters, for the most part, are dynamic and feel real, even when they aren’t the kindest of people. I wanted to know more about the world of Ingary, and I hope the next two novels in the series delve more into worldbuilding as I would eat it up. As I read I HMC, I constantly found myself chuckling at Howl’s antics or Sofie’s interactions with Michael or Calcifer being a tiny fire-demon jerk. When the book went to darker places than the movie, I was surprised by how dark it turned out to be, but it still kept that overall “feelgood” tone in the end. I appreciate the beautiful pictures the late Ms. Jones painted with her rhetoric and I truly believe that both book and movie deserve all the hype and acclaim they’ve received, especially in recent years. 5/5 star read. I can't believe that I'm finally doing this, but I've decided to seriously and officially pursue my creative interests while I still have the time. I'm really excited about this and I cannot wait to see how it goes.
Today, May 19th, marks the soft launch of this website/blog. I'm launching it through Weebly and did a ton of the design on my own, so fingers crossed that it actually works! Anyways, welcome to the official Hiraeth Vellichor site and I hope everyone has a great day/night. |
Marissa seussMarissa Seuss is a writer, musician, photographer, and avid book reader born and based in Northeast Ohio. ArchivesCategories
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