Welcome back everyone!
My summer has officially come to an end, and it was definitely one for the books; from my Europe trip to pool days to cheer practices to my 15th birthday, I definitely experienced a lot of different things. I’m sad to let go of so much relaxing free time, but I’m grateful for all of the amazing times I had. I want to acknowledge all the memories I made this summer as a final goodbye, now that I’m saying hello to the school year and becoming a sophomore!
This summer immediately began with my mom, my brother, and I packing our things and heading to LAX to meet up with my dad in Europe. It was my first time going out of the country and Paris had always been my dream destination; landing there and getting my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower was so surreal. We saw all the main attractions in Paris, but we were only there for a few days; soon we were off, flying into the Naples airport to begin our journey through Italy. One of my favorite parts of the trip was our two and a half day excursion in Sorrento (on the Amalfi coast) where I got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea. We spent a few days in Rome, then two days in Florence and Venice each. The trip was 16 days, but it felt longer and shorter than that at the same time- soon we were home bound. I would go into more detail, but I dedicated a blog post to each day we were there- go read them if you haven’t already!
Speaking of my European vacation kicking off the summer, I also started this blog. I had been planning on starting a blog for a while, but I waited until departing for my trip since I knew that would come with a bunch of built-in content. I signed up on WordPress and came up with my blog name and all that stuff as I waited at the gate for our flight to Paris. I’ve been posting almost daily since creating it, and it’s been such a fun experience; I’m so glad I bit the bullet and finally did it. The content I’ve been writing has definitely fluctuated a lot- at first I solely wrote about my trip/travel, then random parts of my life, then academic advice, and now I post a bit of everything. It’s been such a fun journey, and I love having an online space to express my thoughts.
As soon as I got home and unpacked my suitcase, things got busy again. I started to take a summer school course to get ahead in credits (AP Psychology, to be exact- go check out my posts on this!) and it was fully online. I was still working on my blog, I helped out at some volunteer events in my community, and I was spending some time with friends since I had missed everyone while I was on my trip. My grandparents unexpectedly came to visit my family and stayed at our house for almost two weeks; it was quite cramped and chaotic at times, but it was nice to see them. We went to the movies, had a lot of family meals, went swimming, spent the 4th of July together, and I had a girls’ day out with my grandma. They brought their dog with them (for reference, my dad claims he’s allergic to dogs so I’ve never had one) and it was fun to have a dog in the house- miraculously, my dad had no allergic reactions! My grandparents’ dog is also not hypoallergenic, in case you were wondering…
When my grandparents left, I had a few days of peace before going to yearbook camp. In those days, I went to the beach twice (both for friends’ birthday parties) and got a ton of my psychology course completed. I then headed to yearbook camp with two of my closest friends and the 11 other attending staff members that I didn’t know yet. It was a four-day camp at Chapman University, and I had the best time. I posted about each day, so you should check those posts out if you haven’t already! I learned so much about yearbook as a newbie on the staff this year, and everyone was so nice and welcoming. Plus, living in the dorms with one of my best friends as a roommate was pretty cool- we had a ton of freedom inbetween classes and there was a Starbucks on campus.
Right around the time I returned from yearbook camp was when my high school cheer team began practicing again. I had missed a bunch of practices while I was in Europe, and as soon as I had returned our dead period (scheduled break from practicing) started. This made me a bit nervous to return since I figured I would be even more out of shape than everyone else, but it ended up being fine; there was just a lot of conditioning. Cheer camp was the next week, so we had two practices a day the weekend leading up to it in order to prepare. Before I knew it, I was packing my suitcase again to head to cheer camp.
It was another four-day camp, held at the Knott’s Berry Farm resort hotel in Buena Park and hosted by USA (United Spirit Association). There were four girls in every hotel room, and it was based on your stunt groups. It was definitely a grueling experience since we were outside in the heat for about 10 hours a day and the food wasn’t the best, but it was a huge bonding experience for our team. Additionally, there was one night where camp sessions ended early so we could go to the theme park, and we all had so much fun. By the end of the camp, I was definitely ready to come home though. I also covered this whole camp on this blog, so check those posts out as well!
Since the end of cheer camp, my schedule has gotten a bit more regular. We still had cheer practices most weekdays (getting halftime routines ready for football season!), but I still had lots of time in my day to finish my Psychology course, go back to taking tumbling classes, keep up with my blog, do my summer reading, and become an editor for Polyphony Lit (a teen literary magazine). I’ve also been volunteering at my local animal shelter, which was something I did during the school year as well, and I got to spend more time with my friends. My 15th birthday was on August 14th, so I got to have a day of celebration as well. I had cheer and sophomore orientation for school on my birthday so I didn’t do anything that special, but I still got to choose restaurants for lunch and dinner.
Now that summer is over and my sophomore year has begun, I’ve just been looking back at everything I did these past few months. In the moment it didn’t seem like much, but I now realize I did a LOT, some of it unexpectedly. At first I regretted not being able to spend more time at home, recharging before the next school year, but I now realize that having a productive summer was exactly what I wanted (and needed) all along. First of all, my trip was amazing, but once I came home I still had so many other opportunities waiting and so many plans set in place. I’m grateful to have gotten to explore places as beautiful as France and Italy, and I’m also grateful for all the other experiences I had this summer once I was back home.
I hope you guys enjoyed this type of summer-in-review post. Maybe it will inspire you to reflect on all the wonderful memories you made this summer! I’m always sad to leave the warm months behind, but I’m actually really excited to dive into sophomore year. This past summer in addition to everything I experienced freshman year have taught me a lot, and I’m ready to use that knowledge to my advantage going forward. As always, I’m here to answer questions and I’m always taking requests for future content. Keep an eye out for new posts, and I’ll be figuring out my school-year posting schedule soon!
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 