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Picnic in the Park – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
a lazy afternoon, summertime starting to bloom
     a picnic basket holds down a checkered blanket
on the overgrown grass, shaded by an equally 
     overgrown oak tree. a middle-aged woman can

usually be seen complaining about the maintenance
     somewhere on the grounds. a slight breeze
blows by, leaving the leaves and weaker branches
     to sway in the air, almost suspended in 

movement for a few seconds each way. an attractive
     young couple opens the basket hungrily, to 
reveal sandwiches, fruits, and a bottle of champagne.
     the same middle-aged woman will pause her

complaining to lecture the couple on their 
    drinking in public, but they will laugh it off. they
pretend to stow the bottle away in the basket
    again until she leaves. the sun beats down on

your forehead. you continue to watch the
    couple enjoy their late lunch, as you are the
observer,
    like always

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It was a fun one to write. I could honestly write tons of poems about the different scenes and people I observe while taking my daily walks around my neighborhood park. Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or writing challenges you’d like me to try out. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

Books I’ve Read In Spring 2020

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to be going over all the books I’ve read in the past couple months. As I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve been keeping track of everything on Goodreads, which makes it much easier to make this post. If you’re interested in finding out what I’ve been reading and my opinions on each book, keep on scrolling.

  1. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany – I don’t know how, but I was never really aware that this add-on to the Harry Potter series was a thing. I didn’t love everything about it (no spoilers here though) but I was happy to have anything added onto the series. In some ways, I think the series would’ve been fine without this add on, but I’ll take what I can get. I would love to see the actual play live someday. I rated it 4/5 on Goodreads.
  2. Child of the Moon by Jessica Semaan – My mom got this on Amazon as a whim and I read it after her. It falls under the umbrella of Instagram poetry, but since I write a decent amount of poetry in that style myself, I was still able to appreciate it. I also like work that relates to the moon/astrology so that was interesting for me. I rated it 3/5 on Goodreads.
  3. Almost Home by Madisen Kuhn – This was another book my mom ordered and I ended up reading. I thought the separation of the book into different rooms/parts of the house was clever, and I related to Kuhn’s sentiments about never really feeling at home, but I wasn’t particularly in love with any of the poems. Kuhn is another Instagram poet, so I’d avoid this if you don’t like that style. I rated it 3/5 on Goodreads.
  4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding – I read this for English class, and I really enjoyed it. I had actually been thinking a lot about the nature of man lately just because of everything going on in the world right now and our (our meaning society’s) reaction to it all. It was a short and easy read, and I was able to pick up on the symbolism in it. I rated it 4/5 on Goodreads.
  5. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley – We were supposed to read this in my English class but it got cut from the distance learning curriculum. I had already bought it in advance, so I read it on my own. Although I know the message behind the story is important, it was very hard for me to get through despite it being a short read. I rated it 3/5 on Goodreads.
  6. The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer – This is an outlier on this list since it’s a spiritual self-help book, but I still wanted to include it. It’s enlightening but still in the way of being hard to take action and follow the book’s advice in everyday life. I rated it 4/5 on Goodreads.
  7. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson – LOVED this. It was suggested but not required reading for my writing workshop. It was a super fast read and honestly my dream book since it incorporated supernatural elements with an otherwise realistic fiction plot. I rated it 5/5 on Goodreads.
  8. I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood by Tiana Clark – This is a book of poetry that’s required reading for my writing workshop. Clark’s poems are moving and I think everyone should read this and support her as a talented Black poet. I rated it 5/5 on Goodreads.
  9. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson – This is a book with multiple short stories, all somewhat different from one another. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as Nothing to See Here, but I definitely do love Wilson’s work and hope to read more of it soon. I rated it 4/5 on Goodreads.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about the books I’ve read recently, and that this inspires you go to spend some time reading. Whether it’s an old favorite or something new, reading is always such a relaxing and nice pastime. Plus, it’s summer! Congrats to everyone who is finishing up/has just finished their school year. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Checkpoint – How Is 2020 Going?

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

The amount of things that have happened in 2020 so far is disturbing, astounding, and insane all at once. I’ll list the major events here real fast in case you might be forgetting any of the main points (not necessarily in chronological order):

  • Fires in Australia
  • COVID-19 pandemic which led to quarantines all over the world and economic downturn
  • Impeachment trials for President Trump
  • Death of Kobe Bryant along with his daughter and other passengers
  • Murder hornets
  • The horrible killing of George Floyd and many peaceful protests advocating for the Black Lives Matter movement as well as some violent riots
  • Ebola outbreak in the Congo
  • Stock market plunge and unemployment rates rivaling those of the Great Depression (I’m not an expert on the economy and I believe the state of both the stock market and the unemployment rate have already improved though)
  • Overall poor leadership from President Trump (my opinion) as most recently seen through him hiding in his bunker and building a wall in front of the White House

So, yeah. 2020 isn’t going too great for the world, as most of you probably know/think if you’ve been keeping up with the news. But what can we do now?

The first thing is definitely to VOTE in November– if you are eligible to vote, please make sure you are registered and are going to do so. We will not see change unless we vote for leaders that are going to take action and advocate for our rights/have the people’s interests at heart. Sadly I am not eligible to vote and I will not be for a couple more years, but I will be able to pre-register to vote in August when I turn 16. I think the laws about when you can pre-register might be different depending on what state you’re in, but if you are a teenager wanting to pre-register, please do that when you are eligible!

The second thing is to keep in touch with your friends and family and check in on them. Some people are reacting differently to the events happening in the world than others, so some people may need a lot more support from you. It’s especially important to have some interaction considering how long everyone’s been in quarantine.

Please try to keep in mind that we cannot lose hope in the world/the future just because of these unfortunate and tragic events that have happened lately. If anything, we need to keep our heads up and fight even harder for the issues we believe in. I know some of the things that have happened this year such as fires and the initial spread of COVID-19 were uncontrollable, but for the political issues it is so important to be an advocate and use your voice in some way. Things will get better and change will have to happen in some capacity if we keep fighting for it.

This is probably the hardest thing to do (MUCH easier said than done), but try to maintain a positive outlook and find the silver linings in recent events. It’s been difficult for me too and I’m definitely not perfect as far as being the most positive person, but I’m trying my best. Whether it’s appreciating your daily walks or the fact that you have some free time to catch up on reading or the FaceTime calls you have with your friends, find that thing that brings some joy and normalcy to your day.

I’m always here to chat with you guys if you want to leave a comment or contact me through the Contact page on this blog. I know it’s been a tough past few months, but we can do this. If our world can make it through everything that’s happened in 2020 so far, we can make it through anything. Please stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Why America Has To Change

Brooke3 Comments

Hello everyone!

Normally I try to stay away from being too political in my posts since my blog isn’t focused on politics or similar issues, but today I’m going to get into it a little more. If you haven’t seen my last two posts (poems about the George Floyd protests and situation), you should check those out too if you want to get a sense of my beliefs.

Frankly, our country is in shambles right now. The coronavirus has rocked the world, but even that has to take a backseat when describing the injustices and institutionalized racism that thrive in our country everyday. I do not condone the violence that occurred/is occurring in protests and understand that some of these people are acting out without actually protesting for the cause, but something has to be done. It’s foolish to think that protests will always be peaceful, and with a huge injustice like this, it does make sense why things got out of hand. For people wanting to protest, I suggest you participate and use your voice peacefully and watch out for the people who are committing acts of violence, but I understand people need to do what they need to do.

I am disgusted by President Trump’s failure to address the situation in a humane way and respond, but I’m not surprised. During his presidency, racism and hate has been encouraged and exacerbated in our country, and it will continue to be unless he is gone. I can’t believe we have a president who tweets out garbage like “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Our country was built on the principles of freedom and equality, but it’s clear from our history up until now that those principles are not applied to minorities as they should be. It’s time to break the system and the attitudes of people and shape our country into what it’s supposed to be but never really has been.

It’s also important for me to acknowledge that I am not a POC. That being said, I am an ally and I am here to stand up for POC and others accountable to treat everyone as they should be– equally.

For those of you who can vote (I wish I could), PLEASE show up to the polls when the time comes. Vote for candidates who are going to bring change, who want to make the United States of America a better and safer country for ALL people, regardless of race or gender or any other factor. Please don’t let Trump win– with another term for him, that brings our country closer to an authoritarian regime and a one-party system (but that’s an issue for a different post).

Please take action. Sign petitions, speak up, peacefully protest if you are able. Enough is enough, and we need change. Do it for George Floyd, and do it for the countless other lives that have been lost unjustly. No lives matter until black lives matter. Please stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

10 Things I’ve Been Looking Forward to Doing After AP Tests

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

If you’re a high school student who took AP classes this year, you would definitely know that APs are officially over! I only took two tests, but considering that I basically had to reteach myself the material for one (AP Psychology) I was still stressed out, especially with the unique online format of the tests this year. Much of my time the past few weeks has been divided between my online schoolwork and then extra studying for my AP tests, so now that APs are over and the actual school year is winding down, I have plenty of free time to focus on relaxing and fun. Keep on reading to find out what I’m planning to fill this newfound time with!

  1. Reading! I had been on a reading roll during quarantine until it got closer to AP tests and I had to give up my leisure reading time for extra studying time everyday. I have a long list of books I’m planning to read once my library reopens, but I also have a few books at home I still hadn’t gotten around to reading. I also recently got a subscription to the Kenyon Review literary magazine, and I’ve been looking forward to reading the latest issue. In addition, I have three books as assigned reading before the Sewanee Young Writer’s Conference (online, of course!) in late June.
  2. Writing! Okay, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise either if you’ve been reading my blog for a while. I had been steadily working on a novel this past month or so and writing 1,000+ words per day, but I also had to put that aside to study for APs the past few weeks. I’ve been looking forward to returning to working on it– hopefully my time away from the piece will have given me a fresh perspective and some newfound inspiration for the chapters to come.
  3. Netflix bingeing. I haven’t gotten around to watching Outer Banks yet, but everybody’s been talking about it so I really want to. I also want to watch season 4 of Riverdale since it’s now on Netflix. I know it’s a hot mess but that’s what makes it entertaining; I love to watch the commentary videos on YouTube making fun of it, so I have an idea of what’s gone on in the season. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine though– I devoured season 3 on train rides and plane rides during my summer trip last year, and the ridiculousness made it entertaining.
  4. Harry Potter movie marathon. I guess this could qualify as Netflix bingeing, but it’s not on Netflix. The Harry Potter movies are going to be on HBO’s new streaming service (which I believe you get for free as long as you pay for the HBO channel), and after rereading the books about a month ago, I’ve been dying to watch all of the movies. To be honest, I only really remember the first four and part of the fifth… well, I really only remember Professor Umbridge’s horrid pink outfits in the fifth and not much else. It’s been years since I watched any of them.
  5. Swimming. If you didn’t know, I live in southern California and it is starting to get hot. I am lucky enough to have a pool at my house– my family has been using it the past few weeks while I’ve stayed inside studying. I’m looking forward to enjoying the pool and hopefully getting a tan.
  6. FaceTiming friends just for fun. I’m still social distancing so FaceTime will have to do for now, but I definitely am looking forward to talking to friends about topics other than school and studying for tests. Make sure to stay in touch with your friends! I know these times can be super lonely, and it’s important to reach out.
  7. Organizing my room. Yes, I’m kind of a neat freak and I find reorganizing my stuff fun. Since I can now recycle a lot of my notes and unwanted assignments from this year, I can definitely reorganize my desk and a lot of my school stuff. I can also bring out all of my summer clothes and try everything on to see what still fits and what I should donate.
  8. (Hopefully) starting a Little Free Library in my neighborhood. This is something I’ve really wanted to do since quarantine started, but I never dove into the research. My neighborhood has a pretty strict homeowners’ association so I’ll probably have to get it approved, but I really hope I can do this by the end of summer. If you don’t know what a Little Free Library is, you should look it up and check out their website. It’s an awesome nonprofit and a really cute concept.
  9. Going on hikes. There’s a ton of gorgeous hikes in my area, but I rarely find myself making plans to go on them. There’s definitely been an increase in people making use of these trails since quarantine started, but I personally haven’t found the time to. Now that I’m not bogged down with school, I’d like to explore more of nature (locally, of course).
  10. Researching colleges. This is kind of a weird thing to be excited about, but I guess I get excited about things most people wouldn’t be. I’m going to be a junior this coming school year, so it’s finally time for me to get serious about researching colleges. I’ve been waiting for this since I was a little kid, so I’m looking forward to embarking on the quest of finding schools I think I would fit in at through extensive online research.

I hope this inspires you to celebrate the end of AP testing and the school year coming to a close. I wanted to address that from some of the comments in this post it may seem like I centered my life around school the past month or so in preparation for AP testing, and although that’s true to an extent, don’t worry; I still managed a somewhat balanced schedule. I just had to sacrifice a couple things since my family’s also been going through some stuff (not corona related) and I still needed my own personal time to spend with them right now. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

How Using Goodreads Changed My Reading Habits

Brooke2 Comments

Hello everyone!

If you’re an avid reader, you’ve most likely stumbled across the Goodreads website at some point in your life. I was no exception, but I didn’t use it myself; I would only peruse the website if I wanted to read reviews on a specific book or find a recommendation. However, about a month and a half ago, I made a Goodreads account and started actually keeping track of the books I was reading and rating them. I also have been steadily building a giant “want to read” list of books I’ll have to check out at my library once it’s back open. If you want to find out how it’s changed my reading habits, keep on reading.

I’m kind of an organization-freak when it comes to lists and keeping track of things I’ve done/want to do/need to do, so I’m not sure why I just came around to using Goodreads. I love the idea of being able to look back on everything I’ve read and remind myself whether I liked certain books or not, and being on the website in general motivates me to read more.

It has a feature where you can set your goal of how many books you want to read in 2020, and I found this to be motivating as well. I personally chose 20 books. I’ve already met that goal and read over that amount, so I’ll probably change that limit soon.

I’m more motivated to read because I know that I’ll get to check off that I finished a book on my Goodreads. This is probably a questionable mindset, but since I love reading and this motivates me to make time for it, I’m okay with that. 🙂 I’m just that type of person, so Goodreads has been helpful for me in that regard.

It’s also useful in case you’re looking for new books to read! They suggest book recommendations off of the categories you choose or the books you’ve read, and of course you can read the reviews to get a taste of whether you’d actually like them or not.

If you already have an ongoing list of books you’d like to read, it definitely makes it easier to keep track of them. I’ll get recommendations from friends or hear about different books in passing that I’d like to read, but I’ll easily forget about them if I don’t write them down somewhere. Even if I do manage to write them down, I rarely end up following through with reading the book and I usually end up losing the note to myself. Not anymore!

My “Want to Read” list is at least 70 books at the moment, so I definitely have a lot to go through. I’m proud to say that during quarantine I’ve reread almost every single book on my bookshelf and rated it on Goodreads for future reference. I can’t stress enough how helpful the five-star rating system and shelves are for an organized yet forgetful person like me.

Quarantine is also a huge part of this equation. I wouldn’t have had time to play with Goodreads or read so many books in the past couple months in general if it wasn’t for being stuck in my house. That’s one of the few upsides of this situation, and one that I plan on continuing taking advantage of.

This probably sounded like a weird ad for Goodreads- I know it’s been around forever and so it’s not exactly groundbreaking news, but using it is a new habit of mine and I wanted to share how it’s impacted my reading. I hope you still enjoyed it and are inspired to go check out the website if you’re like me and haven’t before. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

What Is My Blog About?

Brooke2 Comments

Hello all!

If you’re new to my blog, welcome! This is a good place to start and learn about the various topics I write about on here. If you’ve been reading for a while, welcome back. I’ve made a couple of these posts before introducing my blog and the different directions I’ve taken it in, but I’m hoping to clarify what kinds of content you can count on me to be posting and gain some feedback as to what you guys may have started reading my blog for/what type of content is your favorite.

I started this blog last summer, so it’s not exactly new. However, every time I start to produce new types of content or expand my horizons, it kind of feels as if my blog is reborn. I started it with a very short-term intent of covering my summer travels in France and Italy, but once I came home from my trip, I continued to write about all the other things I was doing in summer. Eventually the school year rolled around, and I made a lot of content regarding school advice and high school stuff- hence my blog name “Adventures of a Typical High School Student.” I continued to write about any little trips I happened to go on, but this blog was definitely not a travel-centered blog.

Here’s a list of all the main types of content I have produced or am currently producing:

  • Travel, as I already stated (this includes my school trips/extracurricular related travel and camps)
  • School advice for high school and middle school, study tips, etc.
  • Sharing my school experiences- how I was a cheerleader, being in yearbook, etc.
  • Posts about the journey of college admissions and starting it in high school- APs, standardized tests, college tours, activities
  • Random musings of questions/my opinions about life, psychology, and success
  • Reviews (TV, books, movies)
  • Lists- I’m a huge list person, so I’ve made lots of lists- lists of trends, my favorite things, etc.
  • Cleaning and organization tips
  • The occasional political post (I’m in Youth and Government and pretty interested in politics)
  • Positivity and motivation related posts- I’ve talked about the Law of Attraction
  • Creative writing tips/advice and other content related to my love of reading and writing
  • Sharing my poems/prose and other writing

Clearly, my mind’s in a million places and there’s tons of topics I’m interested in writing about. If you’ve become a reader of my blog more recently, you’d probably notice that most of my posts lately have been sharing my writing or other content related to reading and writing, fitting under the last two bullet points on the list above. This blog has led me to rediscover my love of all types of reading and writing, and those two things take up a huge portion of my time (especially right now during quarantine) so naturally I’ve been writing about them more. I’ve also had the most/best feedback on my writing related posts, so I figured I should focus on that.

I still don’t feel ready to turn this blog into a writing-only focused blog, or a blog where I’m just sharing my own work. I’m not even sure if the latter would still be considered a blog; it would almost be like a personal website or portfolio. If you’re here mainly for my writing content, please stick around- you won’t be disappointed, as I plan to focus mainly on that. However, the title of this blog reflects a lot more than just writing content, and it’s meant to be a place for me to share all my random thoughts, so if you’re here for any of the other stuff, please stick around as well. I want this to be a place where anyone can find something they resonate with, because as Cristian Mihai from The Art of Blogging states, blogging should be a conversation.

If you’re still reading this, thank you. It’s been awesome to work on this blog and publicize random ideas from the utmost corners of my mind and see that people are actually reading my ramblings and maybe even enjoying them??? It would be much appreciated if you could comment what post drew you into my blog, and what type of content out of the variety of categories I write is your favorite/what you come back to read. This will help me know how to diversify what I’m posting in a way where you guys are gaining something from my posts. That being said, I will continue to be myself on here, and there will definitely always be a few random surprises 🙂

Brooke

8 Things I’ve Been Missing While Quarantined

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

I’m sure we all have those things we never expected to miss going into quarantine, but actually found ourselves longing for a few weeks into it. I never thought I would miss the hustle and bustle of my busy schedule so much, but here I am! Today I’m going to be sharing a list of 10 things I miss from my normal/pre-coronavirus life with you all, in hopes of inspiring gratitude for the things we don’t normally realize we’re lucky to have or experience.

What I Miss #1: Car rides to and from school.

This was a shock to me, but I do actually miss looking out the window, noticing how busy everyone else is, and people watching during my twenty to thirty minute commute to and from school. It’s my peaceful time to listen to music or have heart-to-hearts with my mom, and I miss that little space of peace in my day.

What I Miss #2: Seeing my teachers and learning in a classroom.

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’d know that I love my teachers (and learning in general) and so I obviously miss them a lot. I’m thankful that they’ve been understanding and helpful/accessible throughout this online learning process, but I miss getting to see them and have them explain things in person. I also miss sitting next to my friends in class and getting to chat with them while working or before/after class.

What I Miss #3: Getting up early.

I’m a morning person, but I don’t see the point in still getting up super-early when no one in my house will be awake and I’ll have to be quiet. Also, I’ve been staying up a bit later than normal to watch Netflix or read. However, I miss starting my day early and seeing the last moments of the sunrise as I get ready for school.

What I Miss #4: Yearbook hump days.

Let me explain this one: every Wednesday in yearbook we would take turns bringing a sweet treat/some form of food for the class, just as a reward for making it halfway through the week and a little bonding thing. I definitely miss looking forward to see what would be brought in and getting to celebrate making it halfway through the week with my fellow staff members. I also miss everyone from yearbook so much in general.

What I Miss #5: Club meetings at lunchtime.

I miss all the activities I was involved in at school- most of the clubs I’m in haven’t made any plans to meet online just because we’re fairly small or the activities we normally do can’t really be done online. It’s weird not running around campus and getting to spend time with different groups of people. I’m also sad a lot of events ended up getting cancelled, particularly some events for my Spanish Honors Society.

What I Miss #6: Volunteering at my local animal shelter.

I’ve mentioned this on this blog a few times before, but I usually volunteer at the animal shelter every weekend for a couple hours and just take care of the dogs. I miss the cute little dogs so much!! Their adorable faces would always brighten my day, and it was nice to get to interact with the potential adopters there.

What I Miss #7: Going to get food.

My family has still been getting takeout to help support local businesses, but I miss being able to spontaneously grab lunch with my mom or go get a treat like frozen yogurt when having a tough day. It’s also a major social activity in my area usually, since we live in the suburbs and there’s not much to do out of the house besides go out to eat and a couple other main options.

What I Miss #8: Seeing my friends.

This is the most obvious one which is why I didn’t put it in the beginning, but I know we all probably miss our friends so much. Even the simplest conversations at school or being in the presence of some of my less-close, acquaintance type friends are missed. I’m really craving that social interaction right now, because FaceTime and contact over social media isn’t the same.

I hope this inspires you to make your own list of things you miss. I didn’t make this to mope in a negative way, but to recognize the things that I’m grateful for so I can appreciate them more once life goes back to normal and I experience them again. These times really are crazy, but it will be a huge relief when things go back to normal. I’m wishing the best for our world, and my heart goes out to any of you who have experienced hardships because of the virus. Stay safe and healthy!

Brooke

Summer Writing Programs Update – COVID-19 & My Thoughts

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember my mentions of applying for writing-related summer programs and awaiting my admissions decisions. I was waitlisted at the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference in early March, and I was still waiting on my decision to the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop. If you’re interested in hearing an update on that, as well as a general update on what’s going on with summer programs/activities in the time of COVID-19, keep on reading.

First, a quick disclaimer: I do not want to sound self-centered in this post and I am fully aware that there are people in much tougher situations than me/impacted by the virus a lot more directly and I do not mean to take away from that. I am just sharing an update on another thing that the coronavirus has impacted and how that affects me personally. As you might guess from the title of this post and the direction things have been going with the coronavirus, the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop was sadly cancelled for this year. I think the most frustrating part for me was just that they didn’t even release official decisions, so I don’t even know if I would’ve gotten in or not. I understand why they did this as it wouldn’t be useful to get people upset or worked up over a program that was cancelled anyways, but I worked hard on my application and would’ve liked to know what they thought of it.

I haven’t heard back from the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference as to if I got accepted off of the waitlist. In the original admissions decision email, the main date to watch for a waitlist acceptance was April 6th, so I think it’s safe to say I will not be attending. I’m assuming it will probably end up being cancelled anyways since so many other summer programs are, so I’m sorry to anyone who was lucky enough to get accepted and planned on attending.

I actually ended up applying to two more summer programs that I didn’t mention on this blog, simply because I’ve only recently applied to them during these quarantine times. I applied to the CSPA journalism workshop hosted at Cal Poly, and I actually found out only a week after I applied that I got in! I sadly was forced to decline my offer of admission since they needed a non-refundable deposit by April 6th, and I was still waiting to hear from Kenyon and possibly an update from Sewanee. Lastly, I applied to The Adroit Journal‘s Summer Mentorship Program. It’s super competitive (even more competitive than I thought when I decided to apply… yikes) but I love Adroit and it sounded awesome (and corona-proof since it’s all online and remote) so I just kinda went for it. I’m not sure when I’ll hear back from them, but my hopes are not very high.

So, what does this all mean? I’m obviously disappointed that I won’t have the opportunity to get away from home by myself and experience the immersive atmosphere of Kenyon or Sewanee’s programs, but I know that there’s much bigger problems in the world and I’m privileged just to have gotten the chance to apply. I’m praying that coronavirus’s threat calms down by summer what with all our efforts to stay home and flatten the curve so that I can utilize one or multiple of the backup summer plans I originally thought of (summer job, internship, taking dual-enrollment classes at my local community college, volunteering, etc.), and just for the sake of everyone’s health and safety. That being said, if summer ends up being a big quarantine-fest as well, I guess I’ll just have plenty of time to write and blog, continuing the creative pursuits that I’ve been spending time doing so far.

For anyone who was lucky enough to secure their summer plan of choice or get accepted into their dream summer program, I am so sorry if it has been cancelled or impacted in some other way by coronavirus. That doesn’t diminish your accomplishment, and just know that your abilities or talent aren’t confined to a program or internship offer anyways. We’re all in this together, and we’ll all be finding alternative ways to pursue what we love at home during these strange and trying times. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

Is It Even Possible to Be 100% Stress Free?

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

I realized I hadn’t done one of these types of posts where I analyze a broad question about mental health/life in a while, so today I decided to write my thoughts on this particular question that had been sitting in my drafts. I will be dissecting the question posed in the title of this post: is it even possible to be 100% stress free? The short answer is no, as most of you probably suspected, or even knew from your own experiences with stress. But why? Let’s talk about it.

So first of all, even if you don’t know the science behind this or much about how our brains work/bodies respond to stuff, I bet you could infer based off of your own life that there’s always going to be some stress. Driving creates a lot of stress for some people, being late to events, having a lot to work, worrying about the current COVID-19 pandemic… there’s always things going on in your life that are going to cause some stress. Some people are way better handling this than others (hint: I’m horrible at handling stress so not me), but even the most relaxed people or disciplined people in managing stress will have that first response of worry before they use their coping tools to calm themselves down.

As far as the science behind it, stress is a natural bodily response to scary/intense/worrisome situations and our attempts to face them. Stress triggers the sympathetic nervous system, which in turn triggers our body’s fight-or-flight response. In fact, this Psychology Today article by F. Diane Barth discusses how we even stress about relaxing or stress about our current stress because of the body’s responses to the initial stress. It’s a really interesting article, and Psychology Today is a great place in general to look up answers to any psychology-related questions you may have, so you should check that out if you’re interested; I used it a ton as a resource for random questions when I was taking AP Psych online.

Based on both general intuition and scientific principles of the brain and our responses to stress, we know that it’s impossible to eliminate stress completely. But what about the people who get really close, and don’t seem to experience much (if any) stress in their lives? Well, as cheesy at it sounds, I think it’s all in your perception of things. First of all, people may be freaking out internally, but keeping a calm front as not to alarm others; we’ve all done that at least once before, right? I know I do it with my family members if I’ve accidentally messed up or made a mess that I need help cleaning up. Second, even if people are more laid-back, it’s usually just in their nature based on the household they grew up in, or they’ve worked very hard to make themselves better at coping with stressful situations.

For example, if you work under high-stress conditions at a corporate job, you’ll probably end up adapting after a few years and more trivial tasks won’t stress you out as much. As far as the home environment thing goes, some people grow up in families where their parents were laid-back people as well, so they grow up holding onto that lifestyle. My dad has apparently always been someone who barely ever gets stressed out, and I’m guessing he always will be.

Other times, it takes a ton of discipline to develop the coping tools some people need to deal with stress in a healthier, more manageable way. I’ve been trying my best to do this since I was in my later years of elementary school, as I’ve always been an anxious person who gets stressed when there’s not even much to be worried about. Here I’ll include a short list of some things/tools that help you get better at dealing with stress, and things that have worked for me.

  • Meditation – When I’m really overwhelmed, this is the only thing that quiets my mind. I like to use the Headspace app, but I only do the free ones- I haven’t gotten a subscription yet. I’ve also heard the Calm app is good, but I’ve never tried it.
  • Reframing – This helps you get out of your head in “worry-land” and brings you back to reality. Remember when you get stressed, you’re usually only focusing on the bad in a situation, so you’re not looking at the full picture. Reframe your perspective to find the silver lining and/or assure yourself everything will eventually be okay, because it will!
  • Being positive/using the Law of Attraction – If you keep telling yourself positive things, you’ll start to believe them, and then they’ll come true. I’ve mentioned the Law of Attraction a few times on this blog before, and I highly recommend at least giving it a try.
  • Reading self-help books – Honestly, this isn’t a direct link to lowering your stress, but I always feel so organized and put-together in my life when I’m reading a book about how to be just those things. I highly recommend finding some reading material, particularly related to whatever areas of your life you’re stressing over.

I hope this little list helps anyone in need of some ideas to reduce stress, and I hope you’re all doing okay under the stressful conditions at the moment. Just remember you will be fine as long as you wash your hands and make smart decisions as far as following government orders, and try to make the most of your time at home. Let me know what you do to reduce your stress if you have any helpful tips as well 🙂

Brooke