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My Poetry Writing Process

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I will be sharing how I write my poems and basically my whole writing process. I will admit it’s nothing special or anything that can’t easily be replicated- it’s mainly based on how I’m feeling or what I’m inspired to write about. That being said, I’ve seen and heard other writers talk about what works for them and what their writing processes are, so I figured I would share. Keep on reading if you want to know what I do when I’m ready to write a poem!

Obviously I don’t go through the same process every time I write something. Occasionally, ideas will pop into my head and I’ll quickly jot them down in my phone’s Notes, but this is for when I’m churning out a lot of writing in one sitting, or I’m feeling particularly inspired. I decided it would be best to outline it step-by-step, so here are the main points I wanted to hit.

  1. Gather my materials. I’m not super picky about what pen I’m writing with, but I do have one spiral notebook that I tend to write all my handwritten poetry in/lists of inspiration for my writing. I sometimes type rather than writing since I can get my thoughts out quicker, so if I already have an idea of what I want to write about or I’m planning to write a poem about a specific experience/topic for my blog, I’ll just start typing my poem in a Word document. However, if I’m just feeling like writing or using poetry to cope with a stressful, emotional day, I’ll usually choose to write it in the aforementioned spiral and determine whether or not I’ll share it somewhere later on.
  2. Find the right environment/position. Again, this varies on what I’m feeling/what level of inspiration I’m at/what purpose I have in writing at the time, but I have three main places I write. If I’m just writing for fun and myself, I’ll usually spread out on my bedroom floor. If I’m trying to write something for this blog or a different purpose that’s more structured but I’m not quite sure what I want to write about yet, I’ll go and sit outside in my backyard for a while to think while I write and draw inspiration from nature. If I’m writing for a structured purpose and already have an idea of what to write about, I usually sit at my desk and write there.
  3. Start writing and get my thoughts out. I don’t edit myself while writing or stop to think about what words are actually going on the page. I just try to express my ideas before I lose my train of thought, and I stop when that train of thought comes to an end. I think it’s important to remember that you can always edit later, but you can’t always retrieve a lost thought from your memory.
  4. Title the poem. This is a personal preference, but I like to title my poems right after I finish them, unless I really can’t think of a title and feel it fits better to leave the piece without one. I’m not sure how other people come up with titles, but for me they’ll usually just pop in my brain as I reread the poem I’ve just written, or I’ll pull from the general subject matter of the poem. It helps to ask yourself, what do I want people to think this poem is about?
  5. Self-edit and/or restructure the poem. Honestly, a lot of times I don’t edit my poems until long after I’ve written them, if I’m planning to submit them for publication or something. I do a light edit on the poems I post here before I schedule the post to go up just to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes, but I don’t really polish my work too much unless I’m sending it in somewhere. However, sometimes I will restructure my stanzas/lines if I think the structure of the poem looks a bit odd or uneven/lopsided in an unintentional way. It’s all about personal preference, so I just eyeball it.
  6. Save it/type it/decide what to do with it. Like I said, I write all the time, often with different purposes in mind. There are a lot of poems I’ve just written to get myself through hard times and express my emotions; I prefer doing so through poetry rather than journaling or something similar. A lot of the poems I write myself are quite short, random, and frankly, I don’t think anyone would be interested in reading them or publishing them. However, for poems that I share on my blog, I usually know that a poem will go on here as I write it. Any other poems that I don’t share on here and that I think are good enough to make their way out into the world, I research a good place to submit them for possible publication in contests or teen publications. I really haven’t submitted many of my poems anywhere (besides my huge writing sample for summer program applications) so as you would guess, I haven’t had much success with getting published. I had my first poem published this fall in the Just Poetry National High School Poetry contest fall anthology, which was an awesome honor.

I hope this was interesting or somehow helpful; I’m not sure how unique or necessary my specific writing process is, but it is what it is! Feel free to share any essential steps in your writing processes in the comments- I would love to hear about them 🙂

Brooke

Trying to Improve Your Life? Read This!

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

This is going to be a more random post, as it’s an idea I’ve had in my drafts since October. I figured now was a good time to finally write it, as I knew I (and you guys, too) could use some positivity during these disheartening and crazy times. I’m just going to be sharing with you a few places I’ve found inspiration and helpful words of encouragement, particularly about being successful in certain aspects of life/improving one’s life. If you’re interested, keep on reading!

For general tips:

  • Using the Law of Attraction – I’m not the best person to explain this, but the main principle is that your attitude manifests things into your life because the universe is giving you what aligns with your vibrations. In order to bring good things into your life, you should not only be positive, but think about them as if you already have what you want/being grateful for it. Good resources for learning about the Law of Attraction are thelawofattraction.com, The Secret documentary on Netflix, and YouTube videos if you just look it up (I found Luca Whitaker’s to be simple and helpful).
  • Looking at motivating websites – I’m a sucker for a motivational article. Recently I’ve liked looking at success.com because they have a ton of articles about how to be successful and productive in different areas of your life. Honestly, finding a specific website/publication/magazine that aligns with what you’re currently interested is a great way to improve your current mindset regarding that aspect of your life, whatever it is.
  • Pinterest – I know this seems like a weird thing to recommend, just a straight-out social media platform, but Pinterest is such a good platform when you need motivation or inspiration. I like to look up inspirational quotes and find some that I like, but a lot of people also use the Law of Attraction by making a Pinterest board of things they want to manifest/their dream life.

For improving blogging:

  • The Art of Blogging by Christian Mihai – I don’t have too much experience in seeking out resources for how to blog correctly because I made my blog for fun, but this blog by Christian Mihai here on WordPress taught me a lot about the basics. If you’re looking to turn your blog into a business or trying to get on the track to success, definitely read his posts.

For improving your grades/academic life:

  • ANY book by Cal Newport – I read one of Cal Newport’s books a year ago, and it was so eye opening. He has great, blunt advice about how to succeed in school (both high school and college/grad school) without going insane and burning yourself out, and I just find his advice reassuring in general. I can’t say I’ve put all his advice into practice, but I try to live by most of his advice and it truly is helpful, even if you can’t put it into practice completely either.
  • Studygrams – Looking at YouTubers or Studygram accounts on Instagram (Study for Success is one of my favorites, and she has Instagram and YouTube) motivates me because I see their studying routines and perfect notes, and I want that for myself. You might get some serious handwriting envy 😉 but it’s worth it if it motivates you.
  • Pomodoro method – Get an app that has a Pomodoro timer; it just times your studying/working for 25 minute sections with 5 minute breaks to maximize productivity. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it might work for you!

For improving writing:

  • Keep writing – Yeah, I’m not an expert writer. No one really is. But if you keep doing something, you’re bound to get better at it. Try writing a poem every day, or blocking out a certain amount of time (even if only 15 minutes) everyday to write something.
  • Read – I know, I know, everyone says this. But it’s true! By reading more, I’ve been so inspired to try different things in my writing, and you get to see what works for different genres and styles of writers.
  • Send your writing where it will get feedback – For teens, I recommend submitting your work to Polyphony Lit. You’ll have the chance at getting published, but even if your work is rejected, they have multiple editors (I’m one of them!) whose job is to write a complete set of commentary on each piece, so you’ll get tons of feedback in the end. Otherwise, find fellow writers who are willing to exchange work, or forums (Reddit, maybe?).

I know there are so many aspects of life you might be looking to improve, so I’m sorry that I only specifically addressed a few; however, I thought it made the most sense to just address the 4 main topics I discuss on this blog. I hope this helps you out, and inspires you to try out some of the things I mentioned. Please let me know if any of them end up working out for you.

Brooke

My Favorite Gluten-Free Snacks & Meals

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I will be sharing my favorite gluten-free snacks and foods that I have been eating while being gluten-free/limiting my gluten intake. If you haven’t read my post from yesterday about the reasons I went gluten-free, you should go check it out as well. A couple of these are gluten-free substitutes to foods that normally have gluten in them, but most of them are foods that just don’t have gluten in them, many that I would eat before starting my gluten-free diet; if you’re wondering why they seem pretty common/unoriginal ideas, that might be why. If you’re interested in finding out what I’ve been eating lately, keep on reading!

  • Chocolate Chex – This definitely isn’t the most healthy snack, but I love snacking on cereal, and this cereal happens to be delicious and gluten-free. I had it as my “dessert” on a lot of school nights. Another good cereal snacking option would be good ol’ Cheerios!
  • Burrito bowls (steak, brown rice, black & pinto beans) – This is my favorite lunch. Burritos are one of my favorite foods, but obviously flour tortillas are not gluten-free, so I’ve settled for burrito bowls, which are delicious in their own right. I love to get this exact type of burrito bowl I described at Sharky’s 🙂
  • Burgers (lettuce wrapped) – I can’t say no to a good burger, so I just asked for my burgers at a lettuce wrap at my normal favorite places. It gets some getting used to at first and some places use a lot more lettuce than others, but you still get your meat/protein.
  • Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Nut Kind Bars – These are the tastiest granola bars ever!!! I discovered them at a volunteer meeting where they gave them out to everyone, and I was hooked. I’ve had one in my lunch everyday since.
  • Trader Joe’s brown rice pasta – This honestly tastes just like normal pasta in my opinion (and I’m picky), so I’d say it’s a win. I also love brown rice in general, so that’s a good side dish if you’re looking for one.
  • Toast (gluten-free bread) with fruit – I thought gluten-free bread would be gross, but it’s actually really good toasted. This is my favorite breakfast food at the moment, since I would normally have normal toast with fruit.
  • Hard-boiled eggs – This is a good protein-filled snack or breakfast food. I used to have scrambled eggs in the morning everyday, but hard-boiled eggs are better for on-the-go and rushing in the morning, and I’ve always liked them.
  • Gluten-free chicken nuggets – This is another unhealthy food, but they taste the same as normal chicken nuggets! I’m not exactly sure what brand my mom got, but I think it might be MorningStar. They’re really good and an easy dinner food.

These are honestly the main things that I’ve been eating ever since I went gluten-free. I will say, one gluten-free food I will not recommend is gluten-free pizza. I had some from my favorite pizza place, and it was so disappointing compared to the texture and flavor of their normal pizza. I’m guessing that’s the case with a lot of gluten-free substitutes. I hope this helped you out if you’re looking to to try a gluten-free diet soon. Let me know if you have any recommendations of your own 🙂

Brooke

Why I Went Gluten-Free

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

This is definitely a different topic than what I normally talk about on this blog, but it’s something new that I’ve incorporated into my life and I figured I might as well feature it on here. I have been loosely gluten-free for almost a month now (I’ve had a few days where I ate pizza because I was at friends’ houses and such), and it’s been an interesting experience since I’ve never been on any other sort of “diet” or had food restrictions. I had a couple different motives for deciding to make this change, so I wanted to share my reasoning and experience.

My first and main reason for attempting a gluten-free diet was my constant stomach issues. I’m not exactly sure what’s wrong with my stomach or if it’s a digestive issue, but I had been having burning stomach pain and discomfort as well as issues in the bathroom, and my mom suggested I might have some sort of gluten intolerance. At the time the stomach pains were so intense that I was willing to try anything to make them go away, so we went to the grocery store to get gluten-free bread and pasta, among other things.

I quickly realized that gluten was not the root of my stomach issues. I felt a little better since without eating gluten, I was less bloated by the end of each day, but I still had the burning sensations. However, I decided to stick it through with eating gluten-free because it wasn’t that bad or that drastic of a change, and my friend who went through a similar thing said it takes more than a couple weeks to get all the gluten out of your system.

Before this little experiment, most of the food I ate in a day included gluten, since I eat a lot of carbs and I have a major sweet tooth. This was the second big reason I wanted to play around with being gluten-free; I figured it would force me to eat a little healthier since I couldn’t eat all the cookies and treats that I normally would eat for dessert or go with my friends to get on weekends. It was an easy way to also cut a lot of sugar out of my diet, and I saw results from this; my skin cleared up for the first time in a couple months, and I felt like I looked a lot less bloated everyday.

It was definitely difficult since I did normally eat so many carbs, but it was easy for the most part during the school week. I’ll be making a post shortly about all my favorite gluten-free snacks and meals, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested. I wanted to mention that going gluten-free isn’t necessarily “healthy,” as you can make it as healthy or as unhealthy as you want to. There are definitely lots of gluten-free substitutes and recipes for cookies and cakes, I just chose not to go that route since one of my main goals was cutting out some of those treats and impulses I normally have. I used the strategy of mainly just avoiding foods with gluten, but there were a few substitutes I got like gluten-free bread.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my gluten-free experience thus far. I’m going to continue monitoring how much gluten I have and trying to avoid eating foods with gluten, but I’m not going to continue a strict gluten-free diet. I think it always helps to try out new things to see if they work for you, but I’m still searching for the cause of my stomach problems. Let me know if you have any recommendations 🙂

Brooke

My Current Reading List

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

As I’ve had more free time on my hands lately, I knew I wanted to do some reading while I had the chance to explore new books. I made a mini list of the books I wanted to read before spring break was over, and I’m trying my best to read everything on it, if not even more books beyond it. If you’re interested in seeing what books I’m currently reading/going to read, keep on reading! A few of these I’ve already read since originally making this reading list, but they’re all books that my English teacher or other people have recently recommended to me.

  • Animal Farm by George Orwell – I actually read this in 8th grade in English class so I already have a copy, but we’re reading 1984 in my current English class and my English teacher suggested we read Animal Farm if we were interested in more of Orwell’s work. I remember really liking Animal Farm, so I want to revisit it, especially now that I’ve learned about all of the history behind it in AP Euro this year.
  • A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova – Another recommendation from my English teacher, this again sounded intriguing since I’ll understand the historical context from AP Euro. It’s also not something I would normally read, so I figured I would give it a try.
  • Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell – My English teacher gave us a brief synopsis of this, and I was immediately drawn in. I ordered it on Amazon and I can’t wait to read it! I really like Orwell’s work if you can’t tell.
  • Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell – This was added to my list last minute since the edition of Down and Out in Paris and London that I ordered from Amazon also includes this work. I don’t really know anything about it, but I’m excited to read it.
  • Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys – I read Jane Eyre in my English class at the beginning of the year, and my English teacher suggested we check out this prequel sort of book after. I had made a mental note to read it at some point but never ended up taking initiative to do so until now, so I’m excited to revisit the world of Mr. Rochester. It sounds intriguing and I’m a sucker for a good prequel type story.
  • Walt Whitman (Selected Poems Collection) by Walt Whitman/State Street Press – This is a little weird since it’s just a book I found on my parents’ bookshelf full of classics and “fancy” books, but I’d heard of Walt Whitman before and since I know a lot of his poems relate to history, I figured it would be an interesting read. I’ve read about half of it so far, but it’s been taking me some time to digest each poem and interpret it.
  • W.B. Yeats (Selected Poems Collection) by W.B. Yeats/State Street Press – This is from the same publisher and it’s the same style collection as the Walt Whitman one, which I also found on my parents’ bookshelf. The name Yeats sounds familiar, but beyond that I’m honestly just trying to expose myself to as much poetry and different work as possible.

I hope this reading list inspired you to make your own, or possibly even read some of these books! I know it’s kind of a strange mix, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone as well as read some books that my parents already had around the house. Let me know if you have any recommendations 🙂

Brooke

Personal Life Update & What I’ll Be Doing Over Break

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

I wanted to do a little personal check-in since I feel like I’ve only mentioned bits and pieces of what’s going on with me on this blog lately. I did make a couple posts about COVID-19 that you could say were more on the personal side, but that wasn’t my intention in making them. In case you want to hear more random things about my life or some insight into a teen’s perspective on life at the moment, keep on reading!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you would know that I write all of my posts for a week the weekend before, so as I am writing this I’m not sure if I will be back in school by the week you’re reading it. However, I’m still going to talk about what my new plans for spring break are, and what else is going on in my life. During the first (possibly only but I doubt it) week of our so-called “corona break” from school, I hung out with my friends one-on-one, tried to get ahead on schoolwork just in case, and cleaned my room. It was the typical type of stuff that I would do if I had extra time to myself on any other week/weekend.

I was disappointed when my mom and I had to cancel our spring break road trip to San Fransisco, but I knew it was for the best. I got my driver’s permit on February 18th, and I’ve barely been able to practice driving, so I plan to do a lot of that over spring break. Driving is more stressful and harder than I expected it to be; I’m fairly young for my grade because I have a summer birthday, and a lot of my friends have turned 16 and have their driver’s licenses already. They’ve all told me how easy it is once you get the hang of it, and how fun it is to drive, but I haven’t really experienced that yet. I’m super anxious and paranoid behind the wheel, and it doesn’t help that I live in Southern California in a fairly traffic-filled area. I’m hoping to get better though, and definitely have been sticking to practicing in residential neighborhoods for now.

I’m also awaiting my final responses from the summer programs I applied to. A few days ago, I actually got a response from the Sewanee Young Writers Conference (*cue drumroll*) and…. I was waitlisted. When I first opened up the email and read my decision I was upset, but the more I thought about it, I’m actually happy and kind of honored. I’ve never applied to anything of the sort and I’ve only really gotten into writing this year, so to be recognized in some way and not get a straight-up rejection was actually somewhat validation for me in a way that I haven’t gotten before. I’m crossing my fingers a spot opens up and/or that I get into Kenyon’s program, but I’m definitely not too upset about the waitlist.

Speaking of semi-rejection, I also applied to be on my school district’s student advisory committee a month ago. I received an email that I was a finalist for the three or four spots open reserved for students from my specific high school, so I had an interview with the committee advisor and the committee’s president. I thought the interview went pretty well and I was hopeful that I would get the spot, but I received an email a week later that they did not choose me to be one of the new representatives. I was really disappointed since it sounded like a great opportunity, but everything happens for a reason and it would’ve added another significant time commitment to my plate.

All my activities have come to a halt in light of the COVID-19 issues, so I don’t really have much on the calendar for spring so far. Yearbook had its last deadline, I have a few more volunteer meetings and leadership meetings, and I’m still consistently being forwarded submissions from Polyphony to edit. In one of the volunteer groups I’m in, I got a leadership position for next year- I’m the corresponding secretary who will keep track of everybody’s volunteer hours and run a social media account. Youth and Government had its last meeting a few weeks ago, and I actually won the Outstanding Sophomore of the Year award! It was voted on by the rest of my delegation and advisors, so I was super honored to win a special award as a first-year member. Other than that as far as activities go, I’m just keeping up with this blog and writing in my free time.

It feels weird to talk about school right now, but I feel like it’s always necessary to do a little check-in. I can’t believe it’s my last quarter of sophomore year, and that I’m going to be a junior. I was supposed to register for my junior year classes, but that day was one of the days during our first week of school closure. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that, but I’m not mad about it being postponed since there’s so many class options and junior year classes are so important; I know I’ll have trouble deciding what classes to take, even though I already have a clear idea of what I think I’ll pick.

It just is so odd to think another summer is on the horizon, and that I’m going to be halfway done with high school/an upperclassman. Soon I’ll have to worry about studying for and taking standardized testing, and actually touring colleges with the intention of possibly applying to them and going there one day. There’s so much ahead, and time is only flying by faster. I’m honestly excited for most of it, but it’s definitely nerve-wracking as well.

At home, things are still chaotic. My grandma is still staying with my family and it looks like she’ll be sticking around for longer than we thought, since she hasn’t been able to go house-hunting in light of the coronavirus epidemic and being cautious about social-distancing since she’s in an at-risk age group. I hope you all are staying safe and managing well at home. It’s been nice to have time to relax in my room, but I’m also going a little stir-crazy.

I hope it wasn’t too boring to read this little update on my life. Things have been so crazy that I wouldn’t be surprised if I forgot to mention something, but I figured I had written enough. Feel free to let me know how your lives are going, I would love to talk to some of you 🙂

Brooke

10 Pastimes If Your School Has Closed & You’re Stuck at Home

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

If you’ve read my last few posts, you would know that I have been off this entire week due to school closures in fear of the coronavirus spreading throughout my area. If you’re in a similar situation or have completely switched to online classes for the rest of the semester, you might have a lot more free time on your hands right now that you’re not sure what to do with, especially if you’re not supposed to be leaving the house at all/for unnecessary things. Keep on reading if you want some ideas for what to do at home while you’re bored!

  1. Read for fun! I know, I know, it sounds like something an adult would suggest. But what can you expect from a girl who loves to read and write? If you don’t have a book or some other material you’re interested in reading at home, find some material online- I know a lot of libraries are physically closed, but some have online options so you can check books out from there!
  2. Do your schoolwork. Yeah, this one’s probably a last resort (just kidding, teachers!) but it’s important. I haven’t been switched to online school yet at the time of writing this so I don’t really have any work to do, but when I was really bored I decided to get ahead on some of my work for English and AP Euro. If you actually have online classes, then it’s even more important to get your work done. Similarly, you could study for your AP tests since those will definitely be a little hectic with the uncertainty of school right now. You can also study for the SAT/ACT if you haven’t taken it yet or if yours got postponed.
  3. Bake/cook something. This kind of depends on your current situation; if grocery stores near you are wiped out, you probably don’t want to waste ingredients/food on a whim. However, if you have plenty of food around to spare, try out a recipe and have a nice family dinner. I know things get hectic during the school year and often having everyone together for a meal becomes rare during the busy weeks.
  4. Write a nice note to someone. Check in on your extended family and your friends, particularly if you haven’t talked to them since the virus madness started. Send an email, text, DM, Snapchat, whatever. It helps if you’re feeling lonely- this is one of those times where we can really see the benefits of social media. You can be FaceTiming your friends and digitally hanging out even though you can’t see each other at school!
  5. Catch up on TV/movies/videos. I finally got to watch some movies I’d been wanting to watch, and I watched all the videos in my YouTube subscription box that I hadn’t yet. Yes, it’s a more mindless activity, but it can be enjoyable and take your mind off things if you’re particularly stressed about the situation at hand, since I know a lot of people get anxious about getting sick.
  6. Learn something new. Practice a new language on Duolingo, do some random research on a topic you’ve always wanted to read more about, ask your family members at home with you to tell you a story from their childhood you’ve never heard before. Just do something different, or something that will stimulate your brain in the absence of being in a normal classroom.
  7. Do something creative. If you like to write, work on a new story or write some poems. If you’re an artist, draw or paint a new piece. Find some way to express your creativity. I feel like time alone at home is the perfect environment to do this- just enough boredom to inspire something great out of it.
  8. Clean your house. This is the perfect time to clean out a closet or drawer that you haven’t had time to. Sanitation-wise, it’s also a good idea to make sure your house is actually clean; you can vacuum/clean the floors, dust, scrub the bathtubs, etc. I cleaned out my desk the first day of the week that I didn’t have school, and it felt really nice to have a clean space, especially since I was going to be spending so much time there throughout the week.
  9. Make plans for the future, when everything’s back to normal. Plan a trip you can go on once it’s safe to travel again. Talk with friends about what you want to do once you can all hang out in public places normally again. If you have specific plans, it’ll give you something to look forward to and remind you that this situation is only temporary.
  10. Practice extra self-care. Now you have an excuse to pamper yourself at home- you finally have the time! Take a hot bath, relax with a face mask, light candles. You might as well, if you’re going to have so much me-time. It’ll also help calm you in these stressful and strange times, which is very important.

I hope these ideas help you out if you’re bored or going stir-crazy within your house. I hope you are all safe and healthy, and wishing for our return to normalcy as soon as possible. Let me know if you have any more ideas you think should be on this list, or if you need someone to talk to 🙂

Brooke

COVID-19 In My Community

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

After my post about coronavirus yesterday, I figured I could add a little personal update. If you haven’t read my post from yesterday, you should go check it out- it was just some information about how the virus is affecting high schools in my area and elsewhere, and all the indirect consequences it’s having on education around the country and world. Although I included a lot of information specific to my school, I didn’t talk about my feelings and situation regarding coronavirus specifically. Since I have the spare time and have just started my week off from school while writing this, I figured I could give you a more personal perspective on how the virus is affecting me and my community, aside from school closures.

At the time of writing this, there are just around 10 confirmed cases of the virus in my county. Nonetheless, stores are completely wiped out of frozen foods, wipes, water, and toilet paper- my mother said the line at Costco was about a half hour long just to get in the store, so she gave up on going. We’re not sure how things are going to play out. A lot of people have continued their lives as usual, with some of my friends hanging out because of school being out for the week, and everyone in my neighborhood being out and about. My parents are making me be a lot more careful as my elderly grandmother is still residing in our house for the time being (and will most likely be for a lot longer time now that she can’t be out house hunting) and we have to make sure none of us get sick and spread anything to her.

I’m normally a fairly paranoid person when it comes to disease and sickness as I have a horrible immune system and get sick about every four to six weeks, but I’m lucky and blessed enough not to have any major health issues or complications. I’m not too worried about the virus since I’ll probably just be chilling at home and occasionally running errands until school gets back in session unless things get more severe in my area. That being said, it’s still scary to know how fast things are changing and the developments of the virus elsewhere.

My friend has a club soccer teammate who caught the virus and is in the hospital, and someone from a high school in my school district is currently awaiting test results. It continues to hit close to home, and it’s also alarming to watch the news as updates come in about the situation in Italy and other countries where they are in complete lockdown mode. I’m not sure if that will be next for us, but because of the aforementioned situation with my grandma my parents want me to stay at home for the most part anyways. It’s also alarming to see how much it’s affected the economy, with the stock market hitting lows (my college money is tied up in there…) and the tourism industry lowering prices all around.

I was supposed to go on a mini-road trip to San Fransisco with my mom over spring break, but she cancelled it as soon as we heard about the compromised cruise ship docking there and how it was a breakout spot of the virus. I don’t want to come off as bratty because I know I was lucky enough to have had the trip planned with my mom in the first place, but it was really disappointing to have to cancel it as it’s been the thing motivating me in school throughout this semester so far. We were planning to stop in San Luis Obispo and visit Cal Poly SLO, and then make our way up to San Fransisco and visit UC Berkeley and other schools around the city. I guess the trip will be postponed to a later time since luckily we do live in California and only a long car ride away from these places, but it’s still sad to cancel plans. I can’t imagine how other people with more elaborate spring break plans felt about having to cancel them and possibly lose out on money- luckily all we had booked were hotels so far since we were driving up, and my mom was able to get all her money back.

All my extracurriculars and various activities/meetings have gotten cancelled for this month as well, as they should be. The only thing on my calendar for the rest of March that hasn’t gotten cancelled is my driver’s lesson, funnily enough. I guess if it’s just me and an instructor in a car, we’re safe from the virus as long as they’re keeping the car clean. It’s quite chaotic for yearbook though, as our final deadline was supposed to be this week. I believe the editors stayed late on our last day of school and the weekend before closure to finish up things as best as possible before submitting the pages, so hopefully it all works out. I’m just thankful it was only one deadline and we have basically already finished the book. In general, most of my main extracurriculars from this year are over, so luckily not too much was disturbed in that regard- I feel for any of you spring athletes out there. All of the spring sports at our school have had their seasons completely postponed, and I know some other clubs/activities have cancelled spring events.

The bottom line is, even though my community isn’t completely infected/endangered yet, everything is still in disarray. I sincerely hope you all are well and staying healthy. Let’s hope a better solution for this horrible situation comes soon. Remember to keep washing your hands 🙂

Brooke

How COVID-19 Is Affecting High Schoolers

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Hello everyone!

I know I’m a little late to the game on discussing coronavirus, but if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you might know that I pre-write and schedule my posts about a week/week and a half in advance, so that’s why this post is going up now. I am definitely not the most knowledgable person on the subject (although I have been obsessively checking Twitter for news) so I won’t bore you with a bad interpretation of the statistics- if you are looking for news, please read articles from a reputable news source or look at the CDC or WHO’s websites. As you are reading this, I am currently at home, with school out for the week. I just wanted to make a post explaining how different high schools are dealing with this issue differently, and the huge impact it’s having on our education.

Before I go more into depth, I just want to say that I am so privileged and blessed to be safe and healthy right now. I am not trying to complain in this post, just inform others on what’s going on in my area with school right now. I hope you are all staying healthy and safe as well. I live in Southern California in a county that has around 10 cases of the virus as I write this, probably more by the time you’re reading it, but we are not in lockdown/quarantine or anything at the moment. However, many private schools around my school district started shutting down last week, at the time that colleges nationwide were beginning to close. There was talk of my school district shutting down, but nothing was set until a sudden announcement on Thursday, March 12th that we would have school the next day (Friday), but school would be out the entire next week.

They were planning to reevaluate during the week off and decide if we would have to remain out of school, and what lesson plans would look like in that case. The most obvious choice would be virtual learning, but in a public school district there are some issues with that since some low-income kids don’t necessarily have access to computers or Internet, and places such as libraries where they could normally gain access are closed in this quarantine/public emergency situation. I’m not exactly sure how they plan to work around it if we have to stay out of school, but I’m assuming we won’t be going back so soon since one week won’t change much about the virus. During this first week of being off, teachers aren’t allowed to give us anything to work on- instead, they’re supposed to be developing their lesson plans for if we have to miss even more school.

Some of my teachers had speculated we’d be out until after our spring break (mid-April) was supposed to end, and my chemistry teacher even said she thought we might be out of class until May 1st. My AP Euro teacher (the only AP class I’m in this year) has no clue what he’s going to do for lesson plans and what will happen with the AP test. I know the March SAT got cancelled in my area, so a lot of juniors were upset about that after months of preparing. As far as AP testing, a lot of my teachers were saying it might get pushed back into summer, and that we might even get days of school extended into our summer break if we miss too much and we aren’t getting sufficient lesson plans.

I’m so confused on how everything is going to work and how there can be so many different predictions/expectations within just my school about what the rest of our semester is going to look like, but it varied a lot. Some of my teachers said they’re consider just cutting our grades off for the semester now and ending it there, some said we might have to extend the semester into summer once the virus dies off, some said we should be fine to do virtual learning, some said AP tests will be cancelled but we won’t get our money back, some said they’ll just be postponed. At this point, there’s no real point in predicting what’s going to happen as the situation is changing too often; my school switched plans 4 times in 48 hours, and now we don’t even know what we’re doing.

I was supposed to have class registration during this week that we’re missing (the juniors/rising seniors already did theirs, but freshmen and sophomores haven’t), and so I’ve missed that as well. That’s kind of a big deal, as junior year schedules are so important. However, other than that, I’m thankful to be a sophomore (for once!) rather than a junior or senior. I can’t imagine the stress of having SAT dates in limbo and so many AP tests in question (at least I only have 2 with 1 in class) as well as not being able to do college tours and not knowing how your second semester junior year grades will finish out. And for seniors, the possibility of all the second semester activities you look forward to for so long is so disappointing, as well as not being able to go to admitted student days for colleges to help pick where you want to go. I wish you juniors and seniors the best of luck; I know it’s stressful, but at least find comfort in that the whole world is dealing with this and colleges/schools/whoever will have to be understanding.

There’s also the fact that even though it’s a “break” from school, this is not fun or exciting! Not only is it boring to be cooped up in the house and discouraged from hanging out with friends, it’s nerve-wracking knowing that new developments related to the virus are constantly being released on the news, and the consequences and closures of public places are only spiraling even more out of control. I have no idea if I’ll be back at school next week, next month, or even longer. I don’t know how I’m supposed to learn and get a good foundation before taking super hard classes junior year, and I don’t even know how I’ll be registering for my junior year!

If anything, at least I have some time to reflect. I’ve been super go-go-go and busy lately, and something like this puts it into perspective what really matters. Remember to stay safe, wash your hands, and be smart in this strange time. I know as young people we’re not in imminent danger, but we do all probably have older relatives who are. Best of luck to any people displaced, quarantined, or affected in any way by this horrible pandemic.

Brooke

My Summer Writing Program Application Process

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Hello everyone!

I haven’t discussed this topic on my blog in a while, but I applied for two summer programs. I haven’t heard back from either one yet, but the decisions should be coming back by the end of this month! It’s the first “major” application process I’ve ever had to go through for anything, and I learned a lot from it since I navigated it myself. I’ll definitely do an update once I get my decisions back, but I just wanted to give an overview of the process I went through.

At first, I wasn’t even sure what type of program I wanted to go to. I was looking at a lot of creative writing ones, but they all seemed so competitive, and I was just looking at lots of different types of programs since I knew I wanted the experience in general. However, as I went down the rabbit hole of research on various blogs, forums, and college advice websites, it became clear I was most interested in a writing program. Even though most are super competitive, I wanted to shoot my shot so that if I ended up paying to go to a program, it was going to be worth the money.

I ended up applying to the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop and the Sewanee Young Writers Conference, both prestigious and competitive writing programs. However, I did not only apply to them for prestige- I’ve been obsessed with Kenyon for a while, and I fell in love with Sewanee’s program after reading about it on multiple sites. Both are in such beautiful locations that I know would be great environments for writing, and both schools are strong in creative writing. I did not apply to Iowa Young Writer’s Studio as I figured it was too competitive and I only wanted to apply to two programs.

I was able to narrow it down to these two programs by making tons of lists. First, I made a master list of programs. I then realized I wanted to go to a writing program and made a master list of only writing programs. I started to individually research each program, and made a smaller list based on fit, price, and length/dates. Then after doing even more research and seeing what the applications consisted of, I went with my gut and decided to apply to Sewanee and Kenyon- go big or go home.

The Kenyon application was super simple. I had to write a 300-word essay about a specific moment when words were meaningful to me. I chose a moment from preschool where I would read to my classmates and I felt in control and powerful from my ability to tell stories. The only other requirements were to fill out a basic information form (including a transcript) and get a letter of recommendation from a teacher, so I filled the form out and asked my current English teacher for a recommendation later, which she thankfully wrote super fast! I might share the essay on here if I end up getting in (fingers crossed!).

The Sewanee application was much more complicated. I had to submit an eight to ten page sample of creative writing in my choice of genres (which we had to select) as well as a statement of purpose that was suggested to be between 500-750 words. They gave a list of things to discuss in the statement of purpose so I used that as a guideline and kind of went all over the place with it, but I spent a long time choosing what to send for my sample. I only sent poetry, so I just sent off all the poems I was most proud of. You also had to fill out another standard information form including a transcript (they accept unofficial ones, so I just took a screenshot of my student portal), and get a letter of recommendation, so my teacher used the same one from the Kenyon application.

I submitted both applications in the second week of February, as soon as my teacher finished the recommendation letter. Sewanee has a rolling deadline and starting reviewing applications about a week and a half ago as I’m writing this, and Kenyon’s application was due March 1st but they release decisions in late March. I’m not expecting anything since I know I’m not the most polished or experienced writer and these are both competitive programs, but I would be so blessed and ecstatic to get in and to attend either one. I’m hoping for the best and I’ll update you soon- wish me luck!

Brooke