blogging

Stand Together – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
self-serving doesn't really serve you
when our world is falling apart

stand up for what's right, stand together
with your friends, neighbors, community

and be an ally. stand tall, proud,
and use your voice to speak for those

who can't, out of fear or inability or 
anything else. the world is in shambles

but you're not. you're powerful, brave, 
and can help change the world if you're

willing to try to move mountains. to
push yourself up against walls that

have never really been broken through,
only fortified. keep pushing.

if we're not together, we don't stand a 
chance. if we stand as one, we can make it

all happen.

I hope you enjoyed this piece. It’s one of a few I’ll be writing to address the events that occurred last week. I pre-write and schedule my posts a week in advance so that’s why this is coming late, but don’t mistake me as someone who was avoiding speaking out on the situation! Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece, and make sure to stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

Goldenrod – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
the Crayola crayon that you used to color in the
sun in the upper left-hand corner of the page

the vibrance of the honey blond color 
found in the tips of your hair after summer

the centers of the wildflowers blooming; you
notice them on a hike by the beach

more than golden, but golden more than 
anything else

I hope you enjoyed this short piece! It was fun to write– I really did love that “goldenrod” crayon in the Crayola 64-pack. 🙂 Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like me to try my hand at in the near future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

Gone Swimming – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
when i was younger i was scared of the 
pool cleaning machine-- it was too much

like a robot. too loud, too intimidating, and
it would make anyone cringe with the 

horrible soul-sucking sound it made if it
climbed the walls of the pool and was no 

longer completely submerged in the water.
this monster and my young self were 

constantly at odds. it was a battle i couldn't win.
the machine had to stay, whereas i always

eventually had to get out of the pool. it was
a pretty big failure of a turf war. now i 

would love to return to the endless days
of splashing and playing in the somewhat

cold pool waters. even if a lot of that time was
spent clinging to the walls and wedging myself

in the corners to avoid The Monster. he's still
there, inching along the pool floor. but

when was the last time i went swimming?

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It was definitely a sillier one, as I was having some writer’s block when I sat down to write it. To be honest, it took me quite a while to get over this little fear of the pool cleaning machine. 🙂 Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like to see me try out in the near future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

Up On The Hill – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
i want to live up on the hill
be queen of the hill

even if it's lonely, i'd love to
have it all to myself.

and its endless beauty 
quantified in green, lush

fields and wildflowers of all
colors would be free for

me to explore. just a girl
and her hill

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It’s a short one and I feel like there’s something missing, but I figured I’d post it as is and see if you guys had any feedback. Please let me know if there’s any writing challenges you’d like me to try out in the near future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

The Gardener(s) – Prose

BrookeLeave a comment

A day doesn’t go by where I don’t hear the sound of a lawnmower or leafblower somewhere on my street. Even after shutting my windows, that loud, threatening buzz is hard to ignore. It seems to penetrate the glass.

You’d think it would be easy to get used to, considering how often it’s there. But I never fail to notice it, pulling me out of my work for at least a few minutes. This might sound like a complaint, but it’s really just an observation.

My mother told me all our neighbors have the same gardener. He works on most of the street, getting everything done in a day. Usually Fridays but not always, she says.

But what about the other six days of the week? I know she’s right- I see our gardener every Friday. He works on at least seven of the houses on our street, is there for hours working hard, and leaves a little after lunchtime. But the buzz of his (and every other gardener’s) tools can be found every single day.

For me, there are many sounds that you expect to hear at some point in your day. The low, threatening hum of a lawnmower has become one of them.

I hope you enjoyed this random rambling! It might be a weird thing to talk about, but it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot since spending so much time at home in quarantine. Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like me to try out in the future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

My Favorite Mirror – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
come on, you've got to see this
i'd always tell all my friends before dragging 

them upstairs into my bedroom. i would thrust
them before my innocent looking full-length 

mirror. chipped white wood, a design chiseled
into the stand, and shorter than me. no one 

ever understood why it was so special. 
always absentmindedly staring into this 

extraordinary ordinary mirror while sitting 
at my desk, i soon discovered its magic.

when i gazed into the glass, i saw a different me.
not different enough that i wouldn't recognize 

her, but different all the same. blonder hair,
bluer eyes, clearer skin, a more delicate frame.

the minute details that would make me more
confident in my appearance. at first i thought

i had just matured over night, growing into my 
body. but after running to the bathroom mirror

and my parents' mirror, i knew this wasn't the 
case. i didn't know whether to be disappointed

or relieved. i returned to my mirror, this magic
mirror, once my favorite mirror, and shattered

the thin layer of glass. as special as it was to see
myself in this way that no one else could, i

didn't want to be stuck on that version of myself. 
i didn't want to be the girl in the mirror if i 

would never actually be her.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! Just like my poem from yesterday, this isn’t inspired by my life, which made it interesting to write. It’s also a bit of a longer piece. Let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges for me to try out in the future. Stay safe and healthy.

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

On the Shelf – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
i stack my old books on the shelf
blowing the dust off the chipped wood

to make a clean, safe home for these
prized possessions that possess all the

knowledge in the world (my world)
combined. books that represent the

person i want to be, the world i want to
live in, and books that represent the 

person i am, the world that i've had to
accept. neatly organized by color, the 

sight of the shelf is one i admire. it's 
much too beautiful to share.

i step back from the stacks, turn away
from the shelves, and walk out of the 

room. i lock the door behind me to 
keep my precious books safe.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! Please let me know if you have any feedback on this poem or any writing challenges for me to try out in the future. 🙂 Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

Should You Take An Online AP Class?

Brooke1 Comment

Hello everyone!

AP testing is almost over (to anyone who has an AP test tomorrow, best of luck!) for this year, and you probably have already selected your courses you’re taking next year. If your school doesn’t offer a lot of AP classes/a specific AP class you want to take, or your school limits when and how many AP classes you can take, you might be considering taking an AP course online through an accredited provider.

I did exactly this with AP Psychology since I didn’t have room for it in my schedule at school; I took a self-paced online course through BYU Independent Study during the summer, and then basically retaught myself everything before the AP test. This path might not work for everyone, so keep on reading if you want my advice on whether it will work for you.

Keep in mind that this is all based off of my personal experience and I am not a teacher or education expert! Make sure to talk to your parents and/or counselor to see if they think online AP classes are a good fit for you.

You SHOULD take an online AP class if:

  • You have the funds. Online AP classes are expensive unless you live in a state like Florida that has a program where you can take them for free (use FLVS!). I live in California and we don’t have a program like that, so I had to make sure my parents were okay paying for a class. BYU Independent Study was the most affordable choice for AP Psychology at least, but it’s overall expensive
  • You’re self-motivated and will get the work done. Don’t pile extra work on yourself if it’s just going to stress you out more and you’re going to procrastinate doing it. You’ll have to hold yourself accountable, and no matter how good the teacher of the online class is, you’ll still end up being your own teacher in a lot of ways.
  • You can get an A (or B) in the class to boost your GPA. These classes are super helpful for bumping up your GPA as long as you get a good grade. Make sure your school will accept the credits and put them on your high school transcript if that’s what your after- my school also has a limit on how many online classes you can take, so make sure to check that out too.
  • You’re genuinely interested in the class (or you need it to graduate). Unless you need to take the class or you really want to take the class, it probably will just be a burden and something you dread doing. I was genuinely interested in psychology and didn’t have room in my schedule sophomore year to take the class at my school, so it was worth it for me to take it (especially because of the GPA boost).

You SHOULD NOT take an online AP class if:

  • You want to take an ‘easier’ version of an AP class. Although some online AP classes can be easier than others or the in-class version, this still isn’t the best attitude to have. Most of the time, you’ll still need to put a decent amount of work in, so make sure you’re willing to.
  • You’re mainly taking it to pass the AP exam and get college credit, not because of interest in the class itself. It might be a waste of money to do this. If you’re motivated enough to take extra AP classes/tests, you’re probably motivated enough to self-study the material and take the test without paying for the class you don’t actually care about. I personally didn’t want to self-study since I actually wanted to take the class and I didn’t think I would be self-disciplined enough or have the resources to self-study, but lots of people do it successfully.
  • You have the opportunity to take the same class at school. Unless there’s a scheduling conflict or another reason you’re not able to take the class at school, I would highly recommend taking the classes in person if your school offers them. You’ll have a lot more support leading up to the AP test, and it will overall usually be a better, more complete learning experience.

Another aspect of online AP classes I would like to address is the timing of taking the class. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend taking an online AP class over summer like I did. Although it was useful to get the course done at my convenience in a short period of time, it was much more difficult for me to reteach myself the material and study for the AP test. Taking an online class during the school year might pile on even more to your normal school workload, but it also might be easier when AP tests come closer. This is something you’ll want to consider when deciding to take an online AP course; it’s important to choose the schedule that works best for you.

Lastly, if you’ve decided you for sure want to take an online AP course, here are some reputable providers:

  • FLVS (free for Florida residents like I mentioned, but available to anyone with a price)
  • Apex
  • BYU Independent Study
  • Virtual High School/VHS
  • Laurel Springs
  • UC Scout
  • Johns Hopkins CTY (I think you have to apply first? they’re also extremely pricey and rigorous but are very highly rated by those who take them!)

I hope this helped out anyone considering the pros and cons of online AP courses in deciding whether they would be a good choice for them. I personally plan on taking AP Art History this next year, as I need an art credit to graduate and I don’t have room in my schedule to take the class at school. We’re all in this together! Please let me know if you have any further questions. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

UV-Ray Vision – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
some people wish for x-ray vision as a superpower
but i wish for uv-ray vision as mine.

to stare into the glowing orb of light we call the sun,
to look past the sunspots and stop our eyes from

watering when it's a sunny day and we look into 
the sky. to see what we can only partially see

to know more about our favorite star and be 
able to gaze into her eyes. to prevent her from

blinding us when we just want to get to know her.
to take in even more of her light, and become light ourselves

I hope you enjoyed this poem. I know it was a short one, but if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might notice I mainly write short poems. I’m working on a few longer ones to post in the near future 🙂 Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like me to try out in the near future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke