Today marks ten days until I'm back at school. The entire summer felt like it was lasting longer than normal until a few days ago. Now it suddenly feels like it's ending way too soon. There's no way I have less than two weeks until I'm back. That's crazy. And this is on top of school starting later for me than normal. It's so weird.
I'm trying to make the most of the last bit of summer though both by making plans with friends and getting as much writing done as I can. My Twilight fanfiction is now in the hands of two different beta readers, and I'm going to begin edits on it as I get chapters back from them. And I also started a new fanfiction yesterday that I'm currently 2500+ words into. I'm really excited with how that's going, although I'll only be working on it in short spurts in between getting edits back from my betas. I'm still hoping to have that first chapter of the Twilight fanfiction up before the end of the summer. We'll see what happens.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Growing Apart and the Friends That Truly Matter
You get told a lot at certain points in your life that you'll lose the friends you currently have and make more in the future. I remember graduating middle school and being told I'd make my true "life long" friends in high school. Then, upon graduating high school, I got told the same thing about college. I haven't graduated college yet, but I'm already hearing things along the lines of "you'll find life long friends after college."
I think the biggest thing I've taken from this is that everyone's friendships are different. There are people out there that maintain friendships from the time they're born, which is extremely impressive. I'm still friends with my kindergarten best friend, even if we talk sporadically, we do still talk. I'm also still friends with my first grade best friend, and we talk much more frequently. And I talk to most of the people I talked to in high school still. Our lives are different, we're living in different places, but I care a lot about those people. I still want to know what they're up to, and I just don't have it in me to let those friendships fade without putting in all the effort I can to maintain them. (Of course, it's a two way street, so they have to help me with that. And I'm very lucky to have friends that do.)
None of that is to say I haven't lost friends. Believe me, I have. There are people I was extremely close to as a kid who I don't talk to much anymore. I just found out one of those former friends is getting married soon, actually, and I was clueless to it. So I have the former friends whose lives I no longer know nothing about.
A couple of them just drifted away, but for the most part, I aided that pulling away because I came to the realization that I couldn't have them in my life for various reasons, ones I won't rehash here. When it comes to my friendships that are very valuable though, the friends who have legitimately been there for me through a lot, I can't move on past that friendship, not unless they give me a reason to.
These people have meant far too much to me for me to just let us grow apart, and I think that's why the idea of it has always terrified me. I've lived in perpetual fear of it happening. But I've got to realize that if such a thing happens it's for a reason. First of all, the fact that I'm working against it already diminishes the chances. If I'm doing everything I can to maintain a friendship yet we grow apart anyway, that's probably a huge sign that that friend didn't care about me as much as I did them, and in that case, it's probably best that we are no longer friends.
But with the friends who truly matter, we'll always maintain some form of friendship, even if it morphs and changes as we do. I can go a year without seeing my older friends in person, but when I do manage to see them, it's always abundantly clear why they've stuck around so long in my life. Because each friend contains another point of my life, and even if we're changing, what they did for me at that point in my life is extremely valuable. And each of them continue to be important in my life in various ways. They're still supporting me even if it's from a distance. I know each of them care, and each of them have proven again and again that they will legitimately be there for me when I need them. No matter how much older we get, that never seems to change with these friends, and for that, I am extremely thankful.
I think the biggest thing I've taken from this is that everyone's friendships are different. There are people out there that maintain friendships from the time they're born, which is extremely impressive. I'm still friends with my kindergarten best friend, even if we talk sporadically, we do still talk. I'm also still friends with my first grade best friend, and we talk much more frequently. And I talk to most of the people I talked to in high school still. Our lives are different, we're living in different places, but I care a lot about those people. I still want to know what they're up to, and I just don't have it in me to let those friendships fade without putting in all the effort I can to maintain them. (Of course, it's a two way street, so they have to help me with that. And I'm very lucky to have friends that do.)
None of that is to say I haven't lost friends. Believe me, I have. There are people I was extremely close to as a kid who I don't talk to much anymore. I just found out one of those former friends is getting married soon, actually, and I was clueless to it. So I have the former friends whose lives I no longer know nothing about.
A couple of them just drifted away, but for the most part, I aided that pulling away because I came to the realization that I couldn't have them in my life for various reasons, ones I won't rehash here. When it comes to my friendships that are very valuable though, the friends who have legitimately been there for me through a lot, I can't move on past that friendship, not unless they give me a reason to.
These people have meant far too much to me for me to just let us grow apart, and I think that's why the idea of it has always terrified me. I've lived in perpetual fear of it happening. But I've got to realize that if such a thing happens it's for a reason. First of all, the fact that I'm working against it already diminishes the chances. If I'm doing everything I can to maintain a friendship yet we grow apart anyway, that's probably a huge sign that that friend didn't care about me as much as I did them, and in that case, it's probably best that we are no longer friends.
But with the friends who truly matter, we'll always maintain some form of friendship, even if it morphs and changes as we do. I can go a year without seeing my older friends in person, but when I do manage to see them, it's always abundantly clear why they've stuck around so long in my life. Because each friend contains another point of my life, and even if we're changing, what they did for me at that point in my life is extremely valuable. And each of them continue to be important in my life in various ways. They're still supporting me even if it's from a distance. I know each of them care, and each of them have proven again and again that they will legitimately be there for me when I need them. No matter how much older we get, that never seems to change with these friends, and for that, I am extremely thankful.
Life Post: Buses and Worry
I've had a much longer morning than anticipated. Today was my youngest sibling's first day of school and first time riding the bus. My mom had a meeting at work that overlapped with the exact time he had to get on the bus, and she was in this huge state of panic that he'd miss it somehow. She ordered me to be dressed and ready to drive him to school if I needed to. As someone who wrote the bus in high school, I was pretty confident that as long as he left on time, he'd be fine. Lo and behold, he was fine.
My mom's still paranoid he's going to miss it at the end of the school day though, so I have to be ready for that. I probably fueled that missing the bus in the afternoon the first day I rode it too, so there's that. I talked to him about it and told him exactly what to do though, so he's going into it less confused than I was. (Not that I really should have been confused. It was pretty straight-forward. I was just a ball of nerves the first day of freshmen year. I also dunked my hand into some ranch dressing at lunch on accident. So there's that.)
I think he'll be fine, but even if he misses it, I'll go pick him up. Nothing terrible is going to happen. Hopefully my mom will have more faith in him and the buses after this one day goes smoothly.
But at any rate, I was up earlier than planned to make sure he left on time. I went back to bed afterwards, but it wasn't all that long. It definitely left me feeling groggy, but I'm also thankful that I didn't have to get up and go to school. I get to sit around at home and write instead. Although I kind of feel like I'm on call even if he won't text me until this afternoon if he needs to. I still feel like I need to be prepared. I think my mom has managed to work up my own nerves just from how nervous she was. Otherwise, I'd feel completely confident that things would go fine.
My mom's still paranoid he's going to miss it at the end of the school day though, so I have to be ready for that. I probably fueled that missing the bus in the afternoon the first day I rode it too, so there's that. I talked to him about it and told him exactly what to do though, so he's going into it less confused than I was. (Not that I really should have been confused. It was pretty straight-forward. I was just a ball of nerves the first day of freshmen year. I also dunked my hand into some ranch dressing at lunch on accident. So there's that.)
I think he'll be fine, but even if he misses it, I'll go pick him up. Nothing terrible is going to happen. Hopefully my mom will have more faith in him and the buses after this one day goes smoothly.
But at any rate, I was up earlier than planned to make sure he left on time. I went back to bed afterwards, but it wasn't all that long. It definitely left me feeling groggy, but I'm also thankful that I didn't have to get up and go to school. I get to sit around at home and write instead. Although I kind of feel like I'm on call even if he won't text me until this afternoon if he needs to. I still feel like I need to be prepared. I think my mom has managed to work up my own nerves just from how nervous she was. Otherwise, I'd feel completely confident that things would go fine.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Life Post: Writing Update (Betas and Outlining)
Two life posts in one day? Yep. I'm not entirely sure why to be honest, since not much happened to write about, but for some reason, I've felt a lot like writing these recently.
Anyway, as I already said, not much worth writing about happened today. Since my fanfiction is with my beta, I decided to take a bit of a break from writing today. I really don't need to since the beta has already gotten five chapters back to me. (She works really fast, and I also think her beta reading style meshes the best with me out of everyone I've ever worked with. I love it.) But I decided I needed a break anyway. In fact, despite what I said about working on that fanfic and nothing else until school started, I may wait until she's gotten through the entire thing before I go back to edit. I'm also seeing if I can find a second beta, since multiple opinions are always a plus, but that's difficult, of course. It's always hard to find betas who don't flake out on you after almost no time at all.
So while I wait on that, I may start outlining a new fanfiction. If I were to start actually writing it, it would be a sort of "just because" thing until I get ready to draft a new version of the other story that I've already written. We'll see what I decide. I'm kind of winging it. Since summer break is coming to a close, I'm being just a bit more lax with myself about what exactly I work on. I'll be stressed out enough with school work once the semester starts. I don't need to be hard on myself now.
Anyway, as I already said, not much worth writing about happened today. Since my fanfiction is with my beta, I decided to take a bit of a break from writing today. I really don't need to since the beta has already gotten five chapters back to me. (She works really fast, and I also think her beta reading style meshes the best with me out of everyone I've ever worked with. I love it.) But I decided I needed a break anyway. In fact, despite what I said about working on that fanfic and nothing else until school started, I may wait until she's gotten through the entire thing before I go back to edit. I'm also seeing if I can find a second beta, since multiple opinions are always a plus, but that's difficult, of course. It's always hard to find betas who don't flake out on you after almost no time at all.
So while I wait on that, I may start outlining a new fanfiction. If I were to start actually writing it, it would be a sort of "just because" thing until I get ready to draft a new version of the other story that I've already written. We'll see what I decide. I'm kind of winging it. Since summer break is coming to a close, I'm being just a bit more lax with myself about what exactly I work on. I'll be stressed out enough with school work once the semester starts. I don't need to be hard on myself now.
Book Review: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
ASIN: B0084B008YPublished: May 17th, 2012 (first published December 1817)
Publisher: Amazon
Read from July 27th to August 7th, 2015
Synopsis from Goodreads:
In Northanger Abbey, a young woman's penchant for sensational Gothic novels leads to misunderstandings in the matters of the heart. Austen's first, this is considered by many to be among her most charming novels.
Review:
I'm going to keep this somewhat short as this is a classic book, and I always feel a bit strange reviewing those.
If you remember, last year I got all of Jane Austen's books on Kindle and read most of them, but I wound up getting a bit burnt out on them and held off on Northanger Abbey. It took about a year, but I finally went back and picked it up. And I have to say that I think I made a good decision holding off on it.
Last year, I was getting a bit bored reading the Austen books that I picked up later, and it's not hard to believe I would have disliked this one more if I'd read it then. As it was, I think this was one of my favorites. This book was really cute to me, and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed all of the characters, even if I enjoyed Mr. Thrope and Isabella as characters by hating them.
The story was just a nice, fun, and light one to me. And I thought the relationship between Catherine and Tilney was really cute and adorable. I really liked them together.
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