life update :)

Hey everybody! I was MIA for about a week, because what with finals approaching, my younger sister’s birthday, summer plans (more on those later) and a healthy dose of Writer’s Block, life has been pretty busy. So, sorry about that!

Now that I’m back, I feel that a little catching up is necessary. First off, hello! It’s been a little while since I actually interacted with you guys (I.e. questions for you, conversational posts, etc.) so let me know if there’s anything new or exciting happening!

Second, here’s the basic run-down concerning SMV progress:

I haven’t been writing too-too-much lately (because life has gotten busy) but I’m currently working on a scene from the beginning portion of Draft 5. It’s a scene with a good amount of subtle foreshadowing, if you will, because it introduces a character who becomes important later on and it briefs the reader on a historical event/figure that also comes into the story later. Aside from that current mini-project, I’ve finished editing the first six chapters of Draft 5—slight refining, honing the character voices and dynamics, etcetera etcetera. I have to say that I quite like where this draft is going!

Three, end of school chit-chat:

In three weeks I will be graduating middle school—and I am so excited. Eighth Grade has been such a suspenseful and dramatic chapter in my life. I’ve discovered so much about myself; even though I had moments where I felt like everything was just, completely falling apart, this past school year taught me many valuable lessons, and has brought some really incredible people into my life. So, if any of you read this, you know who you are! Keep being amazing.

This week is the very last before I take my EOGs (for those of you with a different system, it’s just final tests—it stands for End Of Grade) and I am… you know, I’m just a little bit nervous. I try not to freak out too much about big tests like these because if I know anything about myself it’s that I tend to goof under pressure. (With certain things. If I know anything about myself, I know that I’m rather contradicting as well.) But yeah, I’m not looking forward to finals. How’s June looking for you guys? Do you have finals too, or has the school year ended already? (So lucky…)

After testing, the day I’ve been waiting for since August 27th finally arrives: graduation! Yay!! Not only does this mark the official beginning of summer, but I also have the great honor of delivering a speech at the ceremony. Words can’t even begin to describe how happy and excited I am for this—I promise you I’m smiling like a maniac from the other side of this screen. It’s going to be so amazing—I’ll share my speech sometime after so you can read it!

Four, the whole poetry slam situation:

Some of you might faintly remember that I mentioned this competition some thirty, forty days ago. Well, I wrote a poem for a school wide competition and got promoted from the class competition to the grade-level one. They announced the winners last week and… drumroll, please… I got first place! I was very proud—I still am very proud—that my writing won, well, anything. It’s just this completely different feeling than anything I’ve felt before. I’ve said before that I’m not a very competitive person and, while you’ll certainly never find me trying out for a sports team, I think I’ll be entering more of these intellectual competitions in the future.

This poetry slam has me hooked!

(Oh, and by the way, please look up the poet Shane Koyczan. He is the most brilliant writer I’ve stumbled upon in this lifetime. If you can find the time in your busy lives to listen to his poem ‘To This Day’, please do. I can assure you that you’ll be happy you did.)

Lastly, number five. Summer plans:

For the first time in a little while, my family is traveling for summer break! I’m extremely excited for this novelesque vacation I’m envisioning, and I’ll be keeping you thoroughly updated throughout. I likely won’t be writing too much concerning The Secret of Moonflower Valley, but I’ll have other things to fill you in about. (I’m thinking a sort of newspaper type of thing, with short stories and perhaps some poetry sprinkled in.) So, in short, the summer of 2025 will be (hopefully) a great two months of blog posts. (Fingers crossed!)

That’s all for now! I’ll talk to you again soon!

P.S. My best friend said recently that five seems to be a lucky number for me. Apart from it being my favorite number, it’s also been showing up randomly in my life—namely in my writing endeavors. For example: Draft 5 of SMV is by far the most successful and it seems like it will be the one that ends up on my bookshelf. For the speech I wrote from my graduation, it took me five tries to get it right—and number five is simply spectacular. For this blog post I wrote—unintentionally, mind you—about five things that have happened in recent days. Yet another five!! Do you think it could possibly be my lucky number?