For a long while...

Today I will take my Spanish 102 final and I will be DONE with college for this semester. Needless to say, I am very excited because this means my summer break can finally start! Summer finally starting means a few things for me. 1) I have a couple of vacations coming up, and I am quite excited to be able to get out of the miserable dry patch of land that I must call home. 2) I will have a lot of free time, both for reading and writing, and hopefully even a little bit of transcribing for the lovely Hogwarts Radio. I really have missed being able to wake up and read from the time I wake up all the way through til the wee hours of the night, with interruptions only for eating and bathroom breaks. Reading marathons are a staple of my summer agenda. 3) I don't have to wake up early every morning to go to a school where I don't particularly learn anything of the utmost importance.

I know that school is important and all, that it helps us to become who we are, blah blah blah. But I've been ready for summer break since... oh about February. I've had so-called "senioritis" (the sickness when you're a senior and you don't have the motivation to do anything related to school because you're so ready for it to be over) for about three months, and I'm not even a senior yet! I can only imagine how bad it'll get next year.

After I walk out of my college class tonight, I will officially be a senior in high school. It is so weird to think that in just a year, I will be graduating from high school. In a little over 4 months, I will begin applying to colleges. Everything just seems to be crashing down all at once, and I'll be honest, things are a little bit overwhelming. But I'm going to just take things one day at a time.

Until next time! DFTBA!

(P.S. I hope to be much more regular with my posts now that it is summer break! Although I can make no promises whilst I am on vacation; I won't have access to a computer!)

My Author: Stephen King

So although I said I would never do it...

So as I am sitting here in class, bored to death watching people present their mindless topics about historical people, I figured that I would hop on here and write a post, because none of my other gurrrls seem to be doing that as of late... (cough cough!) I have not had nearly enough time to write lately, due to an endless amount of projects from my teachers (two history projects, and English project, two papers in my music class and studying for a written and oral final in Spanish). However, I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I want to go to college, my major, etc. And I have come to the conclusion that I want to change my major, despite the fact that I claimed (years ago) that I would never change my major!

As much as I tried to deny the reality that my original choice was not the right option for me, I decided to give in and change it, because I don't want to live the rest of my life with regret for not doing what I wanted. My original major choice was a double major in Business Administration and English. I wanted to open my own bakery, and write on the side, just for myself. But being a baker just isn't realistic for me: I have scoliosis, and though it doesn't look like it affects me, standing for long amounts of time puts me in loads of pain. Sooooo, long story short, I have decided to change my major from Business Administration/English to a major in Journalism and a minor in English. And I feel like I will be able to enjoy that a ton more that I could have with my prior choice.

There's just one small problem: I have to tell my mom. I feel like she is going to be really judgmental about this. She's always been the one to support whatever I want to do, but I think she'll just question my decision. "Are you sure that's what you want to do?", etc. So hopefully this won't turn out bad. If I don't post ever again... you know something bad happened. Just kidding... or not.

My author: David Foster Wallace

Life

So I know what you are thinking. "What! Today is Wednesday. Why is Marissa posting? Wasn't she supposed to post Monday? She is late!" I won't deny it. I actually forgot. Shameful I know. And there are no excuses worthy of it. But I will give you mine anyway. Life. Yes, my life got in the way. I spent Monday with friends from college shooting a potato cannon and riding horses and baking cookies and watching movies and reading a wonderful book. I spent Tuesday with my fiance Christmas shopping and and wedding ring shopping and reading that same wonderful book. I have spent the last two day with some of the the most wonderful people in my life celebrating our lives and the time we have with each other. And I got some great material to add to my book.

In my opinion, sometimes you just need to step away and forget about your writing. You can't let it consume you. If you do you will end up hating it. Don't try to rush your writing. Just let it happen naturally. Some days you can probably sit and write for hours. Other days you may not write a single letter. Don't let it get you down if you are having writer's block. Take advantage and just set the story aside for a while. Don't forget to live your own life, too.

And as a catch up on my other gurrrls challenges:

• For my journal I have come to the realization that this is my journal. Although there are four other people that contribute to this blog I look to it to be the place that I go o get my idea out and look for inspiration. This and my skype conversation that is perpetually going with these same lovely ladies.
• Outlining: I sort of use it. I start out with a very (VERY) rough idea of what I want to write but then just let the words take over from there. I know where I want the story to go but I have no idea how it is going to get there. And I like that. I believe that if a is going to shock the reader then it must also shock the author as well. If I am not laughing, crying, screaming, or anxious about my characters then my reader won't be either.

Author: Stephen King