It's been a few, so... MAY!!

Dear Toby and Readers,

Where to begin, where to begin...

My months in summary: January - Didn't do so hot on my specific resolutions, but I'm doing pretty well, I think. February -  Flew by very fast. I don't even remember most of it, if I'm being honest. March - About the same as February. April - A very long stretch to finish up school for the term. All I did all month was run errands and do school. Oh, and I moved. Not a ton of excitement.

May! School is over and I've got a whole list of summer plans to post about. First, I plan to go to several leadership conferences this Summer; Tennessee STRONG (a three-day anti-tobacco conference) at the beginning of June, and BETA Club Nationals towards the end. I'm also planning on two potential beach trips later in the season.

Aside from those major plans, here's a list of little things I wanna try to do:

• Practice my archery! I really love to shoot, but I need a new bow :/
• Post more of my writing; poetry, short stories, one-liners, random journal entries

{Footnote, but not really, but sorta kinda: since I mentioned posting more of my work, I've decided to create a new gallery page to post all my work, but you know how slow I am with posting, so I'm not really gonna put a date on when it'll be done (and I'm just next-level bad with tech)} 

• Do several author/book reviews (so recommend any you like in the comments)
• Pick up my photography again
• Grow flowers (honestly, most will technically be weeds, but I think lots are pretty)
• Record an original song, or at least part
• Create more reader interaction opportunities (no clue how I'm doing that)
• Actually post regularly ( sorry :/ )
• Just eat more fruit, my dudes, it makes me feel good :)
• Tour some colleges (because I'm an indecisive, picky, maniac, but more on that later)

That's all for now, but be looking forward to the new page!
Until next time dear readers,  Anna.

It's 2018!!

Dear Toby and Readers, 

Welp, it's a new year! I decided to help myself stick to some resolutions I'd make a poster of them so I'd see them every day. After a year of really learning about myself and what I value most, my resolutions this year are very different from previous years. In addition to the resolutions I have listed, I plan to reread all the books I've put on reading lists here from all throughout last year. 

Four Very Different Days

 Toby and readers,

     Some people like sunny days and flip flops year round. Some people like snowflakes and parkas year round. Some people like stormy days and rain boots year round. Some people like cool days with sweaters year round. When you live in East Tennessee, you can get most of those in a one week span.

     Let me tell you about a sunny, flip flop day. A few weeks ago, I went to a park in my town. It was hot, and most definitely humid. Some clouds were in the sky, but not very many. Birds were chirping. Kids were playing in the creek. The grass was green. The sky was blue. Sounds pretty nice, right? Right. It was a happy day. I met up with a friend at the park and we chatted for a bit. After leaving the park, I was told by my mom and brother that a snake swam through the creek. Not a huge deal, eh? I didn't react vey much -it was a normal occurrence- until I learned that my mother was reading the book of Timothy in The Bible as the snake swam directly I front of her. Ironic, right?

     Let me tell you about a snowflake, parka wearing day. Well, I can't do that. Global warming has prevented that one. :( I can recommend a (very epic) book series that starts with a snowflake, parka wearing day, though. It's called The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. Nerds beware, it can be addicting. ;)

     Let me tell you about a stormy, rain boots day weekend. Friends, family, race fans, and myself were completely drenched at a recent NASCAR race in my town, I had a booth to promote a new movie promo, that I happen to be an actress in, called Circuit The Movie. Circuit sheds some light on the horrors of human trafficking. We're tying to raise money on our Indiegogo page to fund the movie. Twenty percent of all the money we raise, as well as all the profit from the film, will go to nonprofits who help the victims of trafficking. To donate money to our campaign or watch our promo video you can click here.

     Let me tell you about a cool, sweater wearing day. In March my family and I spent the day at Creation Kingdom Zoo. It was chilly, but I had an amazing time nonetheless! We saw tons of animals, and I got even more pictures. I'll show you a few of my favorites from the hundreds.

 

 

 

 

     So, you readers might wonder why I've told you about four types of days instead of a literature-based topic, as usual. Well, I don't have a perfect answer for you. I just wrote what came to mind. Sound fine with you?                                                                                                                           

 

     I've come to decide that I want more reader interaction on the blog. For anyone reading this post, I'd like you to comment (private or anonymous are great, too!) your favorite type of the four days       mentioned above. If your favorite is a mix or something else, I'd love to hear your opinion! Perhaps,    you'll even change mine.:)                                                                                                                                        

Until next time dear readers, Anna                                                                             

Be A Ball, Not A Square.

Toby and Readers,

     Some days I just want to scream. Today is one of those days. My day started out okay. I slept well last night. I answered 218 math equations and 205 of which were correct. A 94 average isn't bad compared to my regular 70's average, eh? I got to see a new movie that I've been dying to see, Hidden Figures. Read 4 chapters of a book I'm reading for school. Completed half of my history homework for the week. So, the day overall has been fairly productive, I guess. Still yet, it just seems as though the day has been gloomy. It's cold outside, the trees are bare, no cute birds are to be found, and the sky is not the brightest blue. All of these things have seemed to put me in a sort of funk. So, sitting at my kitchen table at 12:15a.m., I decided to do the one thing I can always do. . . write.

     You may be familiar with the whole “mother-knows-best” ideal, yes? Well, I'll be the first to tell you, it's very often true. . . for me at least. This semester, decided I could work independently on my schooling and asked my mother to back off from keeping my on track. I was wrong. Very wrong. I ended up not starting last week's history homework until Friday, not knowing many of my Spanish vocabulary words, and having the wrong due-date for a history project, making it late. Needless to say, my mom is not very pleased this week, upon seeing the sudden decline in my productivity. I do believe I shall ask her to resume cramming work down my throat, so it will be completed and on-time again. Turns out everyone- myself included- is much happier when I'm on top of things education wise. Moral of the story, don't doubt your mom. She's probably right, even if you hate to admit it.

     On a happier note, I would like to share a video with you today, to encourage self-confidence. This Is A Ball is a video I came across at a short-film contest several months back and re-watched it several days ago, being more moved by it this time. Surely, you can devote 3 minutes of your day to see what it means to be a ball. I try to be a ball. You should, too. I'm positive good things will come if you do.

Until next time dear readers, Anna.  

A New President and Positive Literature!

Toby and readers,

     Well . . . America has a new president! Some are happy. Some are sad. Some are fearful. Some are mad. I, readers, am none of these things. I am optimistic. Not to be confused with happy, but optimistic. I'm not the most thrilled, but I am hopeful. I'm hopeful that we, as a nation, have selected someone who will carry us through the next four years without killing us all. But. . . is that not what we always want? How was this election any different from ones in the past? Sure, the obvious reason, a female ran, but what about overall? We had multiple candidates, whom all had different goals for this nation and stances on national issues. But that's no new development, America. We have always had different parties with different views. We have always had candidates who said things that others were outraged by, so what is the big difference?

     The difference in this election, readers, was the media. Whether it was a tweet, an audio recording, word of mouth, or something said in an email or letter, everyone in the nation – the world even- had instant access to it. For weeks on end, the same quotes were covering newspapers, TV's, and magazines. What if we had the same media coverage now as we did in 1885? What if you bought a paper from a newsboy and that was how we got our quotes and opinions from presidential candidates? Would that not change things? I certainly believe it would! If every single person did not have their opinion displayed all of their Facebook or their Twitter the election would have been so much more civil. If friends and families did not comment attacks toward each other for their own opinions, wouldn't we be so much happier?

     Literature, in every form, has such power in this world! Literature in the form of a newspaper article, in the form of a social media post, and even a poster in a business has so much power. What if all of the negative influence from literature, like mean comments or unprecedented opinions just to start a fight, was turned into positive literature?

I want you to help me do this. Help me make some positive literature, please?

     A while back, I received a book titled Operation Beautiful by Caitlin Boyle as a gift from an aunt, who knows my stance on positive encouragement. The book challenges each of its readers to anonymously encourage people. All the challenge asks is that you, the reader, write something positive on a Post-it note and stick it somewhere for people to see. Mirrors, coffee pot handles, bathroom stall doors, and car steering-wheels or windows are great places to leave a note and some of my personal favorites. Why, you ask, are you telling me about this book? Because, readers, I challenge YOU to Operation Beautiful. If each of you readers left three notes with the website “operationbeautiful.com” on the bottom of the sticky note to share our cause, we could reach hundreds, if not more, people with our inspiration. If you decide to accept this challenge, I would love for you to comment a picture of your notes!

These are some of my favorite notes that I've seen thus far:

Until next time dear readers, Anna

Some of My Favorite Books!

Toby and readers,

     As a young child, I was always surrounded by literature. Whether it was books in my classes at daycare or going to work with my mom and reading magazines on shelves, I've always had some form of literature around me. I think that automatically set me up to have a passion for literature. As I grew older, and into novel-level reading, my passion grew to writing as well as reading. For the last four or five years, I've been writing non-stop. Poems, songs, stories, random sentences, single diary entries every two months or so, just about every form of writing you can think of. 

     Just about every human being who has ever held a book has a favorite, eh? Even people who don't necessarily like books or reading, have a book that they like more than all the rest, right? Well, if nobody else does, I certainly do. I'm quite fond of many books and always love to read someone else's favorite book. Even if a book isn't in my favorite genre, I'll read any book that I've been recommended because you never know, it could wind up being your new favorite. Today's post is a list of some of my favorites, as well as some that I'd love to have the third and fourth grade kids read. Enough blabbering about favorite books, let's get to the books.

While all of these books are filled with tales of adventure, love, joy, fear, and sadness, my absolute favorite book is a combination of all of the above and so much more. . . The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It tells a whimsical tale of a young boy and... well... his phantom tollbooth. I do recommend that you read it, if you haven't yet, and if you have, it's always a good idea to read it again, as it may mean an entirely new thing to you with each reread. 

Until next time dear readers, Anna.

Making A Difference In The World Through Literature

Toby and readers,

     I tend to be a background player. A barely there character. A fairly unnoticed team member. Sure, I have four or five close friends and my classmates sometimes talk to me in the hall if they notice me... but they usually don't. I'm not invisible, I guess. I just tend to keep quiet and try to blend in. However, I will always speak up in class to share my thoughts, if our topic interests me and our opinions are asked for. Take today, for example.

     Today, in my American literature class we discussed a cool topic. Social issues. Not very literature-y, I know, but it will be soon. We are going to read Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, so our teacher had us discussing social issues, such as the one in the book, racism and slavery. Women's rights, abortion, LGBT rights, immigration and deportation, social class differences, and religious rights are some of the other social issues we discussed.

     Each student had to pick one of these topics and write down several ways to stop the issue. I selected women's rights for my topic, as it is something I feel very strongly about. Thinking about all of these issues and hearing my peers solutions to them made me realize how easy it could be to make a difference. I can't single-handedly put an end to any of these, but with the help of my peers we can make a difference.

I want to make a difference.
I can make a difference.
So, I will.

      I want to make a difference by encouraging youth to read and write much more. Through experiences in my life and looking at history, I've seen how important books are and how much of an impact they can make.  Uncle Tom's Cabin made a huge impact against slavery, and is still an insanely large staple in the American battle against racism.

     I plan to ask some of my peers to help me gather books to give one book each to a class of third and fourth graders every month. If each child reads their book, and themselves or their parents write a short description of what the child thought of the book, then returns it to me to show that they read it, they will receive a prize such as a toy or an ice cream sundae party at the end of the month. I figure, if the kids have a reason to start reading and writing, they just might enjoy it enough that they will begin to read and write on their own, without the promise of a prize.

     I don't know that my plan will work, or that my peers will be willing to help, but I'll never know if I don't try. I'm going to ask my American Literature teacher if I may have 5-10 minutes in her class next week to pitch my idea to the class to see if they're willing to help. And even if they don't want to help, I'll still go through with the plan and try to inspire the kids.

     Well, time to pitch my idea to the president of the school and see if I can have some time to present in class.

Until next time my dear reader,

              Anna

~To be expected in the next post: A list of some of my favourite books and stories, and some that I'd love to have the youth read.