As a final hurrah on the blog, we've been assigned to reflect on our blogging journey.
So I started the year as an ignorant, nerdy girl who brushed the curls out of her hair, played some mediocre trumpet, and didn't have a social life. Boy, has that changed. Isn't it interesting how much you can discover about yourself over the course of less than nine months? I'm not anything like I was all that time ago.
Back in August and September, I was finishing out my first and awesome summer of marching band. I knew I would be doing a blog, though in June I had wanted to write about Star Wars and Seabiscuit, a dreadful combined topic. But one day in September, something changed. Since I had basically spent each day of my summer around a bunch of upper classmen (the marching band), I wanted to be different. I didn't feel like being that awkward, completely introverted person I had been for the previous 8 years of my existence. It wasn't going to work anymore. So I started to change.
I went from silent to mildly quiet. I let my hair dry in its natural beachy waves, because it just turned into a frizzy mess when I tried to brush it. I stopped being so obsessive about Star Wars. I grew closer to my friends in my free time, instead of spending it reading at home. I practiced trumpet so I could actually be good at it. I amassed a library of music I love and became opinionated about what I listened to and when. I started thinking more about my social life, and how I could be a more interesting person. I tried to be more friendly, and not snap at people when they said silly things. It was certainly an interesting time, and, along with me, this blog's changed through the year. Now, coming out of the transition period, I can look back and say, "...Wow. I'm glad I am who I am now." I am sophisticated! And I will continue to become more so.
At first, if you don't remember, I said that I would be blogging about, "My experiences in band. What we do in band. What happened last night at band. What we're doing tomorrow in band. What's happening next marching season." I think that was because I watched my friends blog about band; mainly Danielle, she was the other one with a band-themed blog.
...
It didn't turn out like that, I can tell you. 19 of my 44 posts have been about band (that's less than half). 3 of the other 25 were about horses, 3 were general advice, 14 about goings-on in my life, and the remaining 5 were on random opinions and dance.
It turns out that this is actually a much better mix of posts and subjects than solid band. I learned that if you're running a simple 'about my life' blog like me, it's hard- nearly impossible- to stick to a single subject. You have to put variety into your writing, just like in a novel. When you write a story, you can't repeat yourself over and over and over again. You've got to make it interesting in some way. And so now, I know not to mono-blog. That is to say, don't be such an obsessive band geek that that's all you talk about. It won't be fun for your audience.
So that's where I started and what I learned. And now I know how to actually blog successfully. I know that once I'm done with high school, I'll be keeping a blog for sure. It helps me to write often like this... so in the end, I can thank my English teacher for giving me more work instead of saying, "Oh, blogging is such a drag" because it was helpful, and, dare I say... made the year more fun. So thanks.
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Aaaaaand, we're at the end. It honest-to-gosh looks like this will be the last post of the year. :( I plan to be back periodically next year, but since I don't have an obligation to fill (I won't be getting graded on it), it will probably be longer between posts. Just a fair warning. But thanks for reading this year. It was nice of you, and maybe you learned something about me because I'm an awful lot more extroverted here than in real life.
Now, to wrap up, I thought I'd make an album of the year in photos and drawings from my early posts and such.
See you as a sophomore,
Emma (the tried-and-true band geek, smart person, introverted trumpet girl, etc.)
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2015-2016 in Photos
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| In the beginning... |
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| Forever summer, forever marching band. |
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| I CAN DRAW... only horses. |
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| Homecoming. Coming, happening, gone! |
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| HAWAII, that's where. |
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| AND MUSIC. SO MUCH MUSIC. |
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| Shoes, in their respective positions, on their respective surfaces... |
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| Reel pumps/dance shoes on dance floor |
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| Marching shoes on concrete (albeit w/out black socks...oops) |
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| More commonplace shoes on gravel driveway. |
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| Oh yea, that thing... |
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| My life, right there. |
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| The sky is blue, of course. I took this. I HAVE SKILLZ. |
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| And here we go again. |
To be continued! Thanks again, everybody. More later. :)
Still sitting on the slowly emptying beach, we watched the sunset. It was warm, cold, sweet and bitter at the same time. I had never lived more than in the past weeks, and here I was watching it come to an end.
“Not a bad time, was it?” he asked me, studying the patterns in the surf.
I looked up towards the sky, smiling to myself, and thought for a moment.
“Certainly not. Went fast, but I’ll never forget it.”
By then we were alone on that beautiful stretch of Outrigger Beach. The stars were coming out.
He sighed and adjusted his aviator sunglasses.
“I kind of wish we could live it all again. I haven’t felt that… alive… before in my life.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth and turned to smile at him, then spoke again.
“You voice my thoughts- but, listen. Every good thing ends- like this day we’re watching now- and then it begins again. A new sunrise; a new week; a new year. Everything, believe it or not, will begin again. So really… just wait, and it’ll start again for you.”
--From my unnamed, unfinished NaNoWriMo novel
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