Layout changed again! Hopefully for good this time.
I'm slacking with updates. I'm really sorry about that. I could sit here and make up a bunch of excuses as to why, but I won't bore you with that.
I promised to blog on a regular basis and almost a year later...
All I can say is that I've been consumed with the grown up life.
This past year has been amazing. I've learned so much about myself and my writing and it feels great. Sure, I always have room for improvement. But as writers, our goal should be to always search for better ways to describe things.
So how can I recount to you the past year in a nutshell? I learned to paint, wrote for and edited the student newspaper, held a club office, worked on my public speaking skills, maintained a full-time job and a full-time school schedule, and submitted some work to (hopefully) be published.
I have some exciting news--for the Fall 2015 semester, I will be writing my first thesis. At OLHCC, English majors have the option to write a thesis or intern during a semester. I have opted to do both--something no other student has done before. NOT AT THE SAME TIME. I'd be crazy to do that! While I need experience in the journalism/communications field, I also want the experience of writing a thesis. I am a firm believer that I should always try to improve my writing. I definitely want to write a creative thesis (one of my good friends wrote one this past spring and it was AMAZING!), but I'm not sure what genre I'm going to write yet. I was thinking about writing creative nonfiction because it's my favorite and my strong point, but the whole purpose of the thesis (for me) is to have a learning experience. So I'm thinking about writing fiction, which has been the most difficult for me to write.
I've been applying for internships for the Spring 2016 semester. I thought it was going to be an easy process; it's anything BUT that. I've applied to the local radio stations, local TV stations, and local newspapers. I haven't heard from most of them, but I've received replies from two of them. One basically said, "Thanks, but no thanks" and the other suggested applying later in the year because it's too early for spring applicants. Which makes sense, but I still would've appreciated responses from more than just two places.
I started Camp NaNoWriMo again this month, but I haven't been successful in what I wanted to accomplish. I have been writing over the summer. Not as much as I should, but I guess it's better than nothing.
The main thing I've been doing over the summer is READING. This past semester, I read seven novels for one of my classes. Each of them has emotionally moved me and inspired me not just to read more, but to LIVE. It's amazing how a novel can change one's life. There are so many books that I've wanted to read for years and I'm finally getting to them (all the while going to the bookstore and buying MORE books that I want to read). I bought Harper Lee's new novel Go Set a Watchman yesterday. I'm excited and nervous to read it. Before I do, I want to re-read To Kill a Mockingbird to refresh my memory. I haven't read that novel since I was in eighth grade (which was a LONG time ago).
But that's what my life has been like for the past year. I promise to update more than annually.
Since I mentioned Harper Lee, I'll end my blog post with one of her quotes I recently stumbled upon and it described how I feel about reading:
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."
I hope everyone has a great week and weekend. Take the road less traveled and do some sightseeing along the way.
--Alane
