How was your summer? What are some things you want to remember about this summer?
Last summer I remember our move. I remember going house shopping and driving back and forth from our old house to our new house with my mom on warm Summer days. It was a stressful time (moving is always stressful) but I remember enjoying the drives back and forth. Just hopping in the car in the evening with a few boxes of stuff and driving ten minutes across town to our new house to spend some time there for a bit before heading back to the old house.
This summer was very different. When I was thinking back on my summer for this post, trying to decide what defined this summer for me... the two weirdest things came to mind. Tiktok and Fringe. Those were the two first things that came to mind when thinking back on this summer. Summer 2021 was one of Tiktok, Fringe, healing and unfinished writing projects. This summer was a time of finding peace and assurance in the chaos and starting to move on from what happened in 2020 and at the beginning of the year. My mom convinced me to get Tiktok and after so long of me saying I will never get on Tiktok... I got a Tiktok haha It has sense consumed hours of my life that I will never get back haha But it's also been really fun and there's actually a lot of helpful advise on that app too. It made me feel less alone and gave me lots of laughter and smiles, so you know what, all those hours consumed are worth it if it's able to give you some laughter and joy during hard times. I even started making bookish videos and hit 100 followers on there which is cool!
I was introduced through my mom and a friend to the TV show Fringe. Don't ask me why but I have fond memories of this summer binging Fringe while snacking on cinnamon rice puffs haha Fringe became a reprieve for me. It was a show I could get lost in while the world around me seemed so crazy and uncertain. It also gave me a major breakthrough for The Archive Series and in a weird way gave me permission to do strange and outlandish things in my books. It reminded me that not everything has to be explainable when it comes to storytelling. Sometimes something is just strange and there's no real reasoning behind it. Sometimes I need to read a good book or watch a good show that gives me permission to do the things I'm scared to do in my own writing and Fringe was that for me this year.
Other honorable mentions for the summer of 2021: I got to ride on my first boat at a friend's house. I spent lots of amazing late nights with my book club laughing and having deep conversations. I've gotten hardcore into Essential Oils - they've helped me so much with my anxiety. I struggled with depression and loneliness and sadness at having lost someone really close to me. I drove by myself in a car for the first time - something I didn't think I would be able to do a year ago. I picked up Sterling Silver after years of wrestling with it and started writing book 3 after five years of never thinking I'd get to write book 3 of the series. I wrote three or four projects that have now been benched. And I wrote a whole lot of short stories and flash fics this year! Oh and let's not forget, I published Golden Touch, the first in the Archive Series in July. I also don't know if this counts since this is in September and happened like 2 weeks ago, but I saw the Jonas Brothers live for the first time and it was amazing. Maybe I'll count it as summer/Fall... whatever I feel like at the time haha Ah and I can't forget... I get my wisdom teeth out. Fun times haha I became a leader at the youth group of our church this summer too. That's something I've thought about and deep down had wanted to try for a long time, but it had never felt like the right time or the right church until this year. I got to see one of my best friends who also happens to be an online friend for the first time in two years which was amazing and so fun!
There's lots more that happened this summer, but some of it is too long to put into a post and there are some things I'd like to make a post for on their own. And now Fall is officially here and with it the cool weather and the jeans and the boots and hot drinks! This is my favorite time of year. It feels like any sort of depression or discontentment or any negative emotion disappears from my body when Fall comes around. Waking up to a freezing cold room with the window open and the leaves falling makes me the happiest person in the world. Getting to wears jeans and jackets and boots makes my whole year. I also always feel the most creative during this time of year. Last Fall I feel like I didn't get to do a lot of Fall-ish things because of the pandemic and I'm pretty sure I was super busy with classes and I had to stay home sometimes when others were going out and doing stuff. But this Fall, I don't care how busy I am. I am going on bike rides and all the nature walks and parks. I'm going apple picking and eating a caramel apple because I didn't get to last year. We're gonna carve pumpkins and go trick or treating and have smores. I'd like to go to Headless Horseman (a Halloween celebration a local place does here) and find the perfect Fall drink. I'm going to be publishing Emerald Phantom in November and I want to write more short stories and lean into the Fall/spooky vibes.
I don't know what the last three months of this year holds, but I want to enjoy them all. The last three months of last year had a lot of hard and sad parts to them. This year, I know there will be sad moments but I still want it to be a good time this Fall no matter what. Life is hard and hard stuff happens... but that just means we need to hold onto every small good thing in our life. Appreciate the little things. I'm taking a page out of Dearest Josephine and appreciating all the small things this Fall.
I guess this is sort of my recap of summer and hello to Fall post... but I hope you had a great summer. I hope you grew and stretched and did all kinds of fun things. And I hope your Fall is equally good - if not better.
What are you looking forward to the most about Fall and October in general? Doing anything exciting or fun?
P.S. I was going to share a Halloween flash fic with my Golden Touch characters to celebrate today... but I don't know if I have room in this post. So, check back on Friday for a fun flash fic. I have another one featuring characters from Sterling Silver that I plan to share closer to Halloween. :)
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