2018 Summer Highlights

Although I started school at the beginning of this month, I still have to list my summer highlights, like I did last year. There may be some similarities to that article because I tend to do a lot of the same things each summer.

Finishing School … And Starting Again for the Last Time

Finishing 11th Grade was quite a challenge because of the Plane Geometry and Chemistry courses I took. My schedule also got extremely busy with my two college courses. Everything was even more harder and I have no idea what to expect in 12th grade. Every time I think that school can't get worse, I am unpleasantly surprised by my workload for the year.

I was actually really excited to get started on my 12th grade year because I am that type of person. I am going to have an Economics and American Government class, so I am really, really excited for those two. It's my last year of high school, so I will definitely have a breather after that is over.

Vacation Bible School

My church's VBS theme was Time Lab this year. I was placed in my favorite location: the kitchen. Two of my friends were also serving there as well. This year one of the key kitchen leaders wasn't there, so my friends and I had the hard job of chasing the high school guys away from the snack table. They are very persistent when it comes to food and iced mocha. We made a rule of labeling people who did not pillage the snack table as "responsible adults."

The VBS skit was also so much fun. Because it involved time travel, there was a Roman soldier and Jonathan Edwards in the skit. What was really interesting was the fact that the characters who belonged in the modern world took these other characters to Disneyland and the coffee shop. Even the adults were intrigued. I had two friends in the skit, including Anna who posted a picture of the cast at her blog.

My 16th Birthday

This year I celebrated my 16th birthday in two ways. I invited some friends over to swim in my backyard. We also played several games of Clue as usual. Then the day I left for the mission trip, my family got another cake, but I was way too distraught over a ten day trip away from home, so I could barely do a thing without crying. But my team did sing me "Happy Birthday" on the bus to the airport.

My Mission Trip to Tepic

I wrote two articles over this trip. I wrote what I did here and I posted pictures I took during the trip here. I won't say anymore in this article since I've written two about the trip already.


A Bible Study of 1 and 2 Peter

My youth group's senior girls get together periodically at one of my friend's house (her mom is one of the leaders for the senior girls) to study John MacArthur's Bible study guide for 1 and 2 Peter. We would meet at her house twice a month to go over the answers for two chapters of the book. And of course, we all end up talking for a long while about a whole bunch of different things that I will not enumerate here.

Designing my Homeschool Group's Yearbook


The header of the
Poetry page I'm designing

I actually did this last year as well, but I help with designing some of the pages for my homeschool group's yearbook. I do my family's page first and then I'm usually assigned one other family's page and a page of events/works (poetry, photography, park days, field trips, etc.). This year I was assigned the photography and poetry page as well as the family page of one of my brother's friends.

I pick the background of the page, the font/colors of the title of the page, and arrange pictures/poems/verses/stickers. It's mostly fun, but sometimes it's difficult to choose a design to use and fit all of the pictures on one page. The family that I'm doing a page for this year has fifty pictures which is a lot.

Getting a Head Start on Blogging

Guess when I'm writing this article? * July 20th.* Every weekday of July, I've written one blog article in order to relieve my schedule once school starts. Basically, my schedule has been devotions for the 1 and 2 Peter Bible study, working on the yearbook, writing an article, and writing my novel. I wrote a schedule for the rest of the year too. I feel really proud of myself since I'm way ahead of my blogging schedule. I've written all the articles until November.

Consistent Writing Thanks to Camp NaNo

Due to my mission trip and VBS, I took a break from writing in late June and early July. But because Camp NaNo is on in July, I was motivated to keep writing. I also started doing word crawls which guide you through writing a certain amount of words or writing for a certain amount of time or writing a certain amount of words in a certain amount of time with a story. I've learned a lot about writing challenges this way. These also give you word prompts as well.

There are word crawls for Star Wars, Cinderella, and Disney. As I write this article, I am in the process of doing a word crawl for the Nick Fury Car Chase scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Here's a sample from that because my explanations are really vague:

Another squad car slams into you and other cars appear, surrounding you on all four sides. Fracture detected. Recommend anesthetic injection. Write 100 words as you fight through the shock to self-administer the anesthetic. DC Metro Police Dispatch shows no units in this area.

“Get me out of here.” The ‘policemen’ open fire on your car. Propulsion systems offline. Write 50 words, “Then reboot!”

They’ve got a battering ram and they set it up right beside the driver’s window. Warning: Window integrity compromised. “Ya think??” Write 100 words as you struggle over into the passenger seat.

A Nerf Battle with my Friends

Some of my closest friends are moving to Michigan in September, so we invited them for a Nerf battle. If you didn't know, I live in Southern California, so Michigan is very far away. These are the friends that I did the plays with and the plays were inspired by a strategic Nerf battle game called "Spy Mission." I found a free Nerf Rebelle Flipside Bow on the street. Later, they invited my to their birthday party and I got to watch a bunch of 10 year old boys play a Nerf gun war which was so much fun.

***

There were definitely other highlights like watching Christopher Robin (it's just so adorable), discovering more musical soundtracks to listen to while I write, reading my first indie book, and playing Super Mario with my brother and dad. There was one lesson that I learned, but I want to save that for the yearly recap. There were definitely a lot of low points during the summer as three families I knew moved to different states during the summer.

The verses for today are 1 John 2:15-17. This verse tells us to not focus on the world and its pleasures because the world is temporal and will pass away. Sin has consequences and is not worth anything in the end. But doing the will of God is worth it all; our reward for following Him is eternal and incorruptible. I've said a lot about life and eternity on this blog, but I will say once again: God knows what is best for us.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."