A Summer In Review

     Hey! As my summer at home has finally winded to an end, and the new horizons of my Fall semester at FSU begin to get closer, I figured I should reflect on how this summer went for me. Even though it's just been a few months, I feel like I've accomplished and experienced a lot in this timeframe, so I'm picking five things to reflect on in this blog post before I move to my new apartment in Tallahassee!

       1) My Trip To Argentina

    Early on into my break, my family and I decided to take a trip to visit our family in Argentina for a couple of weeks, centered around my Granny's 90th birthday! It was a blast spending some time in the countryside with my Dad's side of the family (even though I was sick at the time). I enjoyed being able to talk to my cousins, aunts, and uncles about what I've been up to at college, and explaining my somewhat dubious choice for a career to them several times. It was also just a nice experience having an entire side of my family tree under one roof, if only for a couple of days. Seeing my Granny full of emotion and happiness was another big plus of the experience, I can't imagine what it must feel like to sit in a house and know that everyone's there because of you. She deserved the best birthday ever, and by my estimations, I think we nailed it!

2) Getting Into Running 

    After I got home from Argentina, I had a lot of free time since I wasn't taking any classes and I had no luck getting a summer job. So I thought to myself, what better way of spending this time than getting into shape? I've written about my running experiences on this blog enough already, but I do want to recognize what a tremendous change it was for me, beyond simply exercising consistently. It proved to me that I can take on a problem directly and commit to a solution, and the fact that I remained consistent for about two months (before moving, lol) was a massive achievement for me. Also, it didn't hurt to lose 16 pounds!

            3) Maintaining This Blog!

    While I started this blog in April, towards the end of my Spring semester, I think it was a real challenge to maintain the consistent blogging schedule over the summer break. I was spending a lot more time at home, so I was exposed to less interesting things to write about. I'm proud to say that no matter what, I held steady and kept the posting schedule to twice a week, all the way through to today! The goal is to keep the biweekly posts for at least a year, but it's a good sign that I'm about a quarter of the way there!

4) Writing NOW SPELL!

    While it wasn't physically intense or draining, probably the most locked-in I had been this summer was when I wrote the script for NOW SPELL, a short film, in just about a week. While I had the idea floating around in my head and journal for a few months, it was only when my buddy Wade told me about a screenwriting competition that was due in a few weeks that I actually sat down to write it. Aside from COMPUTER FUNERAL, which I wrote for my AICE Media A class in high school, this was the first short film script I was writing- and the prior script wasn't something I was satisfied with being my only script. So, after a week of doodling, drafting, and asking my friends and family for opinions, I finally submitted my script to a couple of competitions. As of now, one of them has informed me that I'm not progressing to the semifinals of the competition, but instead of quelling my passion, it's only fueled my desire to write again and do better next time!

5) Spending Time With Family!

    Last but certainly not least, I'm happy that I spent so much time with my family this summer. Amid a break full of personal achievements and challenges, I'm blessed to say I had a supportive family right behind me, supporting every choice I made, whether it be reading multiple drafts of the same script, congratulating me after every run, or simply being there at the end of the day around the dinner table to talk with them. There are some aspects of the summer I would change if I had the chance, but I have zero regrets of how I spent my time with family.

It's been a good summer,  but I look forward to my Fall semester at college. Update on the move soon!

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