When I first arrived in August, I expected mean teachers and tons of work. I soon realized, it was all made up in my summer nightmares. The teachers were not at all terrifying (well most) and I did not have that extreme of a work load. By October I was finally settled in to the seventh grade life. Eventually I figured out I did not need to be so scared of seventh grade.

All in all I learned some pretty good things in seventh grade such as

Studying really is key to making good grades

There is absolutely no way to make it to seventh period on time

Never to attempt sneaking someone into the school dance…

As the year comes to a close, I am sad to leave seventh grade but very excited for eighth! And I now know not to be scared of a new school year.

Camp Longhorn is my home away from home. And it is one of my absolute favorite places to be! Camp is so insanely fun, yes you might think it would be scary being away from your family for two weeks, but time flies when you are at camp.

The first day of camp is super exciting, your parents drop you off and you go to the main field and wait for all of your cabin mates to arrive. Then as soon as everyone does you go to your cabin and pick out which bunk you want, I always go for the bottom (easier to make your bed for inspection every morning.) then we go hang out and swim in the lake for awhile, and afterwards we hit the showers. Now that, is a race. There are only four good showers in girls camp and everyone wants one of the showers with perfect hot water and pressure. So you better be ready to run if you want a good shower. After we shower we go down to the chow hall, which is basically a big outdoor cafeteria. Let me tell you this, camp food is the best food. Most people wouldnt think camp food would be good at all, but it is simply delicious. You eat with your cabin and then when you’re done you go back to the cabin and get into your pjs and go down to campfire. Now campfire is not a tiny little pile of wood and people sitting around it, no it is a huge stage and riser like things. We sing songs and celebrate our first night of camp. It makes me so happy to come back to camp every year and I can not wait for camp this summer!

When I was little, I just couldn’t do without my favorite movie rainbow brite. It was the most enjoyable thing to watch. I could watch it forever, I’m surprised it hadn’t been thrown away after the 3ooth time i watched it. I had every lyric to every song in the entire movie memorized by heart.

While I watched it, I was the happiest kid in the world. Sitting on the floor, so when there was a song I was ready to get up and dance. The thought of losing that movie was unimaginable, until the day I did. My mom looked all over the house while I was in tears over my lost movie. We never found it, but luckily my mom went to the store that day and bought me a brand new one, this one came with a stuffed animal that looked just liked one of the characters in the movie, it too sat with me on the floor and watched the movie with me from then on.

Without it, I don’t think my childhood would have been the same, and even if it was just a movie, it was the best.

“Even if I knew tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther King Jr

This is my favorite quote because I take it as living life to the fullest, regardless of what may happen in the future.

The gooey queso, the fiery salsa burning your mouth after each bite. My favorite place in Texas is for sure Trudy’s Tex Mex cafe.

I have been going to Trudy’s since I was 3 so not only does it feel like home, the atmosphere is bubbly and fun! We go out to dinner with our entire family and Trudy’s is always our first choice. Loud but not too loud music plays, our parents talk and laugh and we all have an amazing time. Of course I always order the same thing off the menu. Every. Single. Time. I could never get sick of it.

I always get a sad feeling when I know we have to leave the smell of chips, and cheese and the sounds of music and laughter. But I know we will be back, to my favorite place in Texas.

Photo Credit: Justin Kern via CompfightI imagine the phantoms lair being a very lonely,dark, and creepy place. I envision it would be very cold with the only light being a flickering candle. A cold hard stone floor, a chair that sits in the darkest corner of the dreary place. The organ in the middle. Ready for the phantom to play a mysterious song.

Have you ever been just one flight from your vacation? Or maybe one flight to your nice warm house you haven’t seen in a week? I know I have! And my flight being delayed is not what I want.

I mean, there are some nice things about having a delayed flight! Not being rushed to board on time, you can go to the bathroom one more time before your forced to go to the bathroom on the plane the size of a small closet. But even with these perks, having your flight delayed 4 hours, not fun.

Normally for a flight delay we just buy some extra magazines and wait around our gate until we can board, but this time it was a whole 4 hours. I texted on my phone, called people, and waited around luckily, the flight boarded an hour earlier than it was supposed to. But definitely not a great start to my vacation. This is why I hate my flight being delayed.

The past two weeks of school have been crazy!

What happened last week: on Friday we were going to have a late start because of snow, but that then turned into school being canceled, which was really fun! But now we have to make that day up on a Monday we were supposed to have off.

Then this week: We had another late start which then also turned into school cancellation on Tuesday, that was fun because we got to miss school and I got to hang out with friends! But what do we have to do now? Make up a day of school in JUNE! Summer vacation. Not what I would like to be spending the first day of summer doing, but oh well. Also this week we had a late start in Thursday even though we missed so much school. Definitely one of the craziest school weeks. Ever.

My winter break was very fun: Not because I went anywhere exciting, or exotic, but because I got to spend it with my friends and family. A lot of my family came in town and stayed with us! We got to show them around austin, it was pretty cool. They are from New York so they seemed to love the weather here. I spent about half of my time with my family and the other half–well maybe a little more than half– at my best friends house. It’s nice to know you can still have an awesome time even if you don’t to things particularly exciting.

I have only been to San Antonio a couple of times, which is why I was very excited to go this weekend for my friends birthday party! I realized when I got there San Antonio looks a lot like austin. Especially the downtown area. We stayed at the most beautiful resort, the weather was nice, and I was with my best friends. We walked along the river walk and ate dinner at a cute little Mexican restaurant. A mariachi band played some songs for us next to our table which was very fun. Being in San Antonio was a great experience for me! It was even better than I thought it would be!