// goals for 2018 //

i’m a bit late to the new year’s resolutions party, but it’s fine.

other than the first one, they’re all personal goals (instead of blogging goals), but you’ll definitely hear about them if i complete any.

let’s get into it. :)


reach 1000 followers

with 828 followers, i’m actually pretty close to this already.

i don’t like asking for followers, but maybe join the let’s be lost gang if you want to help a teenager with low self-esteem feel accomplished for once in her life? just a thought.

reach 50k in my novel

i have a pattern with my writing habits: write a ton for nano, and then take a break during december, promising that i’ll resume my story in january. but, of course, that never happens, so i have a bunch of half-finished novels lying around. hopefully this will be the year i keep working on my nano project.

(i’ve actually got 21k right now, whoop whoop.)

not cry on the first day of school

i’m going to high school full-time next year, and i’m not ready. like, at all. it will be a miracle if i don’t break down in a bathroom or the middle of class.

my main concerns are a) i look gross and i don’t always want people to look at me, and b) i’m not going to have any friends!! just hear me out on this. i already know a lot of people in my grade and none of them have expressed any interest in befriending me. why would that suddenly change next year? so i won’t have any buddies unless some upperclassman decides to take me under their wing because of how lonely i look.

learn to play drums

i plan on joining my school’s marching band, but apparently you need to be able to play an instrument to do that?? who knew. drum seems like the easiest, and i’ve always wanted to play, anyway. plus, i already have a drum (technically my brother’s) that i can practice on.

go to a concert

literally everyone i know has gone to a concert, even ones who aren’t into music and only tagged along because of a friend. i would definitely cry from happiness if i get the chance to see a band i like this year.

meet an internet friend

i’m looking at you, sam and rutvi. you guys are incredible and i love you and it sucks that you both live so far away from me.

go to camp

it’s pretty much guaranteed that i’ll be able to go to ahg camp again this year. it’ll be my third time there so i’ll be an experienced camper™. i’ll hopefully be able to get that rad rainbow knife that i couldn’t get last summer because one of the staffers overheard me and my friend discussing murder.

i’d also like to go to a place called camp victory with said friend. they do zumba every morning.

get better at drawing faces

i can sometimes draw faces, but they’re sort of cartoon-ish. i’d like to improve my skills so my people look more realistic.

get better at gymnastic

my brother and i did gymnastic together for years when we were younger, and i just started going again this week. it’s not as hard as i remembered, which is probably a good thing. i’d like to stick with gymnastic for the entire year and finally get down my back handspring, which i had almost mastered when we quit.

make a new friend

i don’t think i made a single friend in 2017 that i’ve seen regularly. in fact, i kind of lost some instead. hopefully i’ll make a friend at my school so i don’t have to do high school by myself.

read 100 books

this doesn’t sound that difficult, but i only read about fifty books last year due to a huge reading slump, so we’ll have to see.

goodreads tells me i’m one book ahead of schedule but i think it’s lying.


so there you have it. everything i want to achieve in 2018. some of them are too outlandish for me to actually accomplish (i’m looking at you, not crying at school and making a friend), but some of them seem attainable? maybe? who knows.

do we have any of the same goals? what’s something you want to do in 2018? let me know in the comments. :)

xo

loren

2017 Bucket List

And so begins another awful year. Not expecting much from 2017 (or the years that come after it, either). But a couple of bloggers have been posting 2017 bucket lists, and I thought I would jump on the wagon.

Pretty much all I would like to do is travel. But since I am a minor and the wanderlust bug has not bitten anyone else in my family, I doubt I’ll be straying too far from my home state this year.

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☼ Go to the Beach ☼

The last time I went to the beach was February 2016, and it was far too cold to get in the water. The ocean fascinates me, and I would love to visit it this year.

☼ Finish Writing Courageous Hearts

If anyone does not know, Courageous Hearts was my 2016 NaNoWriMo project: a novel following the lives of two teens with mental illnesses. I can’t bear keeping the story pent up inside of my brain for much longer.

☼ Create a Book of memories ☼

I’m thinking a scrapbook/journal would be nice. I blog about my adventures a lot, but since I can’t post pictures of my friends/myself on these adventures, it lacks a personal feeling.

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☼ Plant a garden ☼

I usually have a garden anyway, but I want lots of flowers this year. Big flowers, for bouquets, and little ones, for making flower crowns and braiding into hair.

☼ Redecorate my room ☼

I painted my room light blue over Christmas, and now I would like to make pretty decorations for it.

☼ Learn to play the ocarina ☼

I received an ocarina for Christmas, but I don’t exactly know how to play it. I would be happy with learning a few songs.

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☼ Do more art ☼

I don’t paint/draw as often as I would like to — probably because I’m afraid that it won’t turn out well. I’d like to create something I’m proud of each month, at least.

☼ Keep a journal ☼

I’ve been writing in a journal for a few months, and it’s nice to be able to get all my thoughts out. I’d like to continue it this year. And it will be neat to get it out in a few years and remember what was going on at the time.

☼ Meet another internet friend ☼

Technically I’ve already accomplished this, as I met one of you on January 1st. But I’d really love to meet more of you. There’s a possibility that I can meet three of you this year, and I’m very excited to see if we can work that out.

That’s currently what I would like to do this year. I’m sure I’ll come up with more as 2017 progresses.

I hope you guys had a good day. If you haven’t heard it yet, you’re beautiful, you’re loved, and you’re alive for a reason.

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Summer Bucket List — Results

My mom is easing me back into a school routine, so summer is pretty much over. That being said, at the beginning of summer, I posted a summer bucket list. Now that the school-free months are over, it’s time to see how well I did!

Key: red = not done. Green = done. Blue = Sort of.

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1. Go to a drive-in movie. I slept over at my best friend Izzy’s house, and we went to watch Finding Dory and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I actually ran into my other best friend Kelsie at the drive-in theater, and her family watched the movies with us.

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The tent Izzy and I stayed in.

2. Go to sleep-away camp. Izzy and I went to AHG camp with our moms for a whole week in August. It was at a Boy Scout camp and was tons of fun. I wrote a separate post about camp that I’ll get up eventually.

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3. Run a 5k. Aye! My dad and I drove home early on our last day of vacation so we could get to the 5k in time. We met up with Izzy and her dad, who ran with us. There were tons of fun obstacles along the racecourse, like giant hay bales, monkey bars, Dumpsters filled with ice water (which we had to swim through), waterslides, mud pits, and more. It was exhausting, but good.

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4. Breathe in helium and sing “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.” Nope. I never got around to it; and I never got a helium balloon. ;)

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5. Walk through a drive-thru. Again, no. I’m not old enough to drive, and there aren’t any fast food places within walking distance of my house. I didn’t really get an opportunity to complete this one.

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6. Start a book of memories with my best friends. Sort of . . .? I have pictures, I just never picked a book and put the photos in it. 

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7. Write 5,000 words for my novel. Yep! I wrote 6,294 words — a little bit over my goal. 

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8. Make crayon art. No . . . *sigh* IT LOOKS SO PRETTY, THOUGH.

9. Buy a mermaid tail. I actually did this one (surprise, surprise!), and I’m so glad I did! I love my mermaid tail. <3 I got mine from FinFun.

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10. Make a candy pizza. OH MY GOODNESS, IT WAS LIKE CONCENTRATED DIABETES. BUT SO GOOD. 

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Me, at the archery range.

11. Try archery. I did it at summer camp, and I was actually OK at it. I earned AHG’s Archery badge!

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12. Be able to run a mile. Well, I ran a 5k, so I would hope that I accomplished this.

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13. Go on several fishing trips. One . . . definitely counts as several. Definitely.

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14. Do a photoshoot with my best friends. Yeah . . .no. I didn’t see Kelsie (the one friend I knew would do this with me) very much this summer. But I shall rope her into it later.

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15. Have a Disney movie marathon. *sad, sad little sigh*

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16. Go to an amusement park. Hello, Hershey Park! It was awesome. :D

Summer Bucket List: Go Star Gazing. Lots of blankets and pillows in back of pickup truck, sky watching at its best!:

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17. Spend the night in the back of my dad’s truck. Meh. Izzy’s dad’s truck, from about 6 PM to 1 in the morning.

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18. Get free Slurpees from 7-Eleven on July 11th. Check!

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19. Go to a water park. Our library usually gives water park tickets to the winners of their summer reading program, but not this year. So I didn’t get to go. :/

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20. Have a water balloon fight. Did this at a friend’s birthday party! She had water balloons filled with food dye. So cool.

Out of twenty, I did eleven; sort of did three; and didn’t do six. Not too bad, really!

What was the coolest thing you did this summer?

Loren

Summer Bucket List

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It’s the first day of summer! Granted, I started summer vacation in late May, but now it feels more like summer.

Anyway, a lot of bloggers have recently been posting summer bucket lists, so I figured I’d try my hand at that. ;)

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1. Go to a drive-in movie. I’m going to watch Finding Dory with my best friend this summer!

2. Go to sleep-away camp. I’m going to a scouting camp for a week in August, and my best friend Izzy is coming with me!

3. Run a 5k. My mom is going to sign me up to run a really cool 5k the day before I leave for camp. It’s not a normal race: there’s tons of cool obstacles! Two water slides, a net you have to climb, a giant stack of hay bales, and more. Izzy and my dad are going to be on my team.

4. Breathe in helium and sing “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.” It just sounds fun to me. XD

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5. Walk through a drive-thru. I just need to find someone crazy enough to do this with me! Not sure my mom would approve of this plan, though . . . :P

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6. Start a book of memories with my best friends. I could probably get my friend Kelsie to do this with me, but Izzy? She’s camera shy (actually, we all are, but we like taking pictures!). I’ll figure out a way to do this.

7. Write 5,000 words for my novel. The word count for Shadow Bird is currently 31,290. Writing 5,000 more words would mean getting motivated to work on my project again, but hopefully I can do it!

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8. Make crayon art. This craft looks so cool, and I love looking at all the amazing pieces that people have made. If I do this, it will probably fail . . .

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9. Buy a mermaid tail. I suppose this is the most unlikely thing on my summer bucket list, but I’ve always, always wanted a mermaid tail.

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10. Make a candy pizza. Does that sound good to you? Because that sounds good to me.

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11. Try archery. I’ve always wanted to do this, and I’m going to learn how at my scouting camp!

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12. Be able to run a mile. My mom is going to run the 5k mentioned earlier with one of her friends, but she needs to train. There’s a track at the middle school close to our house, so maybe I’ll accompany her there when she’s training and accomplish this.

13. Go on several fishing trips. I love fishing with my dad on river. We get in the canoe, load up a cooler with snacks, and spend hours on the water.

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14. Do a photoshoot with my best friends. As I previously mentioned, my friends and I are all camera shy — doing a cute photoshoot will be challenging, but I’m determined to make it happened. Watch out, dear BFFs.

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15. Have a Disney movie marathon. Need I explain?

16. Go to an amusement park. My mom is planning on taking me and my brother to Hershey park. :D

Summer Bucket List: Go Star Gazing. Lots of blankets and pillows in back of pickup truck, sky watching at its best!:

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17. Spend the night in the back of my dad’s truck. With friends. :)

18. Get free Slurpees from 7-Eleven on July 11th. My family found out about this on accident. We’d just stopped in at 7-Eleven on a hot day, and the small Slurpees were free!

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19. Go to a water park. There’s a water park at the resort close to my house, and we go there nearly every summer.

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20. Have a water balloon fight. An EPIC one.

I think that’s it . . . It’s unlikely that I’ll accomplish everything on my summer bucket list this year, but I can hope, right?

What are some things on your summer bucket list?

Lorenoriginal pic via

31-day Blogging Challenge — Day Eleven

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31-day Blogging Challenge #11

Top ten things on my bucket list.

We-e-e-e-e-l . . . you can see my complete (at least at the moment) bucket list here, but I’ll put the super important ones below . . .

Write a book — and get it published! I really want to be a published author, but I’ve got a long way to go . . . I’ve never finished writing a single one of my stories.

Go to Greece — I’ve got Rick Riordan to thank for that one. I’d totally wear my CHB shirt every day.

Meet my internet friends — probably the most important thing on my bucket list. I’d LOVE to meet you guys! My plan is to go on a cross country road trip and stop at each American Girl store, where I’ll have meet ups :)

Watch all the Doctor Who episodes — I’m dreading having to watch “The God Complex” and the episodes about the Child’s plague.

Go to an Owl City concert — Adam’s music is amazing! It would be so cool to go to one of his concerts.

Start a book of memories with my best friends — this would so awesome. To be able to look back at all the fun we’ve had over the years . . .

Read the entire Bible — kind of self-explanatory.

Own a horse — dream come true.

Start a wall collage — my whole room would be covered in fandom stuff ♥

Go on a road trip with friends — when I’m older, of course. And we could work on our book of memories during the trip.

~Loren