A New Project, Summer Vacation, and Another Year Older // June 2022

Hello friends! Happy July! I hope you all had a great weekend and wonderful Fourth of July.

Today’s post is my monthly review for June. Enjoy!

Writing

I’ve had a fun month writing-wise! I started a new novella called Project Cupcake. It’s going a little slow because I’ve been away, but I’m excited to jump back into it. Something I’ve been trying with this project in particular is using less dialogue tags. It definitely makes the story more interesting by doing so!

I finished going through the edits for my post for The Young Writer blog. That was a huge learning experience, and I gained a lot of useful tips while doing research. I’ve started the content upgrade to go with it, and that’s been a lot of fun. I’m excited to have it completely finished and published!

I’ve started going through all the short stories I’ve written this year, editing and revising. I’d like to compile them all into a book for my grandparents for Christmas this year. As I’ve been doing so, I can see a big improvement from the first short story I wrote, and the latest one. That’s very encouraging! 

Reading

I didn’t get quite as much reading done this month, but I enjoyed all of the books I did read! I’ve been going to the library after piano lesson almost every week and getting new books. Some of my favorite reads this month:

• Dust

I have heard so much about this book, and I was thrilled to finally read it! The characters were so realistic, and I loved the storytelling! Peter Pan has always been a favorite, and I thoroughly enjoyed this creative retelling.

• Shadow

Shadow was just as good as Dust! It has so many plot twists I never would have even thought of. Something that stuck out was that Kara used the present tense, which I don’t think I’ve seen in a book before. 

• Mere Christianity

This was quite a book. It was difficult to understand at times, but I enjoyed reading and each chapter gave me something different to think about. Would highly recommend it!

Life

A lot happened in June! I was away for two weeks, one week in Ohio and one week in Florida. I also spent time with family, worked in the garden and started getting ready for school in the fall. A few highlights of my activities:

• Went to Florida

My family and I had a lovely time in Florida, visiting my grandparents! We stopped in Georgia on the way down and went to the National Prisoner of War Museum. We saw two documentaries, one about prisoners of war and the other about life in Andersonville prison. It was sobering to see what those men went through for their country, and for freedom. We also got to go to the beach! It was the first time my sister and I had been to the beach in the summer, and we had a delightful time in the water.

• Turned 16

I turned 16 while on vacation! It doesn’t feel very different than being 15, other than that I can get my learner’s permit! I’ve been reading through the manual and will hopefully go for the test in the next few weeks. While I’m excited to learn to drive, it’s also a little scary at the same time. For those of you that have already been through learning to drive, what was your experience like?

• Went to City Challenge

I went with my church’s youth group to City Challenge at the Rosedale International Center in Columbus, Ohio. City Challenge is a week-long outreach program for youth groups. The program focuses on “ministry opportunities, creative sessions, and engaging in service projects.” While we were there, our group went on prayer walks, picked up trash, and handed out brown bag lunches. I can honestly say that City Challenge was the best week of my life, and I learned a lot about God, myself, and my friends during the week.

How was your June? Did you go on any trips? What has been your favorite part of the summer so far?

Thanks so much for reading!