30. Anything of great importance

featuring a guest contributor

I outlined my newsletter this morning, but wow, I’m too tired to actually write it (I’m doing fine — just tired).

My daughter Anna (age 13) offered to guest-write this post to give me a break.

Thanks, Anna! Take it away!

I’ll be back next week.

- Kate

What I’m up to

I’m currently waiting for the oven to preheat so I can put in a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I got home early today due to the fact that I couldn’t go to volleyball practice. My knee’s been weird — I think I hurt it running yesterday. There hasn’t been anything of great importance happening in my life, but the first week back from Christmas break has been surprisingly easy and school isn’t bad.

Anna in her natural habitat

What I’m reading

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. Our family has a tradition of buying books for Christmas Eve presents and spending the night before Christmas lying around the living room, reading. Ninth House was my Christmas Eve book. I actually started it last year on my Kindle, but I only got maybe 1/4 of the way through the book before my loan expired and I didn’t renew it. I really liked the bit I had read, though, so I was super excited to get the book for Christmas. Leigh Bardugo is the author of one of my favorite fantasy series. She wrote Shadow and Bone, Six of Crows, and King of Scars, all taking place in the so-called “Grishaverse.” Ninth House is darker, being a urban fantasy murder mystery, but I like it just as much as Shadow and Bone so far.

I’m also rereading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, but it’ll take me much longer to finish. I got my hands on a used copy, so now I own it and can actually annotate it instead of putting sticky notes in my overdue library edition. It’s amazing to me how books labeled as “classics” are usually assumed to be boring and serious. At its heart, Les Miserables is a critique of the class systems portrayed in it and a moving story that is still relevant today. There are also many great puns (although sometimes French translation and explanation is necessary).

What I’m thinking about

It’s been six days since 2022 started. Going back to school, I’ve been asked the same question over and over: “What are your New Year’s resolutions?” I actually didn’t have any at the start of the year, but I’ve been asked in so many classes that I decided to come up with one to save the trouble of explaining how I never complete my resolutions and how I’d taken to avoiding them. I decided that my goal would be to finish 52 books (courtesy of my mom’s suggestion). When I realized this would entail reading one book per week, I was skeptical at best and completely dismissive at worst. Since I only made a resolution to put in my Chinese class essay, there’s no way I’d actually have the motivation to do this, right? But in my Advisory groups, we were discussing how New Year’s resolutions make you disappointed in yourself and how we don’t like them, and I looked back on my years in middle school and realized I have yet to accomplish one goal I’ve made for school. I’d make one up on the spot, write it down in my notebook, and forget about it. In light of this realization, I’ve decided that my New Year’s resolution is to actively work to achieve my goal. It’s sort of two goals in one, but I’ve complained about my lack of self-discipline for a long time and this year I want to try (at the very least, try) to work on this and achieve my goal.

What I’m learning

That I’m not as funny as I think I am. The unit my Chinese class is going over right now is about personality, with lots of words like “humorous,” “introvert,” and “extrovert.” We had to write a paragraph about our personalities, and when I offhandedly asked no one in particular, “am I funny?” the majority of my class responded “no” (in a joking way… I think). I asked my friends afterwards and they said something along the lines of “ummm of course heh why.” Anyways, it’s probably good for my humility lolol.

What I’m doing

Trying to focus on writing this while my mom watches Making the Cut on Amazon Prime. It’s a super fun fashion show and I haven’t been watching with Lucy and my mom, but I started half-watching while I was baking and now I’m sucked in… oops.

What I’ve saved

Poetry prompts for January.

Thanks to my mom for giving me this guest appearance! Have a good week. :)

Anna