I'm Stellar in Neverland, and...it's been a while. No, I have not been dead since I last wrote on here, nor have I been pregnant, despite what the "nine months" of the title might make it sound like. As my first post since my unannounced hiatus, I feel an obligation to explain why I went away and what I've been up to in those nine months or so.
There's an unexplainable wistful, bittersweet feeling to coming back to this blog after so long. I spent many months without writing on here, with mixed feelings. I chose to leave for a reason, which I will get into in a minute, but there were times where I wanted to come back. I came up with many ideas for potential blog posts, but I never got around to writing them. However, as I got situated to life without Stellar in Neverland, I began to miss it just as much. But now I'm back. Call it Stellar in Neverland 2.0. I'm not sure how long this will last, as I have one more of year of high school and a bunch of stressing about college to do in the future, but I am back for the time being.
Why I Left
I talked about this in the last post before my hiatus, but towards the end of Stellar in Neverland 1.0 (because that's what we're calling it now), I started my junior year of high school, and well...it was certainly the most exhausting year of my life. I had three AP classes, as well as some non-AP classes that were challenging for me, like advanced algebra and chemistry. These classes constantly kept me on my toes. I also had the ACT and AP tests, which were a real source of stress for me. I ended up doing pretty well on them, but they were certainly stressful at the time. I had quite a few extracurricular activities to occupy my time, such as National Honor Society, forensics, and band. I had so much occupying my time that when I did have free time, I just needed to relax and take a breather. With such a busy schedule, I didn't have much time to write on a blog, and even when I did have time, I didn't feel like doing anything requiring actual effort. But now summer's here, and the rest of my summer is set to be pretty low-key, so now is as good as any time to return to Stellar in Neverland.
What I've Been Up To (Other than schoolwork...)
Since I left, I've had the chance to go on two amazing trips. In March, I went to my nation's beautiful capital of Washington, DC with the school band. It was an amazing opportunity and I made many memories. I went to the Smithsonian, the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center, and Mount Vernon, among other places, and our band scored a silver medal in the festival we played at. I also had fun drinking Smoothie King smoothies with my friends, singing oldies on the bus, and making inside jokes with everyone on the trip. DC was a beautiful city and it was so cool to visit it. Also, some people claimed Donald Trump's car was driving when we were walking to the Holocaust Museum. Missed opportunity to flip him off...
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| Here's a picture I took of the Washington Monument taken from when we went to the World War II memorial at 9:00 at night. It was amazing to see. |
The other trip I went to was more recent, taking place right after we got out of school in early June. My family and I traveled to Orange Beach, Alabama and stayed there for a few days. It was my first time seeing the ocean in person and it was everything I dreamed it would be. The beaches were so white and it was great to relax on the beach after such an exhausting school year. I also saw the Louisville Slugger Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, went on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, and visited the Gateway Arch and City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. There was not a moment of the trip that I didn't enjoy, and I'd give anything to go back to that cute little beach town.
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| This is not my picture, but it really does justice to how pretty the beaches were. |
The biggest change between who I was when I last wrote on here and who I am now is that I've become a pretty big fan of Pokemon. Some of my friends were talking about it in gym class and although I didn't really know much about it, I was somewhat interested. So, nearly two years after it peaked in popularity, I decided to download
Pokemon Go. I've been playing it and enjoying it for a while now, and it led to me wanting to learn more about the wonderful world of pocket monsters. I spend quite a bit of time on
Bulbapedia researching specific Pokemon, I watch Pokemon-related YouTubers, and I watch the anime on Netflix. I have a long way to go as a Pokemon fan, considering I've never played any of the games, but I just find the Pokemon themselves cute, cool, and interesting. I'm especially interested in the starter Pokemon you receive at the beginning of every game. My favorite is the grass starter from Generation 7, the owl, Rowlet. I love him to death, and I even own a plushie of him. He makes me happy.
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| Look at him! He's so cute and round! |
What Stellar 2.0 Posts Are To Come
My Pokemon talking is a good segue into me talking about what I want to write about on here. I definitely plan on talking about Pokemon in some way. I plan on doing a ranking of the starters or a list of my favorite Pokemon from each generation, with maybe some other posts coming as I think of them. But I'm not solely going to become a Pokemon blog, of course. I'm still going to write mostly about music. My favorite, Ariana Grande, released her record-breaking album thank u, next during my hiatus, so of course I'm going to talk about it at some point. My next post will be a list of my favorite songs by her, and I'm super excited to write it. My best friend has also gotten me into the K-pop group Twice, so I'd like to do a ranking or list of my favorite songs by them. I'd also like to do some of those posts I do where I talk about a bunch of songs I find in a playlist or YouTube video and give my thoughts on them. Those are always fun to do. I'm sure I'll come up with other posts as I go on.
One last thing I have to mention is the new schedule. I went over what I'll be posting, but when exactly will I be posting it? Well, for now, I'm thinking I'll have new posts every Thursday, but it's likely to change. I want a more flexible schedule, but I know I might slack off if I do that, so I want to find a happy medium. But for now, you can expect a post every Thursday. See you then.
Stellar
