word collage.

Listening to: Dare You To Move, Switchfoot. 

Quote love: “As she walked past him, her eyes flitted up to his face. He was looking at her too. They both blushed slightly, and continued on their way. They never saw each other again. If they had stopped to talk, they would have started to date, gotten married after two years, had a lovely daughter named Clarissa, and had a fairy tale ending. Instead, she was killed when a car ran into her at the side of the road, not ten minutes later. He, lived a lonely life, never dating, and died at fifty four of a heart attack.”

It's really, truly almost over. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And then I'm gone. I leave the country at 11:55PM on Thursday. Land in New York the next morning. I'll stay there during my ten-hour layover, then it's on to Ohio and from there, home. 

Home.


Goodness, that word means so much. I absolutely cannot wait to see my family. I don't like leaving them for this long. It's weird, because being homeschooled, I spend a lot of time with my family. They're always around. I've missed that. 

I can't stress how grateful I am that I was able to come here. Thank you so much for praying. Thank you for sending me money so that I could come. It means a lot to my family and me. 

It's hard to believe that summer is [nearly] over. It seemed long and endless when I first boarded that plane in Ohio, now it seems that it's gone quickly. Lots of things are like that. You don't do what you want because you think, hey, I have plenty of time, I'll just put it off. It doesn't last forever. 

So school's almost here. I'm one of those people who like to start school in the fall. It feels good to have something to do again, something that challenges you. I like the idea that I can choose how the year is going to go. I like freshly sharpened pencils and new, unopened notebooks. I like the anything-ness that comes with a new school year. You don't know how it's gonna go. You don't know what's going to happen. It could be anything. 


The beginning of school comes with the beginning of fall. I love fall. I love the leaves, the freshness of the air. I love sitting in camp chairs at the edge of a soccer field, yelling at the players on the field. I like it when it rains during one of those soccer games, and I snuggle under an old blanket that was lost in the back of the truck. I like new fall traditions. Last year we drove up to an orchard. We picked the apples off of the low trees, occasionally climbing up some of the limbs to reach the good apples at the top. The ones that had fallen to the ground were free. We ate our fill of those. Every so often I would turn around and duck to avoid a somewhat rotten apple sailing out of my brother's hands. The sun was shining that day. It was warm enough that I wore a tank top, covering my neck with a scarf. I still like that outfit, purple tank top covered with a grey scarf. I wore my favorite pair of skinny jeans and my hand-me-down Vans. Those shoes had no traction, and because of that I slipped on rotten apples and slick grass more than once. My camera was in my hand more often than the apples I was supposed to be picking. The pictures I took that day are still some of my favorites. We look happy and, more importantly, we're all together.


After we filled up the back of our purple Suburban with apples, we drove to one of Joseph's soccer games. We were early then, and the rain was just coming down, lightly. I borrowed a long sleeve t-shirt from my brother as we walked around the outdoor festival in the little town. The rain started pouring down at the soccer game. Halfway through the game, Mom pulled out the thermos of hot apples cider. We passed it around, inhaling the the cinnamon and nutmeg. The woods on one side of the soccer field were bright spots of yellow and orange through the thick rain. The air smelled like fall. It was perfect.

I have been tagged!

Rules: answer the questions and pass it on to four others. 

4 Things found in my bag:

A school bag? Right now, there's nothing in my backpack. Here in a couple days though, I'll fill it up with my laptop, books, hairbrush, and other things for the plane ride.

4 Things found in my purse:

1. My wallet.

2. My phone.

3. Pen and notepad.

4. iPod and headphones.

4 Favorite things in my room:

1. My window.

2. My bookcase.

3. My wall with pictures and quotes.

4. My clothes.

4 Things I’m currently into:

1. Home. Have you heard I'm leaving in three days?

2. Photography!

3. Quotes.

4. My followers. :)

4 Things I bet you didn't know about me:

1. My middle name means "star of hope."

2. I use Blogger in Draft, not normal Blogger.

3. My favorite fruit is pomegranate.

4. I'm not gonna live in America when I grow up.

I tag: Paper Bird & Little Fairy, Sophie, Ali, and Olivia.