Random Ramble: Life Update (Rachel)

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I've really been around and active on this blog. My life seems to have gotten in the way of my blogging lately, and I apologize for the lack of content. I thought I'd share a little of what I've been up to, in an attempt to explain my absence.

First of all, I started my junior year of high school in September. I think I might have mentioned this on the blog once or twice, but sophomore year was rough for me. I was very stressed and unhappy for a good portion of it, mostly because of my academic responsibilities. I felt like I was constantly drowning in homework, and my grades seemed like they were the most important thing in the world. I can happily confirm that, so far, my junior year is going a lot better. I'm taking better classes with better teachers, and I haven't had any cases of stress physically making me sick or any mental breakdowns yet, both of which I struggled with last year. So yay! This lighter school year means I have time to do other things that I wasn't able to do last year.

Of course, being a junior means it's time to start seriously thinking about My Future, which is terrifying and stressful and intimidating. I have no idea how I'm supposed to decide what I want to do with my life at seventeen years old, but whatever. I guess I'll figure something out. :P

Along with this whole "growing up" thing comes a very important milestone. I got my driver's license at the end of October. I actually failed the driving test the first time (stupid parallel parking! stupid cones!) which wasn't that big of a deal, but I was really upset about it. I thought failing driving tests was so uncommon, but it turns out that about half of the kids at my school who've taken their driving tests have failed the first time, too. So it's totally normal and acceptable to fail the first time! 

Now I have a license and a car (it's old and teal and I named it Sherlock) and I feel super grown up. I don't particularly want to feel grown up, though. I mean, I love the freedom of being able to drive myself places and all that, but I'm very aware of how quickly I'm growing up and how high school graduation is just around the corner and then I must enter The Real World (whatever that is...) and AHHHH. It's freaking me out. 

Let's see, what else have I done lately? I participated in NaNoWriMo for the third time. It was...not the best experience of my life. The past two NaNos went a lot better for me. This year, I was constantly behind on my word count, barely scraping by with 50,000 words on November 29th. I also wasn't as in love with my story as I'd been the past two years. In fact, I found myself cheating (in my mind) on my NaNo story with another draft I'd started back in the summer. But I didn't want to switch drafts to write during NaNo, so I ended up suffering through the original one. I did hit 50,000 words, and parts of the draft are probably decent, but for the most part, I have no intention of ever finishing that story. We'll see, though. For right now, I'm going to let it sit on my computer while I work on the story I started in the summer, and I'll open the NaNo draft back up in a few months and look at it with a fresh perspective.

I've found myself being more active in my social life lately. Having a license and a car has definitely opened up a lot of doors for me. I'm able to actually do things by myself without having to get someone to drive me places, which was a total pain for everyone involved. It seems kind of silly, but just being able to go to my friends' houses whenever I want to has really changed my life. I've been spending a lot more time out of the house, and all the little things I've been doing have been adding up. At first, I was worried about it. I didn't like being behind on my NaNo word count or not updating the blog for a few weeks.

But then I realized that I actually need to focus on spending more time outside my house. It's easy for me to lock myself in my room with my books and my computer for days at a time. I'd rather be actually living and having fun and doing teenager-y things and not update my blog for a little while than become so obsessed with my internet presence that I forget about my actual real life. It's healthy for me to actually leave my house and do things and be somewhat social, so I decided that I'm not going to worry about how I haven't posted anything on the blog in weeks. I want to blog when it's fun for me, and if I'm too busy, then I'm too busy. I don't think anyone is going to hate me if my life gets in the way of blogging for a little bit.

What else has happened recently?

I saw Catching Fire. HOLY CRAP. It was brilliant. Absolutely fantastic. I saw it with Megan and some friends, and when we walked out of the theater, we had nothing bad to say about it. Not a single complaint. Which is a huge deal! Every time we see a book-to-movie-adaptation, we spend the car ride home picking apart little details and complaining about the things we didn't like.  But we didn't do that with Catching Fire, because there was nothing bad to say.

It was especially refreshing after the Sea of Monsters and City of Bones movies, which we kind of hated.

I also saw Frozen, which was super cute. I love Disney movies and Pixar movies (well, I guess they're the same thing now, right?) and up until now, Tangled was my favorite. But now Frozen has bumped Tangled to second-favorite, because I am in love with Frozen! Tangled and Brave and Frozen are all so good, and I can't wait to see what Disney/Pixar does next.

I think that's pretty much it for things that have been happening lately. Other than that, I've pretty much just been watching The Office and Hallmark Christmas movies (I don't care how cheesy they are...I absolutely love them).

So I hope this post gives you an idea of what I've been up to lately, and why this blog has been so empty. Life has just been getting in the way of blogging and reading and stuff. But it's okay. That's what life is supposed to do. So I'm not going to worry about it too much. :)

What about you guys? What have you all been up to lately? Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? What did you think of Catching Fire? Tell me about it in the comments below! (I'm dying for some interaction with my internet people lately. I've missed you guys. :P)