Student Blog: Thriving in the Last Month of Summer

This summer has definitely flown by. Even though I kind of miss school, I’m still not totally ready for summer to be over just yet. With about one month of summer left, I wanted to share some fun things I have coming up before my vacation ends!

About a month ago, I applied to this really amazing arts journalism program that lets aspiring journalists work and learn from arts journalists from The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and NPR. I honestly did not think I would get into the program since it’s generally Washington DC-based and they only enroll twelve students, but I guess they were really impressed with my application because not only did I get into the program, but they offered me a full merit-based scholarship to attend the institute! 

From August 7-11, I’ll be pitching article ideas to professional writers and writing an article that’ll hopefully become published through different online magazines and publishing sites. I was looking on the program’s website, and I saw that they have a fellowship program where you can actually be placed with a local publishing site and be paid for the articles you write! I’m definitely going to send in an application!

Another really exciting thing that’s happening in the month of August is the official publication of my poem, “Being a POC in a PWI,” on poets.org! Having my poetry published has been a dream of mine since I was like twelve years old, so you can imagine my excitement when I opened an email from The Academy of American Poets saying I have been selected as a recipient of the Harold Taylor Prize Award, and that my poem would be published to one of the top American poetry sites.

Back in December, I decided on a whim that I would submit my poetry to my school’s literary magazine after reading about the awards they offer to the winners. Again, like with the arts journalism program, I didn’t think I would be selected for the literary magazine, let alone win the 3rd place award for my work. I’ve been writing poetry since middle school and I never thought my writing would leave my tattered, worn-down, purple folder, but yet here we are. This award’s given me the confidence to finally put my poetry out into the world, so now, I’m in the process of compiling my very first manuscript with poetry I’ve written over the years so I can submit them to The Academy of American Poets’ annual poetry book competition. Hopefully, this time next year, I’ll be able to say I have a poetry book in the works!

Lastly, next month, I’ll be going to Virginia for a week to spend time with my aunt and younger cousins, who I haven’t seen in a whole year. We’re planning on going to this entertainment arena called Apex. They have escape rooms, go karting, axe throwing, virtual reality, laser tag and more! I’m really excited for it. We’re also gonna go to the mall and go shopping for swimsuits cause we’re gonna go swimming at my aunt’s house. We might also go see the Barbie movie if it’s still in theaters! Lot’s of fun things planned. 

And that’s it! That’s my plan for the remainder of summer. If you remember from my very first blog post, I went into this summer kind of bummed because my summer was shaping up to be something completely different than what I envisioned, and as I write about what the rest of my summer looks like, I see that this summer is looking to be a summer of achievements, career growth and fun, and I’m really proud of that.