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Book Review: All Is Not Forgotten

All Is Not Forgotten Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

In the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut everything seems picture perfect.

Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, prefers to pretend this horrific event did not touch her perfect country club world.

As they seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town – or perhaps lives among them – drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.

I thought this book was a pretty interesting read. It definitely didn’t turn out the way I expected, but it was worth every minute I spent soaking up the content.

The issues talked about in All Is Not Forgotten are pretty controversial. For starters, Jenny Kramer, who this story is about, gets raped at a party. Everyone in their small town knows about it and is scared because they don’t know who did it. But then, when her parents find out about the incident, they want her to take this drug to make her completely forget it ever happened. So within the first few pages of the story, we as the reader are given two controversial topics: rape and drugs. Then, we are introduced to the narrator, Jenny’s psychiatrist Dr. Forrester who tells us about how he wants to help Jenny get her memory back from that night. This made the book even more interesting to me because the narrator’s unique perspective in the tale gave me a better understanding of memory recall and other psychological terms and how mental illness played a role in helping Jenny with her memory. I found all of these topics interesting to read about in this book because they are very controversial and rarely talked about that I wanted to get a better understanding of these issues and how they all connected. It helps that I find psychology interesting too so I know that made me even more interested in finding out what happened next.

I also enjoyed reading this book because I found the point of view to be very interesting. In most books you tend to read, the story is told from the point of view of the main character because they are the ones mostly involved in the action throughout. But in this story you get the perspective of the psychiatrist Jenny and her family goes to see, whose view on the subject is obviously very different from the families because of his psychological background. I find it interesting because he’s the narrator you don’t expect but also he tells the story in a way for the reader to get a good understanding of what’s going on and why certain characters are acting a certain way. He’s pretty much in the head of all of the characters so the information you get from him is what he’s been told by his clients.

However, if I’m being honest here, Dr. Forrester is definitely not my favorite character. While I know the information presented to us is reliable, I still question the narrator’s perspective on what happened. Even though we know who committed this vile act, I still believe the narrator is pretty unreliable because he took some questionable actions in the story. While I understand why he did those things, those actions made it even harder to trust his character and actually made me dislike him even more. If I’m being honest here, I actually wanted him to be found out so that for once he got a taste of his own medicine.

The reason Dr. Forrester is my least favorite character in All Is Not Forgotten is because he’s a big douche. While his perspective in the book adds a good insight into the story, he comes across as being very arrogant. When explaining everything to the reader, he treats us like a child, which is something I really can’t tolerate. He also just acts like he’s the only person in the story who knows exactly what’s going on and who did it, which really gets on my nerves and frustrated me. Part of this arrogance comes from that he thinks he’s the best psychiatrist in town just because he seems to be the only one people there come to for their needs. So while I enjoyed reading this book because the content kept me interested in wanting to find out what happened next, Dr. Forrester’s character sometimes made it hard for me to want to continue reading.

Another issue I had with this book was the ending. I felt like the author choose an easy target to be the rapist in this story. While it made sense for this character to have committed the crime, I think the path the story was on before was a whole lot more interesting. I think having that person actually been responsible would’ve really made the story a whole lot more interesting to me because I could definitely picture him doing it. I also think it wouldn’t frustrate me quite as much because this character being the rapist just continues to feed Dr. Forrester’s big ego, which I honestly think needed to be taken down a couple pegs.

While I enjoyed reading All Is Not Forgotten, both of these issues made me enjoy the book less. But despite these issues, I thought this book was a great psychological read and find it to be a great segment into reading about more controversial topics.

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Book Review: Kalahari

Kalahari Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

Deep in the Kalahari Desert, a Corpus lab protects a dangerous secret…
But what happens when that secret takes on a life of its own?

When an educational safari goes wrong, five teens find themselves stranded in the Kalahari Desert without a guide. It’s up to Sarah, the daughter of zoologists, to keep them alive and lead them to safety, calling on survival know-how from years of growing up in remote and exotic locales. Battling dehydration, starvation and the pangs of first love, she does her best to hold it together, even as their circumstances grow increasingly desperate.

But soon a terrifying encounter makes Sarah question everything she’s ever known about the natural world. A silver lion, as though made of mercury, makes a vicious, unprovoked attack on the group. After a narrow escape, they uncover the chilling truth behind the lion’s silver sheen: a highly contagious and deadly virus that threatens to ravage the entire area—and eliminate life as they know it.

In this breathtaking new novel by the acclaimed author of Origin and Vitro, Sarah and the others must not only outrun the virus, but its creators, who will stop at nothing to wipe every trace of it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it when I first picked it up. Not because it didn’t sound like something I’d enjoy, but due to not knowing what all was going to happen.

What I enjoyed about reading Kalahari is that it’s the third book in a series. A series where each book stands on its own without the reader having to read the previous books to get the gist of what’s going on. I really enjoyed it for this reason because it meant I didn’t have to go back and read Origin and Vitro before reading this one, though I’m most likely going to read those two books now because of it.

I also enjoyed reading this book because it takes place in a whole other world than what I’m used to. The setting takes place in the Kalahari Dessert, which is located in South Africa. It’s a place I’ve never been to and probably will never get the chance to see. But I enjoyed reading about it in this story because I felt like I was being taken to that place for a short while. It’s a fictional story, but its centered around a real place teaming with wildlife and nature. Reading a fictional book that takes place in a real world setting is something I rarely experience, but enjoy every time I do. I especially enjoyed it while reading this book.

Another reason I found this story so enjoyable was because the main characters felt so real and relatable. Even though I didn’t like all of the teenagers Sarah was stuck interacting with, I felt as if I was getting a glimpse into the way teenagers in today’s society would react if they were stuck in a dessert with little to no access to cell phones and other technologies. I found them relatable in that way, even when there carrying on and bickering got on my nerves. But I enjoyed seeing everything from Sarah’s perspective who isn’t used to dealing with human interaction because of her daily experiences in the wild.

I found the story in Kalahari to be enjoyable too. I like the idea of a deadly virus existing in the wild dessert where no one suspects it to be and a group of teenagers being the ones to stop it. I also enjoyed the story because throughout, the pacing was very climatic. I felt as if I was thrown into the action of the story, and loved every minute of it.

The one thing with this book I didn’t particularly enjoy was how neat and tight they ended the story. I felt as if everything turned out too perfectly for the characters that it was completely unrealistic. For example, I felt as if the author made the cure for the virus too easy. She made it where Sarah was able to figure out the cure on her own with a very limited amount of information. To me, that didn’t really suit the story because it made the events at the end happen a lot quicker than the rest of the book so that everything could be tied up all nice and neat. I also just didn’t like how they ended the book because I wanted to know what happened with the characters after the cure spread to the other animals that had been infected. I wanted to see more of the relationship between Sam and Sarah and wanted to know how this experience affected the rest of the group.

Despite this one issue however, I found Kalahari as a whole to be an absolute enjoyable read. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series at a later date.

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First Impressions: Transistor

Transistor 1

Transistor is a science fiction action role-playing video game. Published by Supergiant Games in 2014, the game centers around Red. Red is a very well-known singer in Cloudbank, a futuristic city where nothing is as it seems. In an attempted assassination on her life, Red acquires a weapon called the Transistor that is owned by the Camerata and has to combat creatures called the Process in order to survive in the city.

As you explore the city of Cloudbank, you learn more about the Transistor. You also fight the Process using these set of moves called Functions. Red also has a unique ability called Turn() that freezes you in time so you can use your Functions to fight the Process. This ability is one of my favorite combat features in the game because it makes fighting the enemies a little easier.

Transistor 2

Turn() is an ability that can really help you. Especially when you find yourself in a serious pinch.

Transistor is such a uniquely beautiful game, completely different from any other game I’ve played. I enjoy playing it because the game takes you immediately into the action and explains the further you progress. It tests out your ability to fight the Process with the set of Functions you start off with, making it enjoyable to fight against your enemies.

I also enjoy playing this game because of the relationship between Red and the Transistor. In the beginning of the game, Red acquires the Transistor via pulling him out of a dead man’s body. You don’t know anything about what’s going on at this point, but it’s perfectly clear Red and the Transistor know each other. While progressing in the game, Red and the Transistor have little interactions with each other that I find to be very enjoyable to hear. Their relationship continuously gets stronger the more of the Process you fight and the more you explore Cloudbank. I enjoy seeing their relationship because I’ve never seen anything like it in any other game I’ve played this year. Its serious but also playful and fun whenever they fight enemies together. I also think it offers a brief commentary on the relationship between humans and weapons, which I find to be a very fascinating thing to think about.

Transistor 3

https://www.supergiantgames.com/games/transistor/

While I enjoy fighting enemies in Transistor, there are certain aspects of the battling system I don’t particularly enjoy. I find having to click on the enemies to use your Functions to be very tedious but also hate that once you use Turn(), you have to wait until the bar is all the way full before you can use your Functions again. I understand that in many ways this allows for Red to recharge her abilities, but it also makes it difficult for you to use Functions on their own if you find the Process your battling to be low on health. I also dislike that when an enemy takes your health all the way down, you lose one of your Functions. I find that to be very annoying because you have to wait until you can get to an access terminal to reinstall them.

Besides these two issues though, I really think Transistor is a well-crafted, beautiful game that I can’t wait to play more of as I progress through the city of Cloudbank. I highly recommend it to those interested in a unique gaming experience who love science fiction as much as I do.

To view this post on Creators, click here.

 

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If We Were Having Coffee: Catching Up On Life

If We Were Having Coffee Image Ten

Hello everyone! Sorry for not doing one of these posts in two weeks. I’ve had a lot going on the past two weeks that I wasn’t available to do one for you. Hope you all are doing well this week and are having a lovely weekend.

If we were having coffee, I’d like to let you know what all I’ve been up to since we last spoke. I’d tell you about socializing with some old and true friends. I’d tell you I went to my best friend’s husband’s birthday party on a Saturday two weekends ago and got so drunk that I was hungover the next day. But I’d also tell you the party was fun and that I had a good time seeing my best friend once again. I’d also tell you about seeing my old friend from middle school that following Tuesday that I haven’t spoken to and really spent time with since high school. I’d tell you we were playing Pokémon Go because she’s become as addicted to it as I’ve been. I’d also like to mention I also saw her husband and daughter who I met briefly once a December a couple years ago. I’d tell you we all had a good time, and that it felt nice catching up with her, just like old times. We talked a lot about the stuff we did when we were younger, but also talked about how much things have changed over the last couple years. But also said we definitely need to do this again, and made sure we made plans to hang out together.

On that Tuesday after we hung out, I went to our Neighborhood Association National Night Out. My Mom is a part of the association as secretary and the person they had set everything up did a really good job. Unfortunately, the event didn’t last too terribly long because it began to pour minutes after it all started.

I also saw my sister the following Sunday after missing the opportunity the previous weekend to spend time with her. We met up near the college she attended, grabbed breakfast and walked around campus for a little bit. It looks like they are doing some construction around campus for the bridge program students, which really had Laney in quite a tizzy. But it felt nice to see my sister again, even if it was only for a brief moment.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’m sorry for not writing as many blog posts. Part of the reason I haven’t done quite as many is because I’m not sure what I want to write about on my blog next. That, along with using the new platform and taking the online course, for which I’ve already written two new posts, I’m hesitant still about posting the same material on two different sites. Mostly because for the class I can’t do that so I’m just treading carefully right now. Though I think I know what I want to do, or what I plan on doing, to say the least. Since I’ve been taking the online class, I originally wasn’t planning on doing any posts on that site until I completed the course. However, I think this might be counterproductive to me. Because if during the time I’m taking the course I decide to write video game reviews, I want to post them both on the site but on my blog as well. Not because I don’t want to post any of my other posts on my blog, but because I normally like having my video game reviews on my blog and would prefer to keep it that way, if I can. And the posts that I’m doing to complete the course are usually more specific in nature, I’d prefer to keep them on the site than have them both here on my blog and their site. So instead of sharing all of the posts for the course on here, I’m going to share them on my Twitter, and then at the end of the course talk about my whole experience with it and what I learned from it on my blog. Then from there, put whatever posts I decide to write on Now Loading onto my blog too so that you guys can still read what I’ve written. I hope that isn’t too confusing, but just know I’ll still be blogging on here, but I’ll probably only be doing reviews or some of my own writing unless I can think of something that I don’t want to post about on the other site.

In other news, I’d briefly like to mention with that I’m going to start playing some other games. While I’m still playing Pokémon Go currently, I’m not really playing too much else at the moment. I just started playing Transistor yesterday, which I’m pretty excited about because I’ve been wanting to play it for a while on Steam, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So that’ll probably be the next game I post about on my blog while still deciding what I want to talk about for assignment three at Creators Academy. I think I’ll probably do my next assignment on The Hunger Games again like I’d planned on doing, but still trying to figure out what I want to talk about with it. But I’m also interested in playing No Man’s Sky at some point, though I’ve been hearing there’ve been a lot of issues with it on PC. So I’ll probably wait until the PC issues are fixed or until I can get a PlayStation 4 to play it because I don’t want to deal with those issues on my computer, if I can avoid it. Plus, I want to get a PlayStation 4 in the near future anyway so I might as well save up my money and wait until I’m back at work making some money to get it.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve finished reading both Shadow Mountain and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I enjoyed reading both books, but for very different reasons. You can see the reviews if you want to know more. But with the Harry Potter book, just be warned that my review has a lot of spoilers about what happens. So if you don’t want your reading experience to be ruined, I’d suggest you to wait until after you’ve read it to check out my review.

I think that’s it, that I can think of right now. I know I have a lot this week going on because my work is having a meeting this Thursday and I’ll be hanging out with my friend and catching up again tomorrow. But I’ll let you know how I’m doing again in my next coffee post. Until then though, I hope your all doing well and have had a wonderful weekend so far.  

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Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Cover

Rating: 3 stars

Warning: This book review contains spoilers of some of the events that unfold in this book. Viewer discretion is advised for those interested in reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

I just recently finished reading this book and I’m not completely sure what I think of it. I liked reading it because I was brought back into the wizarding world and was reunited with Harry and his friends and family. Just starting out, I was enjoying it because it felt so nostalgic and good.

But at the same time, I wasn’t overtly pleased with it either. The plot itself was interesting, making me want to read more. But the storyline also had so many holes in it that I found myself questioning what I was reading.

I enjoyed being brought back to Hogwarts and getting to meet Harry’s youngest son Albus. I also enjoyed Albus’s friendship with Draco’s son Scorpius. I thought they were really great together and loved seeing Albus at least had one friend during his time at Hogwarts.

What I enjoyed about the plot with the Time Turner was how they allowed me to relive certain parts of the series. I love how those moments going back in time allowed us to go down memory lane and relive some aspects of the series for a second time. It made me feel like I was reading the books all over again and put a smile on my face.

I also enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in another format. As someone who doesn’t read plays that often, I thought it was an interesting way of presenting the story. It made me even more interested in reading it to find out what happened next.

However, I had a lot of issues with the plot and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as a whole. For one, I didn’t like the way they portrayed Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s older selves. With Harry, I wasn’t completely surprised at his inept ability to be a good father figure. I actually expected it. But I feel like they completely changed all of their characters. For example, I felt like they made Ron to be the typical “funny guy,” in the story, but I honestly didn’t find what he said to be hilarious. With Harry being a bad parent, they made him to be a complete jerk towards Albus in a way that I didn’t think was necessary. I get that Harry doesn’t know how parenting works, but I just feel like he was just completely disregarding his son’s feelings and not trying to understand how being his son puts a lot of pressure on Albus. With Hermione, I feel like they made her not quite as intelligent. A perfectly good example is whenever Albus drinks the Polyjuice Potion and turns into Ron so they can steal the Time Turner. Hermione doesn’t realize he’s not her husband during the whole incident even though he does an awful job at pretending. She also hides the Time Turner in her office on her bookshelf, which in my opinion is a stupid move on her part.

I also feel like they completely cut out some of the characters who should’ve been in the story. For example, they didn’t have Harry’s godson Teddy in the story and I feel like his other two children played a very minor role overall. That disappointed me because I thought there would’ve been more interaction between their children. I feel like the lady on the trolley was given more plot in the story than the rest of Harry’s kids.

I hated that there was no real explanation for why the Time Turners were destroyed to begin with. I get that they probably destroyed them because they didn’t want anyone trying to go back in time and bring Voldemort back. But with the way wizards were about going back in time in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I figured someone going back in time to change the past wouldn’t be a real issue at all. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the concept because I did find it interesting. I just wasn’t completely sold on how Thorne carried it out.

I found the thought of Voldemort having a daughter revolting. Mostly because to me, it really didn’t make any sense. Especially when reading the rest of the series and the way he was towards other people, including his own followers. Yes, Bellatrix Lestrange worshipped the ground he walked on, but he never once showed the same interest towards her. The only way I could honestly see Voldemort conceiving a child is through rape, which is what I thought happened until near the end of the play. However, I did like her character and thought she made for a great villain.

I know I need to keep in mind that this story is written in play format so it’s not going to be exactly the same as the other books in the series. But at the same time, its marketed to be the next book in the series so I’m having a difficult time not looking at it as such.

I think the story itself is enjoyable despite all of these plot holes I saw when reading it. I can definitely see some kernels in the story that if expanded would’ve made Harry Potter and the Cursed Child a much more enjoyable read. But I also get this story is meant to be a play so Thorne couldn’t expand on the story as much as I’d like. I definitely think looking at this book separate from the rest of the series will help you enjoy it in the long run and I hope as time goes on I’ll be able to do that myself.

 

 

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Book Review: Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, A Woman, and the Wild

Shadow Mountain Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

After forming an intense bond with Natasha, a wolf cub she raised as part of her undergraduate research, Renée Askins was inspired to found the Wolf Fund. As head of this grassroots organization, she made it her goal to restore wolves to Yellowstone National Park, where they had been eradicated by man over seventy years before. Here, Askins recounts her courageous fifteen-year campaign, wrangling along the way with Western ranchers and their political allies in Washington, enduring death threats, and surviving the anguish of illegal wolf slayings to ensure that her dream of restoring Yellowstone’s ecological balance would one day be realized. Told in powerful, first-person narrative, Shadow Mountain is the awe-inspiring story of her mission and her impassioned meditation on our connection to the wild.

This book is an amazing read. This memoir weaves together an amazing story about a woman and her love of the wild. Through Askins’s eyes, the reader learns more about her upbringing and how she was introduced to wolves for the first time.

I enjoyed reading Shadow Mountain because Askins really brings to light subjects a lot of us don’t talk about. She talks about the wild by providing her own definition of it, but also realizes that we can’t stop an animal from being wild because it’s a part of their nature. Askins also talks a lot about her personal life by telling us stories about her dogs. But she connects these personal anecdotes to her work with the Wolf Fund and her understanding of how we contribute to the state of animal populations. I enjoyed seeing these type of discussions in her memoir because it continues bringing to light topics we don’t openly discuss, such as how we try and take the wild out of our pets and pet pageantry. Both of these things are something we ourselves sometimes do and don’t realize it. So it was nice to have someone openly talk about these topics.

I found this book enjoyable because I wanted to learn more about the subject matter. As someone whose favorite animals is wolves, I wanted to learn more about the author and how she contributed to Yellowstone. But I also wanted to know more about wolves and their behaviors around people. I wanted more understanding of what our society is doing to help bring wolves back into the wild and what we are doing to make sure they are safe. And I found the information Askins provided to be very helpful in getting a better understanding of her organization and how she contributed to the restoration of wolves in Yellowstone National Park. The information she provided in Shadow Mountain shows she did a lot of research while doing her work, which helped me a lot in better understanding her perspective and the way the world perceives wolves.

My favorite part of this memoir was reading about her relationship with Natasha. I enjoyed reading about that relationship because I feel like it gives readers a better understanding of wolves. I also feel like when Askins was talking about Natasha she would talk about the wolf pack hierarchy, which I always found interesting to read about. I find learning about wolves and how they perceive others to be useful information in getting a better understanding of them. I also found it interesting that Askins voices an opinion that I myself believe to be true, which is that we as humans tend to fear things we know very little about. She talks about these things and calls them the “other,” something which we tend to do quite a bit ourselves when talking about things we don’t agree with as a society. I agree that wolves tend to be talked about in this way because they are creatures people don’t understand. So instead of trying to understand them, people kill them because they are scared of them.

While I find Shadow Mountain to be a powerful memoir, there are times when I feel like Askins does too much telling in her memoir. Her overall message to the reader is beautiful. But sometimes I feel like she’s telling story after story to get her point across instead of providing the reader with facts as to why we should be working on restoring wolves into the wild. While I get that this issue is very close to her heart, having all of these stories in her memoir made it a little of a slow read for me at times. When those moments came, I would’ve preferred to have facts as to why restoring wolves is a good idea for the whole animal population. I feel like that would’ve helped get her point across and provide the reader with even more information and understanding.

Despite this aspect of her memoir, I really enjoyed reading Askins’s book. I feel like it really helped me understand the challenges she faced while restoring wolves to Yellowstone. I also enjoyed hearing about her upbringing because it allowed me to better understand why she involved herself in this restoration effort. I look forward to continue reading more books about wolf recovery efforts in the near future and recommend this to anyone else interested in learning more about wolf restoration to Yellowstone National Park.

 

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Creative Academy Chapter One Assignment: The Girl With Two Fandoms

Screenshot 2016-08-03 14.04.14

Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce I’ve officially posted my first post on the site I’ve mentioned, which can be found here for you guys to read and check out too. It’s actually a post I wrote for the online class I’m taking Creators Academy.

Creators Academy is an online class that will teach you how to be a better online writer and allows you to better familiarize yourself with their platform’s tools. The class has a total of ten lessons, each divided up into readings that you can enjoy at your own pace. With each of these lessons is a writing assignment that you have to post on the site before you can start the next chapter.

Since I decided to take the class, I figured I’d start off my posts there with the writing assignments from the lessons. The first lesson focused on why a person writes and had some of their writers talking about why they write.

The first writing assignment was to talk about something your passionate about in a unique way. So I decided to talk about The Hunger Games, my second favorite series next to Harry Potter. I focused on writing about why I enjoy the series, but tried making it brief so the post wasn’t too long.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted it to. But it’s the first post on their site after all so I know with each post I’ll continue to improve my writing. I emailed the person who told me about their site because he asked me to send him my first post once I had it published. He offered me some suggestions of ways I could fix it or how I can expand on my topic for my next post, which I found to be very helpful and definitely hope to take his suggestions in the near future.

While I don’t know just yet if my next post on their site will be about The Hunger Games, I’m looking forward to continue taking this class and working on improving my writing even more.

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A Year of Blogging: My Reflection on My Blogging Journey

One Year of Blogging Image

Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce that today marks a year since I started writing on my blog Vook: Books + Video Games. I started this blog because after graduating from college, I wanted to continue writing no matter what. But I didn’t know what exactly with writing I wanted to do. After much thinking and contemplating, I decided to start a blog so I could showcase my writing to the world. I also started this blog because while in college, I had taken a blogging course and found that while blogging on Healthy Body Peace of Mind I really enjoyed what I was doing. I found that while I enjoyed writing about heart health, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to write about once I decided to get back into blogging again. I thought about my interests and passions and decided to create a completely new space where I could safely write about all of my passions with the freedom blogging provides. And that is how Vook: Books + Video Games was born.

Since I first started my blog, aiming at creating mostly posts talking about books and video games, I’ve found that my blog has grown far from that. While I try my best to focus on blogging about those two topics, I’ve found comfort in using this space to share some of my own works as well as talk about my personal life because I feel comfortable sharing my whole self with you.

Since blogging on WordPress, I’ve felt nothing but a warm welcome from the few people who I’ve managed to talk to. One of the many things with blogging I’ve been hoping to do is get involved with fellow bloggers and converse and I feel like in the one year I’ve been on here, I’ve been able to do that. While I know the WordPress blogging community is vast with a wealth of blogs, I’ve discovered during my time here a majority of people are friendly and I enjoy the short exchanges of interaction I’ve had from fellow bloggers who share the same love of blogging as I do. As I continue blogging here on WordPress, I hope that will continue in the time to come and hope to talk to more bloggers in the near future.

Even though I’ve only been on WordPress for a year, I feel like I’ve learned a lot from this short period of time. I know one of my biggest strengths in my writing is passion. I find that whenever I’m writing on a subject I’m extremely passionate about, my writing shines through in ways I never expected. This post is no exception because I’ve found in this year that I’ve really started to love blogging even more than when I first started on this journey. When I took the blogging class at Columbia College, I knew I enjoyed blogging and could feel that I was pretty good at it. But when I started this blog, I discovered many months into it how much I enjoyed what I was doing. I discovered I found myself looking forward to coming up with something to write about because it meant I had something else to share with my readers.

I found that I was not only writing for myself, but for others too. And that was exactly what I was hoping for because I don’t want to write posts on my blog only for my own benefit. I want those who read my blog to feel safe and welcomed. I want my readers to enjoy the content I’ve created and feel inspired to create stories of their own. Because every person has a story of their own to tell. But it’s up to them how they want to tell it and whether they feel comfortable sharing it. My blog is a part of me that I feel comfortable sharing with the world. It’s not all of me because I know I’m a complicated human being and still have more of my story left to tell. But it’s a part of me I keep close to my heart yet am willing to share with the world.  I want my readers to know how much I enjoy writing and know they can find a friend in me.

As I continue my blogging journey, I hope my readers can learn from me. I hope they can benefit from my work and that they enjoy reading it. Blogging has been a big learning process for me. I’ve found that there’s still a lot I have to learn, but I’m willing to continue blogging in order to improve my writing.

I’ve only been on my blog for a year, yet it feels like no time has passed at all. As a writer, I’ve discovered my writing has improved since being a part of this blogging community. I’ve discovered how much I really enjoy writing on WordPress and want to continue doing so in the many years to come. I definitely see blogging as a potential career path for me and want to use it as a way for me to continuously improve my writing as I progress. But I also want it to be a learning tool, as a way for me to always have something worth working on and goals to complete so my blog can live up to its full potential. I know there are some things with my blog I need to be working on and I hope to do that in the many months to come.

Right now, the main thing with my blog I plan on changing in the foreseeable future is the main design. I think the look of it right now is okay to start off with, but it’s not exactly the way I want my blog to look overall. I hope to make some changes soon so that it looks exactly the way I want it to. But for now, I’m going to play around with the overall look and see what I can do to make it even better.

I hope you all enjoy reading my blog. Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to come on here and read my posts. You have no idea how much it means to me that people enjoy my writing and find inspiration from it. I still can’t believe it’s been a year already but I am proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and can’t wait to see where this blogging journey continues to take me.

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The Realization That It’s Over (Poem)

Sailing-ship In Time Of Storm

It hits you like a tidal wave,

As if one of your blood vessels is about to pop open.

 

You find yourself drowning in your own pain,

Not exactly sure what to do.

 

You hold on to the sinking ship that is your heart,

But simultaneously realize the storm has yet to pass.

 

You take a few breathes,

And get ready for what is to come.

 

You know it’s over.

You know the battle you’ve fought so hard for has finally come to a sinking end.

 

Your heart skips a beat,

But only for a single moment.

 

As you quickly realize you haven’t drowned,

You find your spirit soaring in celebration.

 

The pain hurts,

But you know you’ve faced much tougher circumstances than the ones now placed before you.

 

And each time,

You’ve come out on top.

 

This time won’t be any different,

You’re sure of that.

 

So you get up to assess the chaos all around you,

And begin to fix the broken damage placed within the center of your wrecked ship.

 

And realize that while the battle may be over,

You’ve still come out on top once more.

 

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