Emily Rachelle Writes

Don't forget: today is the last day to enter my Spring Cleaning Giveaway ! # 4 4/25/18 Dear Freshman, This year, I've heard the phrase "identity politics" a lot. I guess the idea is that people let their identities dictate their political stances and alliances instead of grouping together by party. I've never understood why saying something like "hey, LGBTQ people deal with unique problems everyone else doesn't, and I'm part of an LGBTQ group trying to do something about that" is so horrible, but political talk makes everyone jumpy and irrational, I guess. The concept of identity and how it shapes your opinions, worldview, lifestyle, and choices is nothing new, though. And it's a huge part of the college experience. Let's talk a little about some of the pieces that make up a person's identity, and how we think about them differently in a college environment. This letter is going to be limited in what I can teach based on my...

The series is finally back, with a few more letters before I graduate. I know it's been a while, so you can go back and read the beginning of the series if you'd like. # 3 4/11/18 Dear Freshman, There are a lot of sayings out there about time. Trust me, I'm as sick of them as you are, so let's skip the mottos and platitudes and get straight to the point. In college, your most hoarded resource, possibly even more than money, will be time. So if you know how to budget it from the start, life will be a whole lot easier as you go. Everyone in college talks about time management, but what does that really look like? Honestly, an effective system is different for every person. There is no one-size-fits-all. But there are a few common factors to successful time management and fitting your needs and your wants into a realistic schedule.

#2 10/4/17 Dear Freshman, When you come to college, you'll have a lot of ideas about friendship. I came to school with expectations. I would make friends with my orientation class. I would bond with the people in my dorm. Ten years from now, my roommate and I would still be talking every month. Life never meets expectations.

The Host  by Stephenie Meyer Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Amazon Page GoodReads Page Author Website Amazon Summary: Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.  When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.  Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melani...

Miss Part One: Starting a Bible Study ?  No worries!  Go check it out before moving on. Part Two: How to Keep Your Study Group Alive Nobody wants a Bible study group that's bored, grudging their time together, or doesn't get along.  Sometimes (especially with that last one) you do everything you can and it still seems to end in disaster.  However, there are ways to nurture a united, friendly group that has fun together.

Isn't it funny, my lovely readers, how little of my real life actually makes it into my blog?  Sometimes that's because life is messy, and bloggers are notorious for avoiding sharing their messy reality online.  (Although sometimes, life's messes don't need to be shared online.  There's a fine line between being authentic and being a complainer/gossip/busybody/fill-in-the-blank.)  Sometimes, life is just boring. There's the one that's usually my problem... sometimes, we bloggers just forget.   We forget to take photos while trying a recipe, or we forget about that big party last month, or we forget about all the cool real-life people we hang out with that the followers would just love to read about! (Or our cameras break and our blog posting options are suddenly limited because a post without photos just isn't as good.) Anyway, today I have a post based off a big part of my summer this year - Bible study! Even before I went to summer camp,  I wa...

Check out my interview yesterday at Zara Hoffman's blog!  I won third place in the story pitch contest at her shared writing blog, A Pocket Full of Pens . :) There I was, sitting in church on Sunday, just like usual.  Picture it with me: second red-upholstered wooden pew from the front, in the set of pews on the right side of the auditorium.  I'm sitting in my new black dress with blue and green polka dots, if I remember correctly.  In my hands is a copy of one of the INSPY book nominations I'm helping to judge.  People sit or stand scattered around the auditorium, waiting for service to start in about 20 minutes, and the music of the orchestra practicing in the meantime combines with the chatter surrounding me.  I tune it all out and dive into a great story, at least for the twenty minutes I have. You can see it now, yes?  As I sit there, alone and happily oblivious to the world, a young woman approaches.  I notice her standing in front of ...

The brown-eyed boy and family came for a week-long visit that, due to their van troubles and my hospital stay and ensuing surgery, was stretched into a month.  No complaints from this girl, except maybe the whole needles-and-tubes bit of the hospital/surgery....  Anyway, I didn't end up with any photos of my younger two brothers or his brother, so know that there are actually four kids per family and three just happen to be unrepresented here.

Hello, my lovely readers!  Happy Tuesday morning!  A week ago a writer friend of mine from the Go Teen Writers Facebook group dropped by here and left a few notes for me, including a nomination for the Liebster award !  Thanks Sarah ! This was actually my first time hearing about this award.  It's a very nice-looking award, and of course it's always fun to hear you've won something!  It reminds me of the Game of Elevens I played a while back.  The old-me writing and messed-up font/highlight settings make me cringe, but I thought I ought to mention it anyway. The Liebster award is given by winning bloggers to the blogs they follow that have 200 or fewer followers.  The main purpose of this blog is to connect with new bloggers and find new blogs - any niche or kind of blog is eligible.

Hello everyone, and happy Saturday!  Have you enjoyed the party so far?  This year's celebration is drawing close to the end, but we can still enjoy these last few days.  (Especially the final presents in the Super Girls' Giveaway!) This year, not only am I hosting my second annual blog party, but I also hosted a real-life Christmas party with some girlfriends of mine.  This wasn't my first time hosting a Christmas party... but let's just say it's my first successful Christmas celebrating endeavor. *ahem* While words are usually my medium of choice, everyone knows that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I've decided to let the photos from my party tell their own story.  Enjoy! A note: since my party skills have grown much this year, I've decided to join Hostess with the Mostess and post my favorite parties I've planned/hosted!  Right now only my brother's pinata birthday and my Christmas party are up, but I plan to add other parties I'...

  

Read A Summary, Part One  and A Summary, Part Two . On July 27 at 5:58 PM I wrote this in my Mission Trip 2012 journal: Today was... interesting. Definitely busy, but not the good kind of busy.  Lunch was good - fish cooked three ways.  I learned Americans, myself included, don't like breadfruit.  Then during free time was the girls' hike, and that's when things went south.  The hike was divided in half so those who wanted could go back to camp midway.  By the time we got to that point I was out of breath and very weak and tired, so I went with Jonathan, Katie, Andrew, Ashlee, Alex, Adina, Zach, and later Mrs. Bartow.  I never made it back to camp - I pretty much collapsed on the side of the road. 

Read A Summary, Part One. July 27 6:17 AM  Adina and I get up for the sunrise to see only a golden glow through all the clouds.  The world is wet and it rains again. 11:25 AM   More rain, camp games, and Dominicans using my camera.  They love taking photos!

As many of you know, I just got back very early yesterday morning from a ten-day mission trip to the island of Dominica.  When you spend ten very busy days with almost thirty other people immersed in a third-world island country - no cell phone, internet, computer, television, air conditioning, or hot water; plenty of bugs, sweat, heat, strange foods, new people, new lingo (but thankfully still English) - it takes time to adjust to your life. A simple example is the fact that I'm writing this post in August wearing long socks, a wool head wrap, and a hoodie because the air conditioning is freezing my nose off. All that to say: I'll try my best to share my experience with my lovely readers, but you really had to be there.

Imani, a girl new to the blogosphere, recently saw my interview at Wassup Girly?  and contacted me to see if I'd be interested in doing something similar at her new blog, Geekly Chic.   Considering my contact page offers to post about/help out other bloggers/teenagers/writers, and said previous interview was the first time anyone took me up on the offer, I naturally said yes.  So today I invite all my lovely readers to welcome another new blogger, this time a teenager blogging about what's hot and what's not for geeky girls, to the web. :)

Hello, my lovely readers!  This week I interrupt the 30 Day Challenge to make an announcement: another first has just occurred in this blogger's life and I felt I ought to share it with you!

I haven't had a Friendlight (friend spotlight) in a good while.  Since Friendlights were inspired by my favorite posts of Bailey's, and her most recent post is a beautiful expression on friendship that touched my heart, I decided to bring them back - if only for today. Bailey from Big House in the Little Woods

There are a lot of firsts in the blogosphere, and even more for specific kinds of bloggers.  In my case, as a writer/reader/book blogger, these would be some personal blog firsts I've accomplished:  First author interview  First guest post hosted by me  First guest post written by me  First giveaway won  First giveaway hosted First book review First blog hop I've joined

What will be on your gravestone - what will others inscribe? What defines you? Are you an athlete?  Writer?  Student?  Christian?  Parent?  Dentist?  Teenager?  Mormon?  Blogger? You may be many of the above (obviously, you can't be all of the above; if you are, see a therapist and clear up your schedule before you have a heart attack at eighteen).  You may only be one or two.  You may be nothing I've listed.  But what defines you?

What is your favorite season? The weather of fall is beautiful, Glorious and bright but Chilling and crisp.