Emily Rachelle Writes

"look out, 'cause here I come, and I'm marching on to the beat I drum. I'm not scared to be seen; I make no apologies. This is me" - "This Is Me," The Greatest Showman 05.19.2018 Me with the grandparents. Me with the parents.

#5 5/2/2018 Dear Freshman, This series didn't really go the way I expected. I had a lot of big, vague ideas with not a lot of direction. I 'planned' for several letters, meaning I made a list of one-word topics and assumed I'd remember what I meant months later. Let's just say that's not the most effective approach to blogging. But here we are. I've shared my senior year experiences and how they compare to the dreams and realities I had as a freshman. I told you about the types of friends I made in college, and how friendship doesn't fit into templates or rules. I listed the most important pieces to my (admittedly still developing) time management skills. And I narrated a few of the many, many pieces of identity that are often explored and discovered in college.

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.

#1 9/27/17 Dear Freshman, It's been roughly a month since I started my senior year of college. I've been looking back on my college experience and doing the "self-reflecting" thing a lot. It's weird, being one of the older students on campus. I see the (many) freshmen on my floor. I notice the questions they ask me, how they listen to my stories, nod with alert eyes. They expect me to know the campus, to have an inside scoop on life here. It's an odd sort of respect, the kind you give to someone who is technically your peer but you view in a different position. I feel very strange to be on this end of it. How did I get here, and so fast?

This semester, I'm taking Spanish 101. Last week, my professor ( mi profesora ) announced our class ( nuestra clase ) would have a Day of the Dead celebration to learn more about the holiday and the Mexican culture related to it. She planned to set up an altar for gifts and memorials, as is traditional. However, since most of the class seemed disinterested, she chose to stick with a normal average class period instead. She did tell me where to find more information on the holiday, however; I decided to construct an altar of my own. (There are other traditions/beliefs in this holiday, such as dressing up and the Lady Catrina. The end of this post has links to more information.)

When it comes to mental illness, I like to be the champion. The advocate. The information bank just waiting to enlighten and educate you. A source of awareness, a spark for understanding. But the whole world of mental illness and living with one is just as new to me as it is to many of the people I'm trying to help understand. I'm still learning, and now that I'm back at school, it feels like a crash course. And I think a lot of people with mental illnesses can relate.

When I chose "wild" as my One Word for 2015, I wasn't expecting quite what I got.

Hello, my lovely readers! So, obviously, my plan to post about other students' take on "Focus 2014" didn't happen. Trying to interview fellow students as we all prepared for Thanksgiving break and then finals just wasn't a great idea. Sorry about that! I don't know what I was thinking when I signed up for NaNoWriMo, the day it started, on a whim. Actually, I do know what I was thinking: You're nuts. Yeah, but I haven't written anything lately. Not true! You've kept up with your blog, and your homework, and your poetry. Okay, yeah, but I've neither written nor edited any of my novels for months. ...you're in college. Amanda said she'd do it too! Okay, whatever, but you're still nuts. Amanda dropped out the next day. I had barely two paragraphs written two days later. I began to doubt. But I figured I could at least scrape a decent number of words together and lose with style. I had two big papers due in the same ...

I know most of my recent posts have just been updates, but I have a few more things to let you all know, lovely readers, before we move on to meatier posts. Thanks for having patience with me. :) The day I bought fake tattoos and Augusta and I made ourselves into The Chosen Ones First of all: don't forget to enter the giveaway for a paperback copy of Sixteen ! Open to all countries; ends on Saturday, November 8. Next up: so far, the Inkshares project for World of Shadows is not going well at all. It's disappointing, I'll admit, but I wasn't really sure what to expect, so it's not a huge deal. If I don't make it to my goal, I'll just go back to my original plan of self-publishing World of Shadows through the same process I used with Sixteen . Either way, it will be on virtual shelves before 2015 ends! Third: Disclaimer: Yes, I am completely mental. But I decided on the day it started to go ahead and try NaNoWriMo again this year. For those of...

I'm writing this at ten o'clock at night. Well, my time. At Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, it's nine, and we still have another hour to go until the Ayers 1 live nativity begins - as does the judging of the Christmas decorating contest. Let me back up. Once upon a time, the oldest child and only girl of four kids knew she wanted to go to college. Then she realized she needed to figure out which college she was going to, and soon. Thus began a series of extensive, tiring college visits with her momma. One of these visits took them through way too many hours of Thanksgiving-weekend traffic and led to a prestigious Christian university in Jackson, Tennessee.

As part of a homeschool family, getting ready for and finding colleges is a somewhat different path for me than for public schoolers.  Public high schools have guidance counselors and information about tests, colleges, financial aid, and who knows what else.  Homeschoolers, on the other hand, have to seek out this information on their own.  That's why I'm so thankful for two college help sites, one of which is www.cappex.com .