Victorya’s Blog

This year for 2024 I am going to be focusing on the word change. I choose change as my one word for 2024 because I feel I need to be different this year. For examples be more on time, be more productive or be more focused. I need to work on myself, and then I can be better on all of those things.

A person that I really admire and consider my hero is my stepdad. My stepdad stepped up to be a father to me and my siblings when he didn’t have to. He went into a spot that he has never be in before and had no experience of being a dad. He did really helped me when I was going through stuff. He was always very supportive about what I wanted to do and cared about my opinions. When I was struggling with school he would help me and talk things out with me. He works most of the time but always finds things or activities for us to do. He helped my mom when she was at a very dark place so I will always be so thankful for that. Without him me and my family wouldn’t be as stable as we are now .At points me and him argue but in the end I now know that it’s always gonna be him in the end.

This month I’m still reading a book called You’d Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow.

This book is about a couple of teenagers but the main character is Emory. She is the younger child and feels that she isn’t as appreciated as her other siblings are. Her older brother(Joey) was a “druggie” and got sent to a rehab camp to get “better” which took all her parents energy. Emory’s older sister Maggie is a dancer and now is in college trying to get her life together. Her parents haven’t hugged in ages which makes Emory feel depressed. Emory has perfect grades, study’s hard, takes care of her older brother, and doesn’t talk back. She is the mistake in her parents eyes because they focus so much on her older siblings that they forget she is even there at some points. I’m currently on page 230 and this is as far as I know from the characters. So far my favorite character is Emory because she is learning how to become her own person and live in her own decision without caring about what others think. My favorite quote is on page 71 when Emory says “…And after that night, I felt alive in a way I never had before.” Soooo far I really like this book it is a little bit intense but if you find a way to enjoy it becomes really interesting.

This month I read a book called Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon. This book is nothing like any other book I read. It is really heartfelt and touchy as other authors said about this book.

Everything Everything is a book about a teen girl(Madeleine Whitter) who has very sensitive skin(SCID) and if she touched anything that was not “sanitized” she could have ended up dying and that was only if she had ever left her house. In her home her mother had installed air filters so the air from the “outside” world wouldn’t get in and endanger her. Madeleine got this disease when she was just a couple of months old right after her dad and brother passed away in a car accident. When her father and brother died her mother had gotten really bad depression and had the need to keep Madeleine stuck in their home until she was eighteen, her mother said she just wanted to keep Madeleine “safe” by sacrificing all of her teen and childhood years in a home. Isolated. Madeleine had a caretaker for her and her name was Carla. Carla was born in Mexico and fled left Mexico to start a new better life. Madeleine had noticed that there was new neighbors moving in next door and there was a boy(Olly) who was about her age, Olly wore all black clothing and liked to do parkour often and would usually always wear a black elastic band around his wrist. The first day when he moved in he had waved to Madeleine through her window. A week later Olly and his sister bring a Bundt cake as a “welcoming” gift to Madeleine’s mother but they don’t know that Madeleine is sick so her mother rejected the cake. Olly and his sister took that as being disrespectful because their mother had made it for them. One day, Olly started writing messages on his window and slowly him and Madeleine became friends. In order for him and Madeleine to keep contact he had written down his email on his window and Madeleine did the same. They both started emailing each other and started messaging each other every other night and they became so close that even Carla had let Olly visit. It had took a lot of convincing from Carla to let Olly see Madeline. Until she finally let them see each other, Olly had to go through a door that sanitized him to let him come into the house. He didn’t know that Madeleine was so “badly” sick. He was so gentle and patient with Madeleine that he even stayed across the room from her the first time they met. Olly started to come see madeleine more and more until it started to become a daily thing. They both promised to stay friends even though Madeleine wanted Olly. Soon Madeleines mother found out that the boy from next door was seeing madeleine she blew out on Carla for letting a “stranger” inside the house to see Madeleine specially since he was a boy. Carla ended up getting fired and Madeleine did not like that, she didn’t speak to her mother for a lot of days. Madeleine ghosted her mother while they lived in the same home. Madeleine couldn’t see Olly for a long time. Then one day Madeleine decided to leave her house and go to Hawaii with Olly. She wasn’t sick, she didn’t die like how her mother said she would if she ever had left the house. Madeleine then realized that her mother was lying to her but she didn’t want to believe, so she didn’t. Olly gave Madeleine a nickname because Madeleine didn’t have one so he started calling her “Maddy”. Once they arrived to Hawaii, they fell in love with each other. Deeply.
I had enjoyed reading this book, it was entertaining and kept me on my toes. I liked how the author really explained every detail of the story and how Maddy feels and the rest of the characters. My favorite character is Olly because he is so caring for Maddy and the story shows how Olly takes care of Maddy and it so overall patient with her. It makes me realize that there aren’t as many men as Olly anymore and how much of a good guy he is. My favorite quote from this book is “The state of not knowing where one body ends and another begins: Our joys is infinite.” I like this quote because it’s true and I can relate in the most accurate way.

I’m superrr duper grateful for my older brother Andrew. He has been there for me more than anyone. He supports my delusion more than anyone has ever. When I was doing really bad in school and struggling he was there to help me and I had a shoulder to cry on. When my parents would fight he was the one to distract me from it by playing with me or talking with me so I wouldn’t be able to hear them fight. When it came to boys and they treated me badly he was there to tell me that I’m better than them and that I could do so much better and I didn’t need boys to rely on when he was there for me. I am also grateful for my cousins because they have heard me out so many times and when I needed someone to talk to they were there. They understand me so well too, it shows that they actually care about my feelings or opinions. I am sooooooo grateful for my boyfriend, he always calls me before I go to bed because he knows I struggle going to sleep so he would talk to me about our “memories” of when we see each other or the first time we met. Even though we do argue about a lot of tiny dumb stuff we always find our way back to each other and apologize for the way we acted. My cats mean a lot to me too, they have actually seen it all, my cats always sleep next to me or beside my head which is so comforting because sometimes I need that comfort. I appreciate so many more people too but these people are the people that mean so much more to me.

I am an otter and I’m fighting for my life. My name is Julietness and this morning I woke up to my brother chewing on my log. MY LOG. His chewing was so loud that I could most likely hear it from a mile away. He sounded like those critters that would come camping with their owners. They had four legs, 2 ears, a mouth, a nose, a tail, and are furry with eyes(it’s a dog). My brother(Julian) wouldn’t stop so I took MY log away from him and then he started fighting me like if I was his biggest opp he had ever seen. I grabbed him by his neck and tried drowning him but it was a fail because before I even put him under water he pulled my fur and I had flew the opposite way of him. I yelled at Julian to stop pulling out my fur about 5 times before he actually listened to me and stopped. My fur was all over the water, I was scared to look at myself in the reflection of the water. Moral of the story is to never ever fight with my brother over MY piece of log.

This month I had read a book called allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

The book allegedly is about a black teen girl named Mary. At the age of nine Mary is falsely accused of murdering a white three month old baby(Alyssa). She then gets put into baby jail for six years and at the age of fifteen she then gets put into a group home. In her group home, there are 5 other teen girls who are murders and try to hurt Mary multiple time because they think that Mary really did ‘‘murder’’ Alyssa. Mary’s mother, Dawn Cooper has mental illness and struggles to take care of Mary. When Mary was growing up she had to take of her mother, instead of Dawn being a mother Dawn is the child and Mary is the mother. In the story it mentions that Mary would take care of the bills, rent and many more things that Dawn was not mentally prepared for but Mary was. When Mary was young she had a little brother named junior but junior ended up dying in his sleep while Mary had been taking care of him. Dawn had a boyfriend named Ray, Ray would abuse Dawn and Mary. One night he tried to get into Mary’s bed and tried raping Mary and in Marys defense she bit Ray. Ray didn’t take that lightly so he told Dawn that he was just ‘‘tucking’’ her in and telling her goodnight. Dawn didn’t believe him but she had too. They ended up prescribing her medication that Mary did not need. Saying that she needed mental help and can’t control her temper. They didn’t go to a actual hospital, they had gone to Rays friend who was a ‘‘doctor’’. Junior was Rays child so when he found out that junior died in his sleep, he went wild. He abused Dawn so bad that she had a black eye and multiple bruises. Mary mentioned that, that was the worst he had ever hit her mother. During the group home Mary ends up finding a boyfriend named Ted, she ends up getting pregnant by him. Later in the book Mary decides that she wants to keep her baby and in order to keep her baby she has to reopen the case. Reopen everything from her past to keep her baby. Many times through out the book I tried to believe that Mary didn’t kill Alyssa, in the last few pages of the book it slowly starts to say that Mary did really do it. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book it does sound very realistic and could happen but what I liked about this book was that it made me realize that if you really wanted to change the way you live is that you will and you will have to put so much effort and energy till it makes you so tired you wanna give up but you don’t. Mary is my favorite character because she is so strong mentally, she protects her mother from going to jail and puts herself in jail bc they wouldn’t go as “hard” on her in jail. She is one of the most forgiving person so far in any book that I have read. In the book Allegedly my favorite quote is “And then my whole universe had opened up and he became my sun.” The reason why I like this specific quote is because it reminds me of how much my siblings mean to me and how they are my whole universe.

I have been granted three wishes! My first wish would be to buy my mom a house, pay for everything that she has ever wanted, pay off all her debt, and make sure that she never has to work another day in her life. My second wish would be to have all my siblings live with me. My third wish would be to have as many cats as I would want to have and to have money to pay for all the necessary things my cat would need (cat food, water, liter, cat toys, and cat house.)

I would want to be twenty four years old forever. I would like to be twenty four because I feel like that is a perfect age from not being too young or too old. I could have a job and be able to go out with my friends and be able to have a good time. By the time I’m twenty four I would want to be a foster mom and to adopt kids. I would want to have a partner and get married at twenty four. I could be able to explore the world when I’m that age and have time for a lot of things. I will be able to drive and go on road trips with my foster children. My younger brother will be twelve years old when I’m twenty four and I would be able to take him out with his friends, give him money, and drive him places.

During this month I had read a book called Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven. When I read this book it made me wonder why are people the way they are ? That sentence kept going on my mind the entire time I read that book.
This book is about two young teens. A teen boy named jack and a teen girl named Libby who both struggle with their self confidence. Libby who struggles with body shaming and is overweight by 500 pounds when she was only 10 years old and jack who struggles to identify certain peoples faces even the people that he is supposed to call his “family”, that’s called Prosopagnosia (When everyone is a stranger). During the beginning of the story it gives Libby’s life story and about how people would treat her because she was to overweight. Libby during 5th grade had gone overweight because her mother had died and had no other way to express her feelings other than binge eating. At the end of 5th grade she had gotten into homeschooling and went thru homeschooling all the way up into high school until she became a junior in high school. Her dad had decided that it was time for Libby to go into school, to interact with kids. Libbys mom’s death had badly affected Libby and changed her whole life upside down. When Libby got ‘overweight’ the story had mentioned that Libby never looked at herself the same. For two whole years she couldn’t even look at herself in the mirror. She had to special order her clothes because she couldn’t bear the fact that people were going to say mean and cruel stuff about her. There was a rescue team for Libby because at some point she couldn’t even get out of her own bed.

It was the first day of junior high for Libby since her moms death. Everyone had been looking at her as soon as she walked into the school. Dirty looks from everyone. Jack’s friends had eyed Libby. There was this challenge that had been going around the school. Jack’s friend Kam brought it up to jack, that whoever could hug the “fattest” girl the longest would win the challenge. Jack had decided to do it to Libby and embarrassed both Libby and himself. She punched him in the mouth for hugging her so tight. It was barely the second day of school and they both got suspended. Jack had felt bad but didn’t have to guts tell Libby that he was sorry for doing that dumb challenge. Jack had trouble remembering faces but he had remembered Libby’s face. Later in the story jack lets Libby in and lets Libby meet the real jack and not just someone who is stood up like the rest of the school. She sees the real jack. “Libby is the girl whose name everyone knows. But no really sees her except jack.” “Jack is the guy who’s friends with everyone. But he doesn’t let anyone in, except Libby.”

I really enjoyed reading this book, it taught me that everyone really is different. The different points of views in the story had kept me interested. My favorite character is Libby, she is a literal baddie. She stands up for herself and her friends, she won’t let anyone take her down. Not like how people use to. My two favorite quotes from this specific book “‘You never stop missing the people who go away. – For something that isn’t there anymore, it weighs a ton.” and
‘“It’s about the important things, like the way their face lights up when they laugh, or the way they move as they’re walking towards you, or the way their freckles create a map of the stars.” I could relate to this a ton. That’s why I love this book so much, I would 100% recommend this book to someone who loves to read.