A Day in the Life of a High School Blogger

Posted bycatdiggedydogPosted inGeneral OpinionTags:, , , , ,

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Everyday I roll out of bed, refreshed, at 6 am.

Tiptoeing downstairs, I pour myself a cup of tea and sit out on the porch for two hours in a earth-toned shawl, writing in my moleskin notebook.

By the time I’m done, I’ve got a few pages filled with high-quality writing.

Then I clean up the kitchen, head to yoga, and….

Gotcha!

Here’s what an actual day looks like:

MERGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! – the sound of me in the morning

After sleeping through my first few alarms, my sister comes in and frantically calls me out of bed. After a couple more minutes, I get ready and leave the house within 10 minutes of waking up.

Who has time to write in the morning anymore? Not a high school senior. A morning person, that’s who, and I am not one of those.

When I get to school, I’m normally 15 minutes + late to the first class of the day, and in some classes the teachers don’t like us to use our computers, but I check my phone when I can and see that overnight, I’ve got a couple of new subscribers for this blog. Pretty cool!

The teacher sometimes gestures for us to put our computers away; her request is met with groans. But I, without objection, reach into my backpack and pull out my basic green notebook.

Perching it strategically in my lap under the desk, I start to zone out of class. Occasionally, I look up, meeting the eyes of the teacher, daring her to question if I’m actually paying attention in class.

And that’s how this blog more than gets along without a computer, because it is in this notebook that decisions are made, ideas are nurtured and nursed, and thousands of words are jotted down without consequence, to later be refined.

When I get a free period, or some extra time in class, I’ll pull on a pair of headphones and either transcribe something from my notebook or start a new blog post.

I also frequently pull drafts from previous days, weeks, and months that I had the intention of finishing but whose final drifts I never found satisfaction in.

But sometimes I write flowery bullshit for half an hour, read it through again, and then delete it in disgust.

Or I’ll write something that seems totally legit, and then realize it may come off as unintentionally offensive. delete

Then I’ll scroll through my Spotify, Youtube, Soundcloud etc. to see what new songs I can post at the bottom of the post and create a link.

After a few more technical steps, once I’m happy with a final draft, I’ll send it out into the interwebs for all to read and judge, and I don’t look back.

Most of my strongest brainstorming happens in the early hours of the morning, long after my friends on the freaking West Coast have fallen asleep.

Everyone has a 2 AM personality and a 2 PM personality; my reflective and thoughtful side dominates at night.

My laptop will be burning into my thighs, my back will be aching from sitting hunched over for so long, and my eyes will be glazed over; but my fingers will be active and unhesitant.

Writing is not a part-time job for me. I don’t get paid to do this, and I certainly don’t have time carved in my daily schedule for writing, and yet, I tend to prioritize it and find time for it.

For me, it’s a hobby-turned-lifestyle, as it has infiltrated even the most rudimentary aspects of my daily life, as I may have described for you above.

Famous writers all have different writing styles and environments. No two are the same, and I think people who try to encapsulate it into a simple list don’t really understand that you don’t need a Macbook Pro or natural lighting or a special diet or time allotment to be a good writer, or even a writer at all.

“Writer” is not a title reserved for the elite. You just have to write the word “dip-shit” on a piece of paper and you qualify as a writer too!

It doesn’t require a huge commitment; no one expects you to devote your life to the activity, and frankly, I think it’s a little unrealistic. Remember the sacred dance, survival dance theory? I still whole-heartedly agree with it.

I read the daily schedule of lots of writers, novelists mainly, and I see some clear differences between them and myself.

For one, some of these people are selling their creativity for money; they are pulling words and plotlines out of their heads in exchange for the food they eat and the cars in their garages. I take no ethical issue in that, I just don’t get paid to do any of this lol

They have also committed a lot of time to one single project that they’ve had to ponder long and hard about, whereas I get the inspiration for these sorts of blog posts on a day to day basis.

Still though, we all approach writing in different ways. The reason why it’s still a rudimentary yet advanced skill that has not been lost through the generations is that anyone can do it, in any language, on any subject.

Thank you Connor

Published by catdiggedydog

Writer at: Never Stationary Cat the Critic The Northwestern Chronicle

41 thoughts on “A Day in the Life of a High School Blogger”

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  2. I love this! you kept me interested the whole time and your story was so amazing. When you said how your thighs were burning from your computer, your back hunched over, and eyes glassed it really captured the moment.

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  3. Wow! I just came across your blog, and I absolutely love it! Your writing is amazing and I was always kept intrigued when reading. I’m also a blogger in high school so it’s nice to come across someone else that has one and shares their experience too :)

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    1. well hello! thanks so much for the kind words. I’m 25 years old now and so glad that I started it. Even though I don’t keep up with it as much, I’m glad I have so many posts to look back on! Keep on writing!

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      1. So cool that you’ve still kept up with this blog! And thank you, I’ve discovered a real passion for writing through my blog! :)

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  4. Lol! Love how you set up everything, you got me hooked really quickly. I really enjoyed reading all of this.. keep up the great work B)

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  5. In the middle of March, I got my rejection letter from my top choice college. I pinned it to my cork board as a reminder. Then, I got put on two waitlists from two of my other second choice colleges. Basically, it was rejection after rejection. Every time I would get an envelope from a school, I knew what it meant another waitlist or rejection. You can probably tell how disappointed and heartbroken high schooler Nelo was. I had almost lost hope and was about to call my college search quits when my host mom saw me and came to my rescue! Upon her insistence, I visited Dakota State University (DSU) during my spring break and by this time, I knew I wanted to study English, so I met with my now adviser, Dr. Sewell. Dr. Sewell was so welcoming and ready to help me fit into DSU that I instantly knew where I belonged. Within a month, I applied to DSU, got a good scholarship based on my SAT scores and made the decision of making DSU home for the next four years of my life.

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  8. Pingback: Different types of writing – Alice Fei MUA

  10. Your blog is really good I like it and i really appreciate your work i only started my blog right now so please can you give some tricks on how to make a blog more interesting i want to captivate the hearts of people through my blog please just some tiny bits of your knowledge ..

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    1. Sure! I’d say, try not to follow trends and just write about what interests you. I have a few more articles on my site under “Blogging Lessons” if you’re interested! Thanks for reading!

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  14. I loved this blog.
    As you started writing blogs, the same way I started writing it.
    Please read my blogs and let me know your thought on it.
    By the way I am going to be 15 soon and my blogs are going to be 2 soon. Really refreshed by your blog.

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  17. This is the first post of yours I’ve read on your blog, and honestly I love it. I love how descriptive you are throughout your post and more just skim what you do everyday, not talking about every waking second.

    I started a blog yesterday, actually. It seems like you have a pretty good idea of web design as well as what to write. Any advice for someone new to this?

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  18. Catherine, I really enjoyed reading your blog. It is so descriptive & I love how you say you “watch the earth-toned shawl ”
    I also drink tea, sometimes. What’s your favorite tea to drink? I would love to read more of your blog!

    Adree

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    2. Hi! Thanks a lot, I remember being excited to write this article, and the words sort of just flowing out of me. My favorite teas to drink are green tea and mint tea! I have a cup of green steaming next to me right now :) Thanks for reading!

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  19. I liked your story, it was interesting and you used your honest opinion. Your blog was very relate-able and made me understand your point of view.

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  20. Interesting commentary . Incidentally if others are looking for a UK VAF4A – Appendix 2 , I encountered a fillable document here http://goo.gl/11bH3Z

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  21. Very true and informative.
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  22. Hi Catherine,
    As I was scrolling down the list of options recommended by Google, I clicked on your blog post about writing and when I read this post, I thought it was very relatable to my high school writing experience and correct about how all writers are different when they write. From your post, I also enjoyed reading the part when you started talking about zoning out during class. I tend to posses similar zoning out experiences especially on typical mondays when I am exhausted from a lack of sleep. Anyways, there was one big idea that was presented to me when I read this post. This idea bounces off of two principles of writing requirements in that there is a big difference between in school writing versus free thought, unpressured writing out of school. This came across after a section from the post explained how writers require different atmospheres when they write. I find that writing for school, for a grade, and for participation is completely a pressure objective rather than free thought writing on my own. As much as I try to enjoy my Lit. class, some of the topics I do not enjoy writing about, but since it is a required essay, I have to try to enjoy the topics offered. I believe that writing should be done through the process of free thought where people should not be pressured into writing, but rather people should enjoy the writing experience as a whole. However, this idea of how I enjoy writing on my own versus in school writing should be a trait for every person because everyone has a separate opinion on issues. If there was a way to change the pressure of school writing and how the topics are quite bland, I would definitely side with this idea, but more importantly I agree with one of your ideas in that everyone has access to a pen and paper and do not need fancy equipment to cook up great tasting writing. Writing comes from creativity and emotions within every person.

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    1. Hey Charlie! I’m glad that you sort of see this the same way as I do. I think that we can definitely enjoy content and writing that we have to do for classes, but the best environment for me is when I’m free to write whatever, no constraints or word count or anything like that. Anyways, your thoughtful comment made my day. Thanks for reading! :)

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  24. Hahahahaha “flowery bullshit”. I really liked your blog because it speaks truth. There are definitely two different sides of a person at 2 AM compared to 2 PM. I understand how tight time can be in high school especially if you have other extracurricular activities such as sports or music and I don’t know how you find time to make blogs for fun. I am not a morning person so it’s impossible to imagine myself getting these crazy new ideas in the morning or doing anything besides eating and waking up. My FAVORITE part of your blog is when you look at the teacher and dare her to question. I personally have experience with that in a certain class and love doing it.

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  25. Great and funny article! When I was at High School I didn’t have time for anything! All those compositions, projects, research papers. When I was really pressed for time I used https://abcessays.com/. There are many helpful tips as to the essay writing and even a plagiarism check for your work. Besides there work a number of professional writers who can help you with your writing assignments. Good luck!

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