I'm Back!

     

Newsletter

I'm Back!


by Esther on 13 October 2021

My sincere apologies for missing the September Newsletter. I have been fairly occupied and have loads to fill you all in with. The first thing I usually update on is school. So.. APUSH requires most of my time. I am slow at reading which usually means I have to take longer to grasp what I read. On top of that we have to write our own notes based on what we read. I am trying multiple methods and found one I am fairly happy with. For AVF II, I am currently working with my friends, the amazing Abby, on an ADHD video. We are currently working on post production. I also want to brag about my friends Andrew, Westin, and David because they recently got to visit NYC for the All American Highschool Film Festival (AAHFF). More of that to come later.  And thanks to Andrew and David, I am getting more exposure and opportunities to help the upperclassmen with projects. My other classes are doing well. I am struggling in some of them and excelling in others. The usual.

My family is doing well. Justin had a birthday recently. He is still in college and will hopefully graduate this coming May. My parents recently had a mini weekend getaway to the mountains so I got to man the house by myself. I was not home alone though. I had Shadow to accompany me and I had friends who live nearby if I needed to call a Mayday.

A lot has happened to me in the past two months outside of school. In August, I got the honor to visit a film set and meet Sarah. Sarah became my tour guide and showed me around set. Keep your eyes open for a PureFlix commercial by Rise Studios. After that, I got a journalism job with our Neely News. My first piece, an ad for PDS, came out today for our October edition. I went to the beach in September as well with Watershed Student Ministry. It was a super fun weekend. My favorite part of singing on the porch with my friends Andrew, Graham, and Robbie. They are so fun to be with and all amazingly talented. Sadly, I got Covid and was out of action following the trip. I don’t think I got sick due to the trip because of the evidence at the table, but I was out for 10 days. I am better now, but I had a lot of school to make up. This past weekend, my mom and I went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It was very different from Desert Botanical in Arizona. I had my mom skip the desert exhibit because I think being in Arizona and seeing everything was a lot more meaningful. My favorite part of the garden are the venus flytraps. Clearly I have not changed since I was in fourth grade.

Now onto the friends portion. I met new people including Sarah. Sarah is a Baylor Grad and was my tour guide on the set of the PureFlix commercial. She was a Production Assistant (PA) for this production. I also became friends with a girl in my AVF II class named Abby. She approached me and I assured her I don’t bite and now we are working on an ADHD video. We are currently working on post production for it. I have been a foley artist for that. And I wanna wrap up with the NYC trip for the AAHFF. My friends all had a wonderful time and I am so glad. The people that got to go made an amazing documentary over our school play last spring called The Ghost of Rosanda. It was a very well made film, and though it did not win, for a school with their first class of AVF IV class to land this far in this and other film competitions is impressive and a win to me. Sadly, the team was all seniors so the next group will work hard to meet their level of expertise.

I hope everyone is doing well!! Many hugs!!

......................................................................................................................................................................

This episode’s rundown

Suggested…

Book

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson is a story of a girl learning to stand up for herself. I find this book relatable to everyone because regardless of race, there is at least one chapter I think everyone can relate with.

Video

Ann is a shortfilm I made back in AVF I for a performace final. It did not come out well though. Feel free to watch still.

Music

Undivided is a song we all need to hear right now. Our country is so divided, but this song reminds me of hope.

Other Links to Check out

- Alone is a short film I made with Andrew, David, and Landon. This one is really good. The boys did all of the work. I had a minor role. 
-Arizona Part 1
-Arizona Part 2
-Arizona Part 3
I split my Arizona video into three parts so that I can keep it under five minutes per part. Enjoy each stop of ours!!
-Duck Pond is a throwback video. If you didn't want this short less than a minute long video of the Virginia Tech Duck Pond, here is a link to it. 

Follow me: Website and Parler



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holiday Homesickness

Image
Newsletter Holiday Homesickness! by Esther on 18 December 2025 Another term finished and another year almost over; oh, how the time goes by. Since the start of my newsletters, winter holidays meant looking forward to passing the time with the kiddos and the family, but this year is different. The once looked forward to the time where post finals meant playing with the kids and Papa taking us to ice skate is officially over. One has to wonder how one person's life choices changes everything for everyone. It reminds me to cherish being in the moment more when around the people we love(d). That said, old habits we once took for granted do not stop one from creating new memories with new routines. This term was a first for me in everything as I felt like I was establishing my life in the states from scratch. My academics changed, my social life changed, and I stepped foot into a public middle school for the first time, just to name a few major things impacted. I have never felt more o...
Read more

What to do?

Image
Newsletter What to do? by Esther on 28 March 2026 I write this newsletter late because the truth is, I question 1) what I should write about and 2) how often I should write. When I first began my newsletters before I began to back them up on the blog site, they were monthly emails to my former grade eight math teacher. I got word she would share the email with my other teachers, so I looped them in the email, but after she left and another teacher’s email got hacked, I made them public for easier access. The entire intention from them was to help friends of mine get updated on what was happening in my life, but now I cannot continue doing the old format. A year ago, a major event happened in my life, and I never realized how that event would alter my life. I do not think it is appropriate to explain the situation in my newsletters, but since then what I could share about my life instantly became extremely filtered. The reality of the situation is that many of my friends are not even a...
Read more

Not Home

Image
  Newsletter Not Home! by Esther on 18 September 2025 For those asking me if I am home, the question I ask back is “what is home?” My mother warned me that I would have a hard time coming home, but neither of us prepared for the reality that awaited me. Up to the day I flew out, I thought I would go to Lithuania, enjoy my time there, come back to the states in summer, and it would be straight back to work, seeing my kiddos, and preparing for the term ahead. But from 8000km away, little could I have imagined just how wrong I would be. Before it is all gloom and doom, I will do a recap on my Baltic adventures. I had a lovely time being able to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. When I first arrived, my friend’s mother picked me up at the Trakai railway station, and well, Trakai became home for me instantly. Before the tourist season began, it was always such a peaceful thing to enjoy the outdoors by the lakes. Being outdoors a lot made any day better, which really came in...
Read more