Author: Ana

Losing is Good for You

Winning feels great and makes a person happy, but there isn’t too much one can learn from winning all the time. A person can become arrogant and lazy and that’s why losing can sometimes be good for someone. It allows them to learn from their mistakes and do better next time. The article “Losing is Good for You” by Ashley Marryman contains many relatable points that can be applied to my life as well as the lives of others.

Ever since I was little, I’ve been involved in sports. My coaches have always been supportive and pushed me towards excellence. When I was younger, I was praised for participating in events, performing well, or winning tournaments, and there would be certain rewards that I earned. As I became more experienced and older, the rewards for performing well or winning were trophies or plaques awarded by the tournament directors. When I was twelve, I was on a club volleyball team and I was one of the strongest players on the team. My coach was constantly praising me and it felt good at first but then it started to get old. According to Marryman, “Awards can be powerful motivators but nonstop recognition does not inspire children to succeed”. I didn’t feel as motivated to give 100% because the praise didn’t feel genuine, since my coach was always praising me. My parents worked hard to develop humility and help me understand that winning does feel good but it’s just as good to lose because you’ll learn from your mistakes and do even better the next time you go out and play. In tennis, I’ve always had a high ranking and been known for my good record. About two years ago, I went through a long losing spell and that was definitely not a fun time. My dad did his best to get me out of the losing streak and eventually I was able to succeed again and from that experience I learned that “you’re going to lose more often than you win even if you’re good at something. You’ve got to get used to that to keep going” (Marryman). It was so rewarding to win after so many loses and I was able to grow as a resilient athlete. I’m more motivated to work hard and succeed.

I guess losing really can be good for you.

February 7, 2016
Grit is Great

In a previous blog, I discussed self-control and why it is an important trait to have. The second character trait from the article 8 Ways to a Happier You, is grit. Grit is another important trait to have that will make you a tougher, stronger person and also a happier person.

Grit is “the raw endurance, perseverance and passion that keeps you going despite obstacles” (Janes). Grit is the fight a person has inside them to push themselves to get going or keep up with what they want to accomplish. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Whatever you’re doing may not be easy or fun but whatever it is that you’re doing will get you closer and closer to your goals. For example, I’m in physical therapy strengthening my ankle and getting ready for my high school tennis season. I want to be ready to play in February and I want to be strong when I train and compete. I’ve been doing squats, lunges, core workouts, some running, and a whole bunch of other exercises that make me pretty sore some days. Yeah, it hurts, but I have to be gritty, toughen up, get through my exercises, and understand that all of the soreness only means that I’m getting stronger and doing good things for my body. I want to be able to play at the beginning of the season this year, since I missed the beginning of last season due to my previous foot injury and that drives me to work extra hard.

Grit requires passion and a person has to be motivated and fired up to accomplish their goals and be successful in whatever they do.

Grit is a character trait that is great to have, just like self-control. Grit motivates you to keep working hard and doing whatever you’re doing despite opposition and obstacles. Challenge yourself to try new things and push yourself to work hard and follow through on the difficult challenges and events in your life whether it’s in sports, school, or work. Grit really is great.

Janes, Beth. “8 Ways to a Happier You.” 2016. Print.

January 31, 2016
The Importance of Self-Control

Currently in my language arts class, we are reading an article titled 8 Ways to a Happier You. The article summarily describes, explains, and gives tips on how to exhibit eight character traits that will help a person reach their potential and become a happier person. The first trait was self-control which is a crucial character trait to have as a person.

Self-control is the ability to control your own ideas, attitude, and actions in order to reach goals, despite distractions and temptations to stray.

This character trait is important to have because it allows a person to stay on task in work, school, or sports, follow rules or certain guidelines, complete assignments and study for school in a timely manner, get up in the morning and go to bed at a reasonable time (I struggle with this), have discipline, go to the gym, accomplish goals, and so many other things.

Unless you were born a genius or super fit, and strong person, it will probably be impossible to get good grades in school or lose weight and become stronger if you don’t study and work hard or push yourself to run and get to the gym, as an example. Having the self-control to take time out of your day to complete homework, read your textbooks, or run a few miles and maybe work out at the gym will help you accomplish your goals of being a successful student or a stronger, fit person.

Self-control is an important trait to have because it “pushes you to make the difficult choice over the immediately appealing option for a result that will eventually pay off” (Janes). Self-control forces you to work hard, challenge yourself, and make tough decisions. Once you’ve decided to challenge yourself and have self-control in one area of your life, you can move onto another aspect of your lifestyle and challenge yourself there. You’ll already know what it feels like to have self-control in a particular area of your life, so you should have the confidence and mindset that you can actually accomplish your goals and whatever you’re doing will get easier with time.

So if you don’t already have self-control, work towards developing it! Talk about your goals and ideas and follow through with them. You’ll become a happier person in the long run because you were able to set goals for yourself and actually accomplish them.

Janes, Beth. “8 Ways to a Happier You.” 2016. Print.

January 17, 2016
Thinking Positive

Whether it’s in sports, school, work, body image, or life, it becomes very easy for people to focus on what they are doing wrong and all of the negativity. People want to succeed at what they’re doing and feel good about themselves and their accomplishments. However, it can be challenging, when one is constantly telling themselves, “This is terrible,”, “I’ll never be good enough,” or “I don’t think I can do this,”. Thinking positive is a way to turn those thoughts into something positive that will help you achieve your goals and feel better about yourself and whatever you do.

In sports, all athletes struggle with the pressure of wanting to win, not let down their coach, teammates, and parents, and perform with perfection. They also struggle with the ups and downs in their performance and when they are going through a rough period, they tend to think negatively which will only make things worse. Two words that are heard often are “can’t” and “don’t”. There are a lot of coaches out there who will tell their athletes, “Don’t hit the ball out,” or “Don’t lose,” and that causes the athletes to think about what they should not do versus what they should do. Then when athletes have talked themselves into doing the wrong thing, they start to believe that they can’t shoot a free throw, or land their back flip, or hit a float serve. Everything can go downhill if this negativity isn’t stopped in its tracks.

For example, in tennis, I can be very hard on myself. Now that I’ve been cleared to start running and playing a little bit of tennis again, my dad and I have been playing quite a bit so that I can get back into shape for the high school season. I haven’t played in about six months and getting back on the court for the first time was great, but there was frustration that came with it too. My groundstrokes were definitely not what I remembered them being and I struggled to get the ball in the actual court. My dad would ask me how my groundstrokes felt and I told him, “I’m not getting the ball in the court” and “I can’t seem to hit forehands”. After I told him that my dad told to focus on what I can do right for the next shot. I’m much more successful when I focus on the positive and what I can do to improve versus how bad my last backhand was.

The idea of thinking positive has been something I’ve been working on for a long time in tennis and life in general but it can be hard. It’s very easy to slip into a negative mindset but when you focus on what you can do to get better, you’re probably going to improve and feel better about yourself.

These same ideas can be applied to how you see yourself as a person and your goals in life. Maybe you think that you aren’t pretty or you don’t fit in. Those same two thoughts could be turned into something positive. Even in something “ugly” or negative, you could find something “beautiful” and positive to think about. And with the whole “fitting in” thing, isn’t it better to be yourself and discover who you are than fake it and be in unhealthy relationships? If you think that you aren’t good enough to try out for something, too shy to ask a teacher about something in class, or you’ll never be able to go on that trip to Japan that you’ve been dreaming about forever, you’re probably right, if you aren’t doing anything about it but complaining and thinking negative thoughts. If you think positive, you might not reach your goals when you hope you will but you’ll get there eventually. And if you don’t give going for your goals a try, how will you know you could have accomplished them anyways?

So with those same thoughts up above, you could turn those into “I’m going to make the best of this situation” “I’ll work towards my goals and achieve them”, and “I can do this”. Turning your negative thoughts into something positive, will help you out in the long run. Set goals for yourself, stick to those goals, and think positive. The road to your goals might be rough, but in the end, all of your hard work will have been worth it. You can do this!

January 10, 2016
Reflecting on 2015

This might be coming a little late but, Happy New Year! 2016 has arrived and it’s going to be another good year. 2015 was filled with ups and downs and there were all kinds of trends and things that occurred this past year. Here are some of the events and trends of 2015.

In January of 2015, the Charlie Hebdou attack occurred in Paris. 12 people were killed and 11 were injured.

In February, the Super Bowl took place and Katy Perry gave a stunning performance and Left Shark, who performed during Perry’s song, “California Gurls” became a worldwide sensation. And there was also the dress. People argued over whether or not it was black and blue or white and gold. The couple that took the picture confirmed that it was black and blue after the photo went viral. Team black and blue!

In March, the Germanwings flight 9525 ended in tragedy when the co-pilot of the plane deliberately flew the plane into the French Alps, killing everyone on board. Dawn of Justice was released in theaters. It was the Batman vs. Superman movie, in case you didn’t know.

Age of Ultron, the second movie of the Avengers series as well as Furious 7 were released in theaters in April. Both movies lived up to their expectations and were successful in the theaters.

In May, the Mayweather vs. Pacquio fight went down in Las Vegas and resulted in another win for Floyd Mayweather Jr. How-old.net is a website where you allow the website to analyze a photo of yourself and it guesses how old you are. This website became well-known and sparked the question of “How is the website able to tell how old you are?” If you’d like to test out how-old.net click here to see if it guesses your age correctly. The biggest trend of May was Netflix and Chill. There were all kinds of variations and parodies of this interesting and well-known trend.

“Just Do It” featuring Shia LeBouf went viral in June of 2015. The video was a motivational and overdramatized speech telling people to accomplish their goals and follow their dreams. In June, gay marriage was legalized in the U.S. Caitlyn Jenner also introduced herself to the world and later on ended up winning the “Woman of the Year” award.

In July, Minions took the world by storm and did well in theaters. “Now watch me whip/nae nae” became a song and dance sensation. I don’t know a single person that doesn’t know how to whip and nae nae. From the flyby of New Horizons, everyone was able to see clear and exciting pictures of Pluto and its moons. The pictures will allow for astronomers to gather more information about Pluto and its moons. In July, the world lost Saturo Iwata, the president of Nintendo and the creator of video games like Kirby and Mario.

In August, Donald Trump officially announced that he would be running for president in 2016 and began campaigning. AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA! You’ll understand this if you’ve seen the vine videos. John Cena also made it big this month in 2015. Hundreds of thousands of vines were created using his videos and announcement for the WWE. Some of them are funny and some of them are plain weird.

The supermoon eclipse left everyone in awe in September. It was beautiful to watch and great to take pictures of. Continuing on the topic of space, water was found on Mars. This was a very exciting discovery and we’ll have to wait and see what comes next as far as findings and discoveries on Mars and in the space around us.

In October of 2015, Drake’s hit song “Hotline Bling” made its’ debut. It was on the radio quite often and there were many parodies done of this song. ISIS crashed a Russian plane killing all 224 passengers on board near the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. A gunman killed ten including himself and injured seven at Umpqua Community College in Oregon as well.

Sadly terrorist attacks were becoming quite the trend towards the end of the year and Paris was attacked in November. 130 people were killed and over 300 were injured. Also in November, Ronda Rousey lost her fight to Holly Holm and Fallout 4, the fourth game of the Fallout series was released. And who could forget the release of the final movie of the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay Part 2? Most people believed that Mockingjay Part 2 finished out the trilogy well, others believed that it could have been finished differently, but in my opinion the movie was amazing and the actors all did a wonderful job portraying their characters and the plot stuck pretty close to the books.

Finally in December, the Star Wars saga continued with The Force Awakens I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve heard that the movie was very good and lived up to everyone’s expectations, so far. Not only was the new Star Wars movie big, but so was the Miss Universe pageant. The host, Steve Harvey made an honest mistake when he announced the final results, the wrong girl was crowned, and then he corrected himself as soon as he caught the mistake. After this happened, there was a lot of dispute over the actual results and Harvey’s actions and in the end Miss Philippines was crowned Miss Universe.

I believe that 2015 was a pretty good year even with all of the attacks and losses of wonderful people. We were all able to learn new things about ourselves and the world, experience new activities and situations, and also grow as people. As far as what’s going to happen in 2016, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Do what you can to make it your own great year. Good luck getting used to writing 2016 on your papers and best wishes in the new year.

January 3, 2016
To Eat or Not to Eat

For the second half of my first semester this school year, my language arts class read Hamlet by Shakespeare. One of our assignments was to translate Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy into something relatable and understandable. I chose to translate mine into “To eat or not to eat” and here it is. Enjoy!

To eat or not to eat -that is the question:
Whether ’tis more delicious to eat pizza
And have a happy stomach,
Or stay away from all the food,
And feel the pain of hunger.
To wait, for your order to be ready-
No more – and by waiting to say I face
The wonderful sights and smells
That each food holds-
‘Tis a situation
I want my food.
To be happy, to eat-
To eat, perhaps too long. Ay, there’s the problem.
For in overeating there comes suffering and stomach aches
When we wait at the microwave for our food
Must make us stop and think.
That’s the idea
That makes disaster of not eating or eating too much.
For who really wants to be without breakfast,
Those delicious Belgian waffles,
The many options for a wonderful lunch,
The disappointment in long lines and waits,
The early dinner that leaves you hungry the rest of the night,
The overly salted soft pretzel at the big game,
And the desperate looks
That starved people have been waiting for their meals,
When they too may feast
On days free from any worries?
Who would heed the large menu,
To decide and eat whatever they desire,
But that the horror that their stomachs may growl and food be cold,
The unknown foods that have yet to be eaten which
Food critics discuss
While we stand in a puzzled daze,
Wishing we had eaten much less
Instead of seeking the extra piece of cake?
Thus the chance of missing out does make food-lovers of us all,
And thus the enjoyment of food so precious
Is tainted by eye-opening thoughts of lost news,
And wonderful moments at Chipotle and Wendy’s
With this regard their paths are cut short
And those the sufferers of stomach aches favor of those who haven’t eaten.

December 27, 2015
Merry Christmas!

I know it isn’t Sunday, but it definitely is Christmas. So, Merry Christmas!

Christmas isn’t all about the presents under the tree, it’s about the birth of Christ and the quality time you get to spend with the people you love. It doesn’t matter how expensive or fancy a gift is, it’s the effort and thought into it that makes it special. Gifts are nice because they give you the opportunity to show your appreciation and care towards friends and family, but your attention and time are much more important and valuable.

Today is a great day to eat good food, make new traditions, play in the snow (if you have any), be silly, relax, play games, and have a good time. My family gets together in New Mexico every Christmas and we’ve been doing a fun gag gift game for the past few years. This year my aunt and uncle started a ping-pong tournament which was super fun, got everyone involved, and it is something we plan to continue doing every Christmas from here on out. Traditions like these are what make time with family and the holidays really special for everyone.

Anyways, I just wanted to wish you all the best today. Stay warm, or cool (depending on where you are) and enjoy yourselves! I hope you and your families have a fun, memorable, and wonderful day. Merry Christmas and Happy upcoming New Year!

December 25, 2015
Left-Right Gag Gift Game

Every year for the past few Christmases, my family has done a left-right gag gift game. The idea is to pass wrapped gag gifts around a table with your family or friends according to directions of a special story. Usually my sister and I find one on the Internet, but this year I forgot to find one before we left, so my sister and I decided to make one ourselves. It included family members, was definitely not a true story, and I thought it was pretty cute. Gag gift games are great for small get-togethers with family and friends. Here’s our story…

The Christmas Adventure

Christmas was RIGHT around the corner and it was time for the family to get together again. Gary’s gang packed up their things and LEFT Broomfield and Jan and John LEFT RIGHT at ten to go to Farmington to see Grandpa. The minute Grandpa heard they were coming he jumped for joy, put on his Christmas boxers, and ate his Cheerios RIGHT away. When he jumped for joy, he noticed a very special smell coming from the floor. Peppy LEFT a little gift for him that morning. Grandpa wanted the mess to be cleaned up before anyone arrived. On the way to Farmington, Gary made a LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT LEFT and then another LEFT to get there. John made a wrong turn in Cuba, instead of turning LEFT he turned RIGHT. John and Jan had no idea where they were so they stopped at Mrs. RIGHTS bed and breakfast to ask for directions. When they asked Mrs. RIGHT for directions to Farmington, she replied, “you take a LEFT at the stoplight and then another LEFT five miles down the road. Make sure you get that RIGHT or else you will be lost.” Before they LEFT, John asked if she had any cookies. Mrs. RIGHT responded by saying, “I have a huge jar LEFT, you can have them.” John thanked Mrs. RIGHT and LEFT with Jan to get to Farmington. Finally, Grandpa had the house looking just RIGHT and that’s when everybody arrived. Peppi greeted Marty and Boo with a big bark of disappointment and Boo returned the greeting, a couple of times, with a snarl, and a big jump at her face. Marty LEFT the area to greet Grandpa, Jan, and John with a wag of his poofy tail and a big bark. Jan prepared a big meal and by the time everyone finished all their food, they had no room LEFT for the cookies from Mrs. RIGHT. So they decided to leave the cookies for Santa on Christmas. The family played games including a RIGHT-LEFT, hide and seek, and how much stuff can be fixed in Grandpa’s house in one visit. Finally, Christmas came and Boo continued to bark. Grandma Luba was the first one to wake up and dashed to the living room where Gary and Inna slept with Ana and Allyson. She was so excited she jumped RIGHT on top of Inna to wake her up. Gary woke up after hearing the commotion and shot RIGHT up out of bed thinking that there was a robber in the house. Inna assured him that everything was alRIGHT. Allyson snored on with everything going on and Ana awoke to the sound of the dogs barking. Grandpa pranced into the living room with his Christmas tunes playing full blast. He was ready to open presents and spend time with the family. Jan and John went dashing into the kitchen to see if Mrs. RIGHT’S cookies were eaten by Santa. Sure enough, there weren’t any cookies LEFT and there was a little note to the entire family on the table. It read, “Thanks for the cookies, those were just RIGHT! Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you had a good night. You’ve all been real good so here are some gifts. John, I’ve got a cool sleigh, if you ever need a lift.” With the nice note read, Allyson woke up and everyone gathered in the living room to open gifts. Ana got the RIGHT kind of ankle brace for Christmas and Allyson received the only Adam Lambert CD LEFT in the world. Gary got an array of bananas and nuts and Inna got the vacuum cleaner of her dreams. Grandma Luba got a nice electric blanket to keep her just RIGHT in the cold weather. Marty and Boo received new squeaky toys for being extra good boys this year. RIGHTfully so! Jan, John, and Grandpa were the only three LEFT. Grandpa was so excited to see what Santa LEFT him this year. Was it a stay-at-home handyman? More Cheerios? A sweater for Peppi? No it was a life-size poster of John Boehner! Grandpa had never been more confused about a Christmas gift. Peppi received a fancy, shmancy treadmill to get on the RIGHT track with her weight. When Jan opened her big box, she cried ’til she had no tears LEFT. It was the Crockpot 3000, the best of the best in crockpots. John had to go outside for his gift, which was the newest and most amazing John Deere tractor of all time. The family played more games, ate LEFTovers, laughed, and had a wonderful time with what was LEFT of their time together. When it was time to go, everyone said their goodbyes to Gary, the girls, and the dogs and then they LEFT. About fifteen minutes after they LEFT, Grandpa got a call. Ana LEFT her crutches at the house and needed them RIGHT away! John offered to take the crutches to Aztec to meet up with Gary, and then drove off to quickly deliver the crutches. The crutches were delivered and when John returned, Jan and John LEFT to get home to Belen. When everyone was gone, Grandpa looked down at Peppi and told her, “That visit was just RIGHT. I can’t wait to do that again.”

Spending time with the RIGHT people and having a good time with them is really great. You eat until you have no room in your stomach and you laugh until you have no air LEFT. You make good memories that will last with you forever. Am I RIGHT?

December 20, 2015
Top Ten Ways to Stay Healthy During the Holidays

The holidays are a special and memorable time of year when you get to spend time with friends and family. You get to eat good food, play fun games, and share love and gifts with one another. All of these holiday activities may be put on hold if you get sick over the holidays, and that wouldn’t be fun! Here are my top ten ways to stay healthy during the holidays.

10. Always wear your jacket and stay warm when you’re outside. This is a lesson I learned the hard way. Even if you feel like it’s warm enough outside, or your if you think what you’re wearing will keep you warm, you’re probably wrong. The weather can change at any moment and it’s better to be prepared with a nice, cozy jacket than have nothing at all.

9. Drink Emergen-C if you feel like you may be getting sick. Emergen-C is a powder that you add to a drink, in case you didn’t know. It contains vitamin C and it’s very important to get lots of vitamin C in your body if you feel like you’re getting sick. It comes in many flavors, tastes good, and helps you feel better or stay healthy.

8. Exercise. Exercising helps your body stay strong. When you sweat, your body gets rid of substances it doesn’t need like salts and toxins. Exercising is good for your body in general.

7. Don’t touch your face with your hands. The easiest way for bad bacteria or a virus to enter your system is through your nose or mouth. To prevent yourself from getting sick, do your best not to touch your face after being around someone sick or dealing with something dirty.

6. Get a proper amount of sleep. Sleep gives your body time to relax and heal. If you feel like you’re catching a cold or the flu, sleep is a good way to let your body rest and get better.

5. On top of Emergen-C, stay hydrated. Drinking lots of water or other liquids allows your body to function properly and flush out anything bad if needed. Chamomile tea with honey is great for when you feel like you may be getting sick, or just want a soothing drink before bed. The honey is good for your throat and chamomile aids in fighting infection and works as an anti-inflammatory.

4. Eat raspberry and cranberry jam. This has been a remedy that works well in my family. To prevent ourselves from getting sick, my mom makes jam that contains raspberries, cranberries, and honey and we eat it by itself or with pancakes. It can be a little sour but in my opinion, it’s yummy and helps me stay healthy.

3. Walk in fresh air. Going for a walk to get fresh air is not only refreshing and relaxing, but it’s really good for your body. This is a good way to cope with stress and it also helps your body feel good inside and out.

2. Don’t share drinks or personal items like Chapstick with other people. This should be common knowledge, but just in case you haven’t heard it before, here it goes. Sharing drinks is a really good way to spread illness or disease and it can range from a small canker sore to a major, life-threatening disease. Some people believe that sharing personal items and drinks isn’t that big of a deal. Even if you know the person really well, it’s better to be safe than sorry, know what you’re using or drinking, and bring your own things.

1. Wash your hands. Germs are all over the place all the time, but during the winter, it seems like there are even more germs because a lot of people get sick. In order to protect yourself from getting sick, wash your hands after using the restroom, work, school, sports practice, or whatever you do. You’re washing away bad germs when you wash your hands and preventing yourself from getting sick. Anti-bacterial hand sanitizer is another way to keep your hands clean. There are many different kinds of hand sanitizer that all work well, so find whatever kind you like and go with it.

Make sure to bundle up, stay hydrated, exercise, be aware of your surroundings, get a good amount of sleep, go for walks to get fresh air, avoid sharing drinks and things like Chapstick, and wash your hands to stay healthy this holiday season. To those of you with finals this week, I wish you the best of luck. 12 days ’til Christmas!

December 13, 2015
A Holiday Letter to Readers…

It’s that special time of year! Every year my family sends out a Christmas letter to family and friends updating them on how we’re doing and our journey throughout the year. My dad always writes the letter and he does a great job making it entertaining and worth reading. I figured I might write my readers a holiday letter, so here goes!

Dear readers,

This year has been quite an adventure! Those adventures ranged from making new friends and being with family and old friends to having surgery on my ankle and other crazy events.

My sister is a freshman and I am a sophomore in high school. We’re both doing well school and keeping up good grades. I’m glad to be at the same school as my sister again. Go Eagles! We are each other’s best friends and we get along well. My two dogs Marty and Boo, are still running around, barking, singing to the piano, and being the most adorable dachshunds I’ve ever met. They enjoy begging for carrots and whatever else they can get to eat from my grandma who is visiting us from the Republic of Georgia.

My parents are keeping busy with work and running my sister from practice to practice. My mom is working as a dental hygienist and selling her children’s book Lola and Sir Germs-a-lot. There may be a few more books coming out soon, so keep an eye out on Amazon or Xlibris. My dad is working from home with business and economic research. He also coaches my sister and I in tennis and is busy working with my sister and getting her to club volleyball practices. As mentioned earlier, my grandma from Georgia (not the state) is staying with us for a few months. She is a wonderful, sweet person and it’s been great having her with us the past few months.

This year has been filled with some lows but mostly highs. I had to have surgery on my ankle to resolve some issues I had with it and that caused me to miss another season of high school volleyball which was a bummer but I was able to really focus on school and take time to recover. Because of my ankle issues, I was able to meet some really amazing people that I now consider good, close friends that I hope I can keep in touch with for a long time. My birthday this year was my sweet 16 and it was a good, memorable day. I made some new and really good friends at school this year and I feel like I’ve been able to make a difference in my community through sports, school, and my blog.

My blog hit over 2,500 views this year and that means a lot to me. I’m glad that people are reading my blog and I hope that you all enjoy reading it! I hope that my blog is something you look forward to reading and it encourages you to try something new or learn about something you didn’t know how to do or didn’t know about.

My ankle is recovering well, I know the rest of the school year is going to be great, and I’m looking forward to high school tennis season! I wish you Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year.

With love,

Ana Horvath

December 6, 2015