Spotlight! #challenge

Isn't this Challenge popular, guys?

I believe that this is my one chance to talk to an audience that isn't an oil painting. All of the entries for this unofficial Challenge have gotten Top Story... and I want to test my theory!

Let me think up some interesting facts about myself.

Oh. I know!

1. I am not an adult.

Now, if you follow my profile at all, then you probably already know this. But I thought I'd get it out there as much as I can! Scream it from the rooftops! I laughed when I saw a Top Story a few months ago claiming that everyone on the platform was an adult, and it was then that I knew I had to tell this to y'all.

I'm in ninth grade. Most ninth graders aren't adults. Unless they've continuously failed eighth grade and must be pushed forward by their peers to go into the next class. And that didn't happen with me! I'm not a full-fledged adult!

2. My political opinions...

...are often based on my parents.

Since I still live in the house (no, I never ran away like in my story Home) and my parents pay for pretty much everything, my political opinions do not rely on the price of gas or those funny posters about President Biden. They rely on my parents. And currently, my parents are a little stuck on who to root for in the coming year, because everybody seems a little... burnt out.

If I were on my own, maybe I'd be a Republican? But I have absolutely no clue. Both sides of these parties are constantly blaming each other for things, and I would not like to be at a Blame Convention for the rest of my life. Don't take my guess to heart.

3. I have written two books!

Playing with Shadows will forever remain in my heart. It was the first book I ever wrote and finished. Although the first draft contained many, many plotline errors with all the twists I tried (and failed) to add in, to this day it stands to how much I've grown in writing since I started when I was 4.

However, my ol' friend and I did agree that it kinda sucks. As it is, it's a story where the villains aren't really considered "villains," and they aren't considered "evil," so the main character gives them a second chance and they end up doing the evil thing they planned to do. The villains aren't destroyed or defeated. They end up being glorified. And if there's one thing I regret about writing that book, it's that I was soft-hearted with those villains, because back in 2020 they were my imaginary friends.

Partners! I wrote it in a summertime and published it in the next! Partners is one of my newer masterpieces. It contains several elements that I love: sci-fi, horror stories about scientists, children fighting for what's right, and searchlights! Ever since I was 5 and played The Legend of Zelda: The WindWaker HD, (finished it when I was 11) I have absolutely loved the idea of searchlights. And although they aren't the most scientifically accurate way to keep track of two runaway children, they certainly are threatening, and they bring back the memories of when I was 5 and didn't understand how Forsaken Fortress's searchlights worked.

4. I have played Minecraft since I was 4.

Or maybe 5. It was after my grandmother gave my older brother an Xbox 360, which I still have. As I write this, it's droning on in the background, doing its best to keep from overheating and exploding into a mess.

The age rating for Minecraft used to be 10+. I don't know now, because I haven't played since July, but it used to be. So when someone asks me if I'm a Minecraft veteran, I ask them if they remember when all the beds used to just be red and there was nothin' you could do about it, no way to change it. I played Minecraft on that old 360 back when there were only two flowers in the game. Two!! Just dandelions and poppies!

And that's back when the poppies were called "roses!"

5. If you give me a book, I will read it for days.

If it even takes me that long.

For example, a few months ago, I was given the book This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti to read. At first, I let it sit on my desk in despair, but when I started reading it, I couldn't stop. The descriptions of good and evil forces, of how they seem so invisible to us, but of how it's all so real is amazing, and the plot of the book is so captivating. I read that thing non-stop in school. Non-stop.

I very much recommend it to you. Even if you're not a Christian, it knocks other books out of the park!

So, like if you give a mouse a cookie, if you give me a book... well, you probably won't have it back for the next 72 hours.

6. I wear glasses.

I was diagnosed with a lazy eye when I was 5 years old. I was struggling to read fine print. My eyesight was 20/200. I could've been considered legally blind, if not for the hard work of my right eye. My left eye had completely shut down.

I've worn glasses ever since. Apparently, I will not be able to see perfectly for the rest of my life. People say I'm blind as a bat when they try on my glasses, but that's just because their eyes are not used to wearing two different lenses like I have to. My left eye has a different lense than my right eye because it's weaker.

I've worn a patch ever since I was 5 years old, and just two weeks ago I was told that I can stop. After 9 years of patching, I no longer have to. 20/50 is the best I'll get.

7. When I was 2, I almost died.

I had Kawasaki's when I was 2 years old. Kawasaki's is a disease that causes heart problems, and it's very common among young Asian boys. But for it to come up in the heart of a little American girl was a very rare instance.

If not for the grace of my mom's doctor friend, I would not be alive today. Kawasaki's must be treated in a 10-day window, otherwise it will "leave," but later in life, around the teenage years, it will return and bite back at its host and kill them suddenly with heart failure. I could've been dead if I hadn't been treated within that 10-day-window. I just barely hit the mark.

8. I have broken 4 bones.

I fell from the monkey bars when I was 6 and broke my left elbow. I was rolling down the hill on my scooter when it slid sideways and I injured my nose. My friend and I were playing Tag and she pushed me and I fell to the concrete and broke my left wrist in third grade. I slipped in the bathroom and sprained my right wrist in fourth grade. Last year, my foot skidded on the floor beneath a swing and I sprained my ankle.

Oh, and I got a concussion when I was 4. My cousin wouldn't stop jumping to let me get off the trampoline, and I fell from the unsteady platform onto the black driveway. I remember distinctly seeing the bottoms of cars when my head hit the blacktop, but I don't remember everything after that. I do, however, recall that giant donut-machine for head scans. (And no, as I learned, it didn't make donuts.)

9. I usually don't enter Challenges.

Alright, alright, You got me there. I did enter all the recent Challenges except for the one about rewriting old fairytales. But as far as Challenges go, I learned that they spread disappointment inside of me, making me feel as if my writing pales in comparison to other's, and I learned that I tend to pout and feel spouts of unruly sadness when I don't place.

So I only enter if it's something I really want to do, something that I think I have a chance at. But I don't think Home is really going to make much of a dent in the Next GAN Challenge, and my other stories...? Ptah. I have no confidence.

That's why I usually don't enter Challenges. Only if I have a sparkling idea do I dare to step up to that pedestal.

10. I am working on a Minecraft-based book series.

After the recent loss of my friend on September 3rd, I decided that I was going to honor the memory of our friendship by writing about the one thing that had kept us together for so long: Minecraft.

In 2021, I began working on something known as the GDL Series. GDL stands for Geo Descent Labgrounds, and it was based off of a Minecraft map called the Terra Swoop Force made by the map-making team Noxcrew. The map was free, and I was bored, so I downloaded it and played it.

Most fantastic map I've ever seen.

Then, I bought Monsters from the Ice, also by Noxcrew, and then Monsters of the Deep, and the whole story of the GDL trilogy started sinking in and I decided to write about it.

It began with William, a character from Playing with Shadows that had no home in any other story otherwise. He fell asleep one day and woke up in the dream world of Terra Swoop Force, where he had to fly deep into the underground alongside a slime whose name was dubbed Forest by my old friend. From there, things progressed until I had 7 whole grammar-terrible punctuation-dead 11-year-old-written books about these characters that I called the GDL Crew.

In 2022, I decided to rewrite the GDL. And I did. Most things were the same.

In the end of 2022, I decided to create Re-will. Re- is a prefix that means again. And I wanted to make the GDL series again. So Rewyll was my replacement for Will, and the GDL was called RE-DL by me.

So now, for this new book series honoring the friendship of my old friend and I, Rewyll lives in Will's old world. But Will still exists. He is the antagonist of the story, because he believes that Rewyll has stolen all of his friends, all of his fame, and all of his life.

It's a tight plot, and I'm only on chapter 1 right now. But I can't think of anything better for the end of a long friendship than to honor it by this Minecraft series.

So yeah! That's all about me! If you want to enter the Challenge, you're welcome to, although unfortunately I have no way of contacting the Vocal group about my entry. But here it is! Have any thoughts, my audience that is not an oil painting?