My Journey as a Teen Business Owner (May 2023)

This month, I'm happy to see that school is finally winding down. By the end of next month, I'll have three months to do next to nothing but get work done and celebrate my birthday in July.

Although I do have better prospects for the next three months as school gets out of the way, my work has been pretty mild for this month. I didn't slow down, but I didn't get a massive pile of writing done, either. This month was a pretty good balance between creativity and schoolwork.

With this, here are the three main highlights of this month:

1. I submitted a handful of poems to a Vocal Challenge.

The contest I submitted to was called "Sensational," and the poems I submitted were Through the Tide, The Monochrome Dream, Gems, Defining a Happy Place, and The Island's Ambience.

It was a lot of poetry, and I submitted more to the contest than I usually do.

The contest results come out tomorrow, and I'm very hopeful to at least get an honorable mention. Although not every poem was new, the new ones were written this month and it was really fun to come up with these new ideas.

2. I've been adding to my concept sheet.

I have a story concept and blog idea sheet that I keep in my binder, and I added to my list recently.

Now, my list has reached around 3 pages. I hope to cross off some of the ideas in June. They've been gathered throughout the year and I'll be happy to use them during the summer.

3. I started a new project, and it's something I've never tried before - stop motion.

This one tops the previous two highlights since it feels like a major milestone to me and my work.

For so long, I've had an idea for a series that I've mentioned a few times here on Vocal, but I thought that I'd never have the skills to digitally animate it.

Just recently, I found a form of paper stop-motion, and it really inspired me.

I've been making stop-motion puppets and concept sheets and I have very high hopes for them. If it goes well, I plan to submit to contests and post the finished products on a YouTube channel.

Not only will this allow me to continue writing and ideating, but I'll finally be able to get my work out on my own.

And, finally, just for this month, I have a bonus highlight!

The reason this was a bonus is because I'm not sure when this happened, I just discovered it this month. But, to me, it still counts.

So, here it is:

4. I got featured in my school's newspaper again!

This isn't some life-changing news, of course. But it's nice to see that my work was published in something that people at my school (may or may not) read.

I don't believe that I mentioned the first feature in this series, but that's alright. I hope this is at least something I can add to a portfolio or use for credibility.

So, that's about it for this month! I definitely wrote this a bit last minute, but that's alright. Done is done, even if it's two days before the end of the month.

I can't wait for everything to start paying off, like the stop-motion animation. As long as it's worth it in the end, I'll be accepting of the work it took to get there.

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