The Summer of 2005

A Moment Suspended in Time

Ah the summer of 2005, hard to believe that was 18 years ago, feels just like yesterday. That was the year I turned 18, the year I graduated high school. I remember feeling so full of life, hope, that any of my dreams could come true. I carried around this average blue spiral notebook that I bought from the grocery store next to my work since I had left my other journal at home one day. I've had many journals through out my life, but for some reason I still have memories all these years later of sitting in a booth on my breaks writing in this journal. While this isn't my technical first journal entry, it is the one I remember most vivid and is most impactful to me. I didn't know it then but this would be the summer that would ultimately change my life, and years later become an inspiration for not only a novel, but a book series. But I am getting a little a head of myself, let me take you back to the beginning.

I've always loved writing but...

I never had the confidence to persue it until now. Ever since I was a little girl I always remember writing in my journal. It was the only way I was able to express my feelings, and I was alone most nights after school while my parents worked so I not only wrote in my journal but I began reading a lot. These where my forms of escaping my reality, into a world that was far better than mine. I always remember thinking I hope to write a novel one day that can help people escape their everyday lives. I just didn't know when or how I was going to do that. I just knew that despite not knowing the first thing about writing a novel, I have always felt that it was my calling.

Blast from the past-

In 2021 I began having a rough time, well probably longer than that but this year was worse than others. I began going through a box in my apartment and came across that journal for 2005 and I began reading through it. And that's when I came across the entry from that summer. My dad invited me on a camping trip to the beach with his best friends family. I knew of most of them but never met them in person, so I invited my best friend to come a long and off we went. When we arrived I got out of the truck and when I looked up the cutest guy I had ever seen walked by. He was the 2005 emo kid with shaggy black hair, black skinny jeans, slip on checkered vans, you get the picture. We both looked at each other and it was as if time had stopped and I couldn't stop staring at his beautiful hazel eyes. Eventually I found out he was part of my dads friends family and eventually me and him started talking. We stayed up all night on our last night laughing and talking. We had similar taste in music, which is music is so important to me even now. We took a night stroll on the beach and that was when he first kissed me. Looking back I realize it sounds straight out of a movie, and even then it felt like I was living in a movie.

The irony of it was we were both young and lived 100s of miles apart. We kept in touch through myspace and saw each other at family events and would pick up where we left off. There's a lot more drama to the story but I'll save that for the book! After reading that entry I began thinking about the guy I met a few years later, who I would end up spending 13 years going back and forth with. I met him in a movie like way as well, he was my next door neighbor who skateboarded. I was into skateboarding at the time and we would skateboard at our houses but never say anything to each other. Well as fate would have it my skateboard went flying his direction one day and so he was forced to talk to me! Remembering all of this gave me the idea to combine these love stories into two novels. Even though these relationships ended and I am not the luckiest in love, writing was a away that I could share these stories and have them end the way I always wanted.

But then one last twist of fate happened and in 2022 I met who I consider to be the love of my life. That was when I decided to add our story and have it be the final installment to the series, and show how a single girl in the modern dating world finally found love. It's a lot to take on especially for someone that has never completed a novel in her life, but I just feel fated to do it, and its therapeutic to me. Even if I end up being the only one to read it, I will feel that I accomplished a life goal and that is what matters to me.

How has my writing style evolved over the years?

I used to try writing stories based off fanfiction. Also when writing the journal entry I very much and the mind and slag of a teen girl, which I'm glad to have for my first book as it will help get in the mindset of the teenager. I didn't do much character development, or research much about places that my scenes were taking place at. I am trying to do a lot more of that now, as well as be more describtive because I always just want to rush to the good parts and leave out all the small details. But as a reader I know you need to be able to envision the scene. I am defiantly a work in progress but with all I have going on in my life currently this is something I can do to escape. And that is what I love most about reading and writing.