So, I have been horseback riding. There was one experience that I had that almost made me never go horse riding again, and I've -- horseback riding again, and I've only done it once since. And by the way, that one time that I did it since, I enjoyed very much. So, I was afraid of horses already before we were going into this, but then I was building confidence. However, I did -- this was for Girl Scouts. So I told my troop leader "okay. I need the best horse. I am very afraid of horses. So can I please get, you know, a good horse?" And she's like "sure whatever you need. If you're going to go horseback riding." And then we went and I did not get the best horse and immediately my horse was going faster, kind of like, and then it would go like slow. And then the people were like, "oh, they've never gone off the trail. They'll never do anything to you." My horse, when we are going on the trail, there's this one road off to the side. My horse starts galloping. And it goes to the right and it just starts running. It goes in the tall grass and it starts jumping up and down, and I'm hanging on for my dear life. Like it was one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever had, and this horse is trying to buck me off. It's running around in circles in this grass like super tall and it's jumping up and down. And I will tell you that the workers immediately stopped what they were doing and they ducked under electric fences to save me, or yeah. Like that's how bad it was.

My old neighbors, they have these two dogs – I was so terrified of their dogs, I would freak. This is when I was afraid of any dog, any shape, size, whatever. I was afraid of it. Any dog, I was afraid of it, and I have a dog now, so it's, like, super weird that I ever was afraid of dogs, but I was terrified. And now I think I was stupid but, anyways, I was – there were these big, humongous dogs, and I never had an encounter with them, but I thought they were the scariest things, and I would freak out every time I walked down that – down our road, ‘cause they would, like, always be outside. And I didn't really understand – I was young – like, what an electric fence did and stuff. And so, I would walk down and they would be barking at me and they're massive, like, 150 pounds a piece or whatever, and they're just barking at me and acting – they're just, like, fake running at me and I am, like, freaking out and, like, running away and, like, screaming for help. And it was – it's just terrifying because those dogs were, like, massive and, like, they look so mean. And now I'm not afraid of dogs, like, I have a dog walking business, and I have a dog. My dog is ten pounds when he's fully grown, but still.

It can be hard being brave. It can be hard being yourself. But the little rewards that come, it’s just amazing. Like maybe — so me, I just helped my dad for something, then I rewarded myself ’cause I helped somebody who needed help, and so we have leather and we have to leather our couches so I also did that today. So I leathered a couch which was actually pretty tiring. I baked stuff. I rewarded myself because I baked something like for the first time. It was a mix, but I still baked something for the first time to surprise my sister who was having a competition, a debate competition. And I wanted to surprise her with the chocolate cupcakes.

Do you pour the milk before the cereal or the cereal before the milk? Definitely the cereal before the milk. I accidentally did the milk before the cereal this one-time. I completely freaked out. Like I looked at my milk and my cereal bowl. And I’m like, what has gotten into me? What’s wrong with me? You know, because usually I get into routine, and that time I believe I actually spilled because for me, it’s impossible to do the milk before the cereal without spilling it and making it look goofy. I’m just telling you. Definitely, yeah.

Do you want to tell me about your push-ups?Oh yeah. One day, I did one hundred and five push-ups.That’s a lot of push-ups. Why are you doing so many pushups?Because I wanna get B U F F.Why?Because I wanna be strong. Yeah, I wanna be strong.Okay. So how many push-ups are you gonna do today?1 1 0. Which is one hundred and ten.What’s gonna be your highest number?Um. Five hundred. That’s not gonna be for awhile.

What was one time in the past month that you felt super optimistic? I feel like I felt optimistic at our school orientation for seventh grade. That’s when we go into the middle school, high school, and so, I felt so optimistic in those moments because we made our commitment to graduate where we put our hand print on a piece of big paper that goes up in the cafeteria when you’re in high school, and it says the year you graduate on it and it’s super special. You get a picture in a cap and gown. You get to see all your classes, meet all your teachers, and I just felt so optimistic that this, you know, year was going to be a really great one. Seventh grade. I was just like “seventh grade, here I come.” Like, I’m going to be doing so many things that I didn’t get to do before, and I just get to experience school at a whole new level.

I remember, my family, ours- my family we, we got our own Elf on the Shelf, two of them, actually. One guy and one girl. We opened them and then gave them names and stuff. I think that’s the ritual you have to do. And then yeah, we let them do stuff cuz I wanted to see if it was actually real and holy crap. It’s like, I am fifteen right now. I’m turning sixteen in December, but I still believe what I saw was real. So I remember like they moved so much! We didn’t see them move, but they were just like in places my parents couldn’t have possibly put them like they were- In my living room we used to have this window to just some room for some reason. And like, on top of that was like this huge curtain, like maybe eight, ten feet off the ground, like this little pole where the curtains are on and they’re just sitting up there. I remember like we were watching them cuz my siblings and I was super scared. My parents just laughing at us. So I don’t- it was a very strange reaction. So like I remember blinking and like they were close together. Blinking again, they’re far apart. And blinking cuz I couldn’t believe my eyes, and they were close together again. What the heck! It was so weird.

Tell us one of your favorites. Favorite joke? Okay, I know. It’s like the oldest one ever and the most boring one ever. Why did the chicken cross the road? There’s nobody here to stay any, like, what. Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry I missed that. I don’t even know the answer anymore. Is it like to get to the other side or something? Oh my gosh. How could I completely just forget that? That’s like one of the first jokes I ever heard in my life, and I don’t know how I remembered that. I think it’s the one of the first jokes that I ever told to somebody. Oh my gosh.

Do you like carving pumpkins? What’s the most creative design you’ve seen? I think the most — So, yes, I do like carving pumpkins. And I believe that the most creative design that I’ve seen, has been our family’s designs. So, every year like we have this book where it’s like a lot of pieces of paper that you can cut out and then you like get the paper wet and put it on the pumpkin and then you use cutting tools to cut out the outline. So ours always turn out really cool. We’ve done things that have words on them. We’ve done like castles, just like a ghost. I think we might’ve done like a witch with a broom. We’ve done tons of creative designs, that no one sees because we live on a private road up a long driveway, so no one sees them anyways, but I think it’s just fun to do, fun to be creative for a little bit. Yeah, it’s just fun.

This week, I have felt grateful for a lot of things, but one is the amazing trip we went on. We went up north on Mackinac Island. Something Mackinac is known for is the salt water taffy and fudge. Mackinac Island is right on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Watch out when going in the lakes, be prepared to step on rocks and if you’re looking for big seashells, sorry, there’s none. You can find tiny ones. They’re by the quick sand or when the water washes up on the sand. Also, something while visiting up north, I visited all the Great Lakes. I also went to a Petoskey beach. The Petoskey stone is Michigan’s State Stone. A Petoskey stone is a fossil of coral. We collected so many stones. Another really fun place to go is the Pictured Rocks. It is so cool how you can make pictures and let your imagination flow. Something my sister saw was a whole flock of sheep.