Hello everyone!

It has been almost a YEAR since I've last made a blog post - I've missed blogging so much and needed to write another post before the end of the year.

So many major life changes have occurred in 2018: I moved for the first time in my life, I've been living on my own, and have began new projects/work that I never thought I'd take on so soon!

Without further ado, let's review the year together, in photos.

Beverly Hills - Jan 7

Not going to lie, I hardly remember visiting Rodeo during last winter. At this time, I had just finished writing my college apps (the last one was for UPenn I believe). College app season was definitely one of the most unenjoyable times of my life - I adopted a very unhealthy obsession with college and literally could not think of anything else but getting into a prestigious college. While writing essays for 16 colleges was bad, the waiting period was even worse.

BJ's - Jan 19

When I lived at home, one of my favorite things to do was to hang out with my mom on Fridays. We'd always go out for a girls' day, shopping and eating while spending time together. It's one thing I miss a lot now that I've moved.

Pasadena - Feb 3

Henceforth began the dreadful waiting period before college decisions. I took this photo outside of the location I had one of my college interviews. I remember this one not going too well - my interviewer and I did not really click. Afterwards, my parents and I had a nice lunch together, a great way to take my mind off of the failed interview. It wouldn't matter too much anyway; I highly doubt a good interview would've helped my chances at Harvard.

Hacienda Heights - Feb 16

I'll always remember 2018 Chinese New Year as a great day - I received my very first college acceptance that day. I cannot describe how relieving it felt to be college bound. I remember screaming when I opened the already-opened (thanks, parents) letter.

San Diego - Feb 18

I don't quite remember what sparked this impromptu trip to San Diego. But aren't those the best kinds of trips? I loved spending the weekend with my parents out and about.


On February 19th we visited Santa Barbara, the school to which I had received my first acceptance. As you can see from the pictures, the campus was lovely, right next to a beautiful ocean, extremely quiet and quite a ways away from the city!

I'd also like to add that it was during these few weeks that I had become OBSESSED with figure skating after watching Evgenia Medvedeva's short program in the team event during the 2018 Winter Olympics. I went on a figure skating binge, watching every single one of Medvedeva's performances. Since then, I've become an avid figure skating fan - I've even learned to identify almost all of the jumps. :)

Pasadena & Arcadia - Feb 25

I can't quite remember why we went on a hike this day - all I can remember is that my sister was here with us and that we ate the best stinky tofu ever in this awesome little Asian food court. It was divine.

Dripp - Mar 23

Here's another picture from one of my mom and I's dates. At this point in time I had received my second acceptance letter (along with one rejection and one waitlist). A week before, I had been anxiously refreshing the decision portal (how fortunate that it was down that day). In a mall restroom's stall, I opened my decision to see that I had been accepted to UCLA! I couldn't scream (as I was in a restroom) but I sure felt like it.

That day had been pretty upsetting - I had gotten into a big argument with my family after getting rejected by Johns Hopkins. But to see that acceptance letter from UCLA, the dream schools of all dream schools (for us CA kids), my day was completely flipped around. It just goes to show how that cliche saying is so true: rainbows come after rain!

Grand Canyon & Las Vegas - Mar 31 - Apr 1

Then comes spring break. As happy as I was to get to see the natural wonder, Grand Canyon, and experience the man-made luxury of Las Vegas, this point in time was not the happiest for me. On the way to the Grand Canyon, I received my final decision - I had been rejected from my dream school Stanford. A few days earlier, I had been waitlisted at Berkeley (which, as conceited as this sounds, came as a bit of a surprise).

I had been rejected from a grand total of 11 schools, waitlisted at 3, and accepted to 2. I tried my hardest to remain positive and thankful for my acceptance to LA, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed in myself. The "what-ifs" began to plague me: if only I had tried harder in high school, spent more time on essays, taken on more extracurriculars. My parents, likewise, weren't very happy with the slew of rejection letters I had accumulated. Disappointing my parents was one of the most upsetting parts of the entire process - I had so desperately wanted to see them proud.

Balboa Park - Apr 15

Time naturally brought acceptance. I continued to live my life, and guess what? I realized that, hey, you've got SO much to be grateful for. I didn't expect to see so many rejections, but life is never predictable. I'll admit, it did take me a long time to get over the college decisions - college has always been an incredibly important part of my life. My parents had always stressed to me the importance of getting into a top college, perhaps because of their own culture. This idea had been so deeply ingrained in me that when the time came for me to attend college, I experienced so much anxiety around the matter.

At the end of the day, getting rejected didn't take away anything from my life - I still had everything I'd ever had, just one less opportunity that was never guaranteed to be mine anyways. I recognize the weaknesses in my application and had to learn that you are never entitled to anything in life!

I visited the LA campus and absolutely fell in love - the college seemed particularly beautiful that day. I could, in fact, vividly imagine my life there for the next four years.


As it turned out, the college decisions weren't settled as I had thought - I was accepted off the waitlist to UC Berkeley in early May. My immediate reactions was, rather than joy, a sense of worry: the choice was no longer clear. Which school would be right for me? I convinced my parents that I needed to pay a visit to the school (though I had visited many times before as it is my sister's alma mater).

After visiting the college, I came to this conclusion: there was no right decision. I could imagine myself succeeding at either university - neither of these schools would be unsuitable to me.

In the end, I chose to attend Berkeley; even typing this now, I have a smile creeping on my face. I feel so much pride for my school and, as you'll see in the next post, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself last semester. I have fulfilled (almost) every goal that I set for myself before entering college.

Anaheim - May 19

Next came what I'll call the "festivities". My future was set, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I was completely, utterly worry-free. I've never felt so free from stress during those months and the coming summer. I guess you could say it was the calm after the storm. :)

After graduation, I would immediately fly to Australia with my parents where we'd explore for three weeks. To prevent this blog post from running for miles, I'll end this portion of my year review here. The next post will pick up from after my Australia trip, as I'd like to summarize my trip in its own series of blog posts.

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for keeping with me and my life rambles - I'll see you in the next post.


♡
Mel

I'm back after finishing the second book in The Lunar Chronicles, Scarlet. This post, unfortunately, will contain spoilers, so come back and read it after reading Scarlet.

Right off the bat we're introduced to a new character, Scarlet. In my last blog post, I complained about Cinder's (and many other characters') lack of personality and "flavor". I'm happy to report that I could immediately get a sense of Scarlet's character; I can clearly define her personality with a few key words: fiery, passionate, and somewhat sassy.

Alas, the same trope appears in this novel; Scarlet is summoned to her "hero's journey" by the disappearance of her grandmother. This book does spend a little more time than Cinder does building up the relationship between Scarlet and her grandmother, however, so I do appreciate that. Their relationship is more meaningful, and therefore, I'm able to sympathize more with her need to save her grandmother.

Now let's talk about some of the other characters we are introduced to.

We meet Wolf, a mysterious, rugged street fighter. Despite his line of work, we get a sense that this man is deserving of our respect for helping Scarlet. I don't like Wolf, nor his relationship with Scarlet. Although I admit he does help Scarlet quite a bit near the end, he did still lie to and betray her. Not to mention, their relationship progressed far too rapidly. Scarlet addresses this herself, yet her acknowledgment doesn't make me understand their immediate desire for one another. I mean for Christ's sake, by the end of the book, the two have known each other for what, a week at most? And Wolf is already claiming she's "the one" for him. Please.

I didn't expect that Wolf would be Lunar; that caught me off guard. I thought he was some kind of werewolf being (throwback to Twilight). Meyer's constant use of wolf-like diction was very tiring. With the ways Wolf "prowled" through the forest, "perked up" his ears, or "sniffed" the air, my mind was screaming, "I GET IT; HE'S ABNORMAL!" Not to mention, when he claimed he could take on six wolves—hello, no.

(I have to agree with Iko; their "gushiness" is not comfortable to read/listen to at all.)

We also meet Thorne, who really serves no purpose in this book other than providing the getaway ship. Thanks Thorne. When we're first introduced to him, I was scared that he was destined to be the missing angle of some sick love triangle with Cinder and Kai. Thankfully, that didn't happen; there are enough love triangles out in the YA world already. Again, I have to be honest; I didn't particularly like Thorne, but I definitely don't dislike him as much as I do Wolf. He really served no purpose in this book. Like, at all. Meyer makes it pretty obvious that he'll be our Rapunzel's love interest, so at least he'll have something to do in Cress.

Overall, this book felt a lot slower to me. Granted, school interrupted my reading flow this week, but I just did not enjoy this novel as much as Cinder. The plot wasn't that interesting to me, the new characters were not any more charming than the characters in Cinder, and I'm slowly losing interest. I'm now working on the third book, and already, I'm cringing when reading from Cress's point of view (no offense, Cress). I still read through it pretty quickly, and, as a whole, enjoyed it, but I'm hoping the pace will pick up a little more.

Anywho, that's all for me today. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back (hopefully soon) to review the next of The Lunar Chronicles.

I'm finally back with another book review; it feels like ages since I last read a book for enjoyment, sadly.

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed from, you know, life (can I get an Amen). I needed to get lost in a different world and take my mind off things, so I dived into a book I've heard a lot about: Cinder.

I never had much interest in the book before, but after watching some reviews, I was intrigued by its setting of New Beijing. Very rarely do we get to see American YA novels take place in Asia. In fact, we hardly even see Asian characters in general. It was great to see some Asian representation in this book, especially a desirable Asian male lead (which are few and far between).

I'll try to keep this review spoiler free (there won't be anything major spoiled, but if you're sensitive to all spoilers, I suggest you finish this review later). First off,  let me discuss one element that was particularly strong about this book: the setting, which I briefly mentioned above. The world in which this story takes place is extremely interesting and very well-developed.I see a lot of YA novels lacking worlds that simply make sense and are explained thoroughly! The Lunars (moon people) are incredibly interesting; I hope we get to explore the colony in future books. :)

The story held my attention from the start to the finish; although, the start was a little slower. I finished this book in one day, so you know that means I was real hooked. I kept wanting to know what would happen next, especially near the end, when sh*t got real. I ended up frantically flipping through the last chapters, desperate to know what happens.

On a less positive note, I had a major issue with this novel's characters. By the end of the book, I feel as though I really didn't get to know Cinder (or Kai, or Adri, or anyone, really). Yes, I see that she's brave, persevering, blah blah blah, but I didn't see much of her personality shine through (other than the occasional sarcastic comment); to me, she's like any other run-of-the-mill YA female lead that just doesn't really have a "flavor" to her. The same applies to the other characters, namely Kai. I also found her relationships with other characters to be underdeveloped. For example, we know that Cinder and Peony share a very tender, sister-like bond. My question is why? We never get to see why is it that Cinder and Peony are so close, yet Pearl seems to hate Cinder. What makes Peony and Cinder so close? Is it that Cinder cared for Peony since she was young? We don't know. This is simply lazy writing; I feel as though Peony's purpose in the novel is only to kick Cinder in to "hero" mode. And this is a pattern I see reoccurring throughout many YA novels. Side (and main alike) characters aren't written with depth; relationships aren't explored deeply. We just need our protagonist to lose someone so she has the purpose she needs to embark on her journey.

I hope we get to see Cinder and Kai's relationship develop a bit more; at this point, I really don't understand why Kai was attracted to Cinder. I understand that Cinder was starstruck by Kai, but I hope their relationship grows to be built on something stronger. It's another common trope in YA fiction; heartthrob dream boy falls for not-so-average, average girl. If you read a lot of YA, you probably know what I mean.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and am already starting on Scarlet. Thankfully, I can already tell that our new character, Scarlet, has a bit more "flavor" to her; although, I'm not to thrilled about the SAME TROPE that is used to push Scarlet on her hero's mission. Can we at least get to understand the depth Scarlet's relationship with grandma? Jeez. It's hard to care about saving a character we hardly know.

Alright, that's all for me today. You can definitely expect to see the rest of the Lunar Chronicles books reviewed on my blog in the near future!

xx
Melanie