Anika's Non-Fiction Blog

In response to: Do you ever eavesdrop? I'm about 15 words over, let me know if there's anything I can cut. My parents love to tell the story of a time we were all in the car on a road trip and I was eavesdropping on their conversation. They were both sitting in the front seat having a quiet conversation. I was sitting in the back and I was probably pretty bored because no one was talking to me. So I had nothing better to do than listen to their conversation. I don’t think I was being very discreet when I was listening and I think I may have even asked them what they were talking about or made some comment about something they were saying. My dad, slightly annoyed that I wasn’t doing something to amuse myself in the back seat, asked me, “Are you eavesdropping?”. My three year old self replied, “Yes my ears are dropping.” I didn't even know what the word eavesdropping meant so I just assumed that my dad had asked if my ears were dropping. Even at a young age when I d...

I’m about 40 words under the word limit so if you have any ideas of places I could elaborate let me know. “Did you practice this week?” my violin teacher asked. I quickly racked my brain for an answer. The truth was I hadn’t picked up my violin once that week. With mountains of homework, Cross Country practice until 6:15, and other extracurricular activities, violin practice had gone to the backburner. But how was I supposed to tell my violin teacher that violin practice was at the bottom of my priority list? So instead I replied, “Yeah I had a pretty busy week but I still had some time to practice.” After that the lesson pretty much went downhill as I stumbled through scales and the piece I was working on. I forgot to take into account notes my teacher had written down from the last lesson and I kept messing up. It was pretty obvious that I hadn’t practiced. Yet somehow telling a lie to my teacher even though he would still be able to tell I hadn’t practiced was better than j...

I'm about 15 words over the limit so let me know if you have any suggestions on parts I could take out.       The reason I started running was because of my family. Both my mom and my dad run. When I was little I watched them run half marathons and other races. I always loved going to their races because the atmosphere was so exciting. I loved the nervous tension and the excited chatter as the racers got ready to run. I especially loved cheering my parents on when they ran because they would always wave to me. So, when my dad asked me if I wanted to run the 1k at Illinois Marathon, I was pumped that I was finally going to be able to race just like my parents and follow in their footsteps.             I didn’t really train much for my first race—I think I ran a lap around Hessel Park once or twice, but I still had a blast on race day. I ran a very slow 1k and I didn’t really understand the concept of push...

In response to: Have you ever felt embarrassed about the things you used to like? I used to spend hours on my bedroom floor with my best friend Ella playing with American girl dolls. I was obsessed. Ella and I would spend part of the morning setting up our dolls’ houses–half of my bedroom floor for Ella’s dolls and half for mine. We would set up beds, clothes, and other parts of our houses. Then we would sit on the floor the rest of the day with our American Girl dolls playing all sorts of elaborate made-up games with them. We would pretend that they could talk and make them go on adventures such as a trip to the local bakery. If we were not playing games with our American Girl dolls, we often spent our time looking through the American Girl doll catalogs and planning what outfit or accessory we would get next when we had saved up enough money or what we were going to ask our parents to get us. Every time a new catalog came in the mail, it made my day. I was always so excited ...