serena's thoughts

       Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and has always been. I always like to have a fun costume, even though I usually do it last minute. Last year I was Dani from Midsommar and the year before I was El from Stranger Things. Before that, I was David Bowie for 2 years. Doing things so last minute that I needed to resort to painting the infamous blue and red lightning onto my face. So this year I wanted to do something fun and be Carrie White for Halloween. I dressed up as the iconic scene from the climax of the film. Where Carrie wins prom queen, only to be doused in pigs' blood by her peers. This was by far the messiest Halloween costume I've ever had, leaving me to clean up my leftover blood the next day, which actually was Halloween.      In order to wear this costume, I had to buy a dress from Amazon. Because believe it or not I still did everything last minute. Even though I told myself I wasn't going to be doing that. So I ventured to Spi...

           With October in full swing, there is one thing most people are watching, and that’s horror movies. Whether it be the classics like Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), and Carrie (1976). Or the more recent horror movies like Midsommar (2019), Us (2017), and Halloween ( 2018). Looking at these films you might not realize their similarities, because at the surface there aren’t many. Yet there is one thing, one aspect that connects not only all these horror movies but most of them. And that is their use of women. This is a constant theme within the horror genre. Whether it be through the largely popular “ Final Girl “ trope. A term used for the final person alive after our villain’s reign of terror, which is almost always a young girl. This is often confused with the “ female survivor “ trope which recognizes the female survivors who aren’t quite final girls. Some examples of this would be Dani from Midsommar or Adelaide and Zora from Us. ...

      Throughout the last year, I have been a frequent user of the social media site 'GoodReads'. This app allows you to log any books you have read. You're also able to write reviews and pick a goal for a reading challenge. I used to read a lot during the summer, so much so that I met my yearly reading goal in only 5 months. But as the summer ended and school began, I suddenly realized that it was September and I haven't read a new book. The last group I finished was 'Final Girls ' by Riley Sager and I finished it at the beginning of September. And while looking at my to-be-read list I see what awaits me. Hopefully, this will get me excited to read.       First, we have ' Milk Fed'  by Melissa Broder, a new book on the list and a book I have only heard good things about. It follows our main character who was raised to avidly count every calorie she intakes. Our main character's world is shaken up when she meets a worker at a frozen yogurt shop, w...

     I don't think I've ever talked about my major on the blog. I am a communication major, with a concentration in journalism. I have always enjoyed writing and storytelling but it wasn't until late 2020 that I actually found an interest in journalism. It was the weeks leading up to the 2020 election that really drove home my interest in journalism. November 2020 was a time where you can turn on any news outlet and get almost entirely different opinions and from each one. I found that so interesting and believed that this is a way to use my writing skills and make a career out of it.     In my Freshman Experience class, we were given the assignment to interview someone working in your major. This was a part of the  assignment that I put aside for a long time. The reason I put this aside for so long was that I was so nervous to interview and meet a new person. Throughout the weekend I almost dreaded it because I was just so nervous. Yet nonetheless, I ...