Samantha Tester Publisher Application Assignment

THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2019 Samantha Tester Publisher Assignment

The New Year Volume , Issue 20 March 2019

Inside this issue: January

2

February

2

Valentine’s Day

2

Spring Break

3

March

4

Birthdays

5

Looking Forward to the Rest of the Year

6

Special points of interest: • Celebrations • Time with friends • Overview of my 2019 so far

Growing up, my family very rarely celebrated the changing to a new year. However, this year, I asked a couple of my friends, Bianca and McKenna, if they wanted to do something to celebrate. The answer was yes, so all we had to do was figure out plans.

deal with potentially dangerous traffic since we knew many people would be driving under the influence. There, we popped open two bottles of sparkling cider (one cherry, one apple). We were just chatting, having fun, and listening to some music.

Bianca and I started the night at our friend Matt’s house, but we didn’t want to stay there since he had more people coming over that we didn’t know very well. Bianca and I went to go pick up our friend McKenna at her dorm so we could have our own small celebration.

Ten minutes before the clock hit midnight and we entered a new year, we all decided what song we should listen to as the years shifted. After collaborating, we decided on one of our favorite songs by The 1975.

We all decided that we would rather just stay in the dorm, though, so we didn’t have to

We all did the ten-second countdown into 2019 since we didn’t have a TV to watch the ball drop. We were all exhausted and immediately started getting ready for bed.

Me right before the New Year countdown with my glass of sparkling cider. Photo taken by Bianca Pizorno.

We all had planned to sleep in the dorm to, again, avoid dangerous traffic.

Page 2

The First Quarter of 2019

January Not very much happened in January. My mom and sister, Lauren, started drinking celery juice. That involved many trips to the grocery store to buy countless bunches of celery. I tried a sip of my mom’s juice and hated it, so I did not join them on their juicing journey.

Oliver and Ian Tester in their neighborhood

Soon, winter break was over and it was time to go bac to ASU. I was having a hard time in one of my classes, which really made a week or two of

January really difficult for me. I do not handle change very well and it was hard for me to adjust to everything. Luckily, I have amazing people around me that helped me get through the tough times. On January 10th, my nephew, Oliver, had his 4th birthday. He lives in Pennsylvania with my brother, who is stationed there, so I wasn’t able to spend any time with him. However, I did make sure to tell my sister-in-law to tell him

“happy birthday” from me. In January, I also worked on my Smash Bros. Ultimate skills, but I’m still not very good. Ariana Grande also announced the names of the songs on her album that would be released on February 8th, which got me very excited for the next month.

February “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” -Mr. Darcy (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)

February was a hectic month. It started with two birthdays of two people that are especially important to me, but more about that in the “Birthdays” section on the next page. When Ariana Grande’s album thank u, next was released, I listened to all of it multiple times and quickly learned all the songs and loved all of them.

On February 11, my friends who live in California came to Arizona and I got to hang out with them. I missed them a lot since I’ve known one of them since we were young and in Girl Scouts together. I have also become close friends with her girlfriend, too. The three of us, along with Bianca and Luke, dyed Bianca’s hair and watched Crazy Rich Asians.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early since I had to do homework.

thing special.

me, so this year was no different. I was happy to spend some time with my dad, my friends, and talk to Marilyn some.

Later in February, my boyfriend, Zach, and I made Scottish shortbread cookies at my mom’s house together. After we made cookies, we watched the movie Evita since I was going to see the play in a few days.

Valentine’s Day

Scottish shortbread cookies that read “LOVE U”

I didn’t do anything very special on Valentine’s Day. My dad came to my dorm to give me a box of chocolate and some things he bought for me in Tucson at an antique market. My boyfriend and I had dinner with some of our friends that night, but didn’t do any-

Valentine’s Day is also my sister, Marilyn’s, birthday. She lives in Houston with her dad, but I texted her happy birthday and sent her some birthday gifts that she said she liked. Valentine’s Day has never been a big celebration day for

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 3

Spring Break Spring break started with my mom taking me to The Orpheum Theater in Downtown Phoenix to watch EVITA, which is one of my favorite musicals. Over break, I stayed at my mom’s house, so I got to spend some time with her, Lauren, and two dogs (my dog and Lauren’s dog). I was mostly excited to have my car and be able to drive around and do spend time outside the house, though.

My boyfriend and I spent time almost every day together, too. He wants me to watch every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) by the time Avengers: Endgame comes out on April 26, so we spent a lot of time watching those movies.

My brother, Zach, also announced to us that he proposed to his girlfriend, Danielle, and that they were now engaged. I am happy for him and I hope I can see him

soon, since he lives in Ohio. The break ended with my boyfriend and I going to see Captain Marvel at the movie theater with his two sisters and their dates. This was a lot of fun and we spent more time together afterwards at his house, watching TV and taking a nap because we got up early that day.

Zach Tester and his new fiancé Danielle Hibbs

March (so far) March has not been very eventful other than spring break. I’ve spent most of my time doing homework, in class, and spending time with Zach. At this point in time, we have finished all of the movies in Phase 1 and 2 of the MCU, but he doesn’t own any of the movies in Phase 3, so there will likely be a break of movies for now.

This month, I have been sending a lot of time playing The Sims Mobile game. However, this is still in moderation since I have a lot of schoolwork to do. School is going well so far this month and I hope it stays that way for the rest of the semester. I am getting stressed about the amount of work I have to do, which makes me increas-

ingly less motivated to do the work. This is a vicious cycle, but I am trying to complete all my work and be proud of the outcome. I am also trying to be more motivated to go to my classes.

“A good life is a collection of happy moments.” -Denis Waitley

March 2019 has been good in terms of my social and family life, but there have been some challenges in the school realm.

Birthdays There have been many birthdays so far this year. Both of my sisters have had their birthdays already. I didn’t celebrate Marilyn’s since she lives in Houston. Lauren, who turned 23 on March 6, celebrated with me, my mom, and my mom’s boyfriend. We had dinner at a restaurant

called Fellow. The first full week of February held 2 birthdays. On the 4th was my boyfriend’s birthday, but we didn’t do anything special to celebrate. On the 6th was Bianca’s birthday. To celebrate that, we went to Postino with two of our other friends.

Oliver’s birthday was on January 10, as mentioned in earlier in the “January” section. I didn’t celebrate this, but I was happy to get pictures of him from my sister-in-law. There are many birthdays coming up soon, too!

Bianca and me at the beach last summer. Her birthday was February 6.

Looking Forward to the Rest of the Year The first three months have, so far, been pretty good. I’ve been able to hang out with my friends and family and have had many new experiences already. Although I’ve had a cold three times this year already, I’m looking forward to what 2019 holds. In a month, Bianca will have to go back to Idaho since she attends BYU Idaho, but I hope the time she’s gone will fly by. However, I am looking forward to summer break and being able to relax and spend more time with my friends. It’s also possible that I will visit my brothers in the East over summer with my dad or

do some other travelling outside Arizona with my friends or my mom. Other than summer break, I am excited for next semester because the classes I will be taking sound interesting and I hope I enjoy them. There are, of course, many more birthdays and other celebrations to look forward to as well: my 19th birthday, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Independence Day, and Christmas, to name a few. Although 2019 will have its ups and downs, I am looking forward to what exactly the year has in store for me. Based

on what has happened so far in the first quarter of the year, I hope there will be many good times and minimal amounts of stress and anxiety.

Even though Bianca is leaving soon, I hope the time she is gone will go quickly. I look forward to the time I have with her this year.