4/17/23
Florida is truly a majestic place and has been for many years and will be for many more. No storms or natural disasters will ever end the imposing beauty that’s found within the swampy and tropical state. I don’t know what makes Florida so brilliant. Maybe it’s the way the pink rays of sunlight paint the palm trees when the sun sets, how the Spanish moss sways so effortlessly from the giant oaks, or how the teal waves crash against the soft, white shores of the Gulf.
The air down in Florida is heavy and tastes like salt and sunscreen. The heat is almost unbearable—but only if it was in some other place. In Florida, though, there is something so relieving about the hot sun. As if in its warmth and humidity, one can finally take a deep breath and just relax. Even I can feel myself loosen a little every time I cross over the borderline into Florida.
Every year my family and I go on a trip to Florida. After ten years, it’s become almost like another home to me.
I’m writing this on an island in Florida. I’m sitting on a screened-in porch overlooking the Gasparilla Sound with the Gulf behind me. I just looked up and saw a brown pelican flying over the mangroves. There’s a soft breeze blowing through the palm trees and wide pancake-shaped Seagrape leaves surrounding the cottage.
Some of the houses here have been damaged by Hurricane Ian, along with a lot of the vegetation. The saddest to me are the mangroves. They lost most of their foliage, leaving them naked and misshapen. It almost looks like the whole island was blown with a huge leaf blower.
Being in Florida again reminded me of just how much I love it here. It’s one of my happy places—the kind of place that no matter how many times I visit, I never get tired of. The people in Florida are just great, too. Almost every person I meet here is friendly. Besides the occasional Florida Man or Florida Woman lurking about. There are a few crazies down in Florida, as I’m sure some of you have seen their headlines in the news. “Florida Man Attacked During Selfie With Squirrel” and “Florida Man Charged With Assault With a Deadly Weapon After Throwing Alligator Through Wendy’s Drive-Thru Window” and “Florida Man Steals BMW After He’s Told He Can’t Buy It With Food Stamps”. These are just some headlines I pulled from an article on Florida Man’s headlines, but if you’re ever bored, just look up what Florida Man has recently done. It’s pretty entertaining, all thanks to the Sunshine Law. Fortunately, I have not run into Florida Man on my trip this year, so I haven’t had the chance of getting an alligator thrown at me, and quite frankly, I hope I won’t ever.
You’re probably wondering why I’m on my laptop when I’m on a tropical island, and honestly, I’ve asked myself the same question every time I sit down to write. Writing is like therapy for me. It’s stress-relieving to pour words onto an empty page. And even though I’m trying to make a career in writing, I still love to write for enjoyment, which is why I’m writing this piece you’re reading, and not working on my new book (but I’ll probably do that later, too). I keep finding myself wanting to open up my laptop or grab my notebook, and then not doing so because I feel like I shouldn’t because I should be on vacation not thinking or working. But alas, I caved and grabbed my laptop and found a seat on the porch, and just started freewriting, which is a style of writing that excuses the writer from worrying about grammar or the flow of it all. It’s basically when the writer just pours their thoughts onto the page and doesn’t stop until their train of thought comes to an end.
Now of course, by the time you read this, I’ll have already edited and polished it up to save you from my tangled mess of words—but I’m going to try to keep this entry as raw as I can (I’m a bit of a grammar freak when it comes to my own work).
Freewriting is something I feel like I should start doing more. I rarely allow myself to just sit and write whatever comes to mind and not stop and read every sentence I complete. But I think if I start freewriting once or twice a month, it might be good for me. I find that working on my book every day starts to wear on my creativity, leaving me feeling like a typist putting a story onto paper rather than a creator translating their ideas into words.
I’m going to try to freewrite more often. So far, it’s very therapeutic—but it might be because I’m on vacation not having to worry about doing anything else except to just be on vacation, but we’ll see.
I hope none of you think I was being arrogant in the beginning of this. I go on many adventures, and traveling is my favorite thing to do, outside of anything that involves books, that is. But I always feel guilty writing about my journeys because I’m worried someone reading this may think I’m bragging, while I’m really just writing what I personally see and experience around me. I was homeschooled, and traveling is one of my family’s ‘extra-curriculars’, so I’ve been just about everywhere in America, minus two states. I will always travel, just like I will always write. If this kind of topic interests you all, let me know. I’d love to share my personal entries of my adventures. <3
There are stories and poetry engraved into our beautiful planet. Often at times, we distract ourselves from seeing them, and over time, slowly convince ourselves we can’t see them for one reason or another. Our most common reasons include being ‘too busy with work/school’ and the smartphone. But this is your life, and essentially everything you do is by your choice. Sure, we all have responsibilities and chores, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop and be present every once in a while. Mother Nature holds some of the greatest masterpieces for us to see if we’d only just pause for a second and look. You don’t have to go to the Grand Canon to see what I’m talking about. There’s beauty everywhere around us. The clouds, the sound of the wind blowing through leaves, the feeling of rain hitting your skin, the unique design in a tree’s bark, a flower’s petal, a seashell, a ripple in still water—everything in nature is a poem, a piece of art. We just have to take a deep breath and look.
Until next time,
Kaitlynn Flint
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