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My Summer

By Ava Nguyen

Most people spend summer relaxing by the pool or playing video games on the couch, but not me. I spent my summer spelunking, tap dancing, and listening to New Kids On The Block (ask your mom). This summer went by crazy fast, but it started out very slowly.

I started summer with pneumonia. Trust me, it’s the worst way I can think of to start summer. It took me three weeks to recover, but it felt like three months. Even with pneumonia, I still had fun. On my second week of recovering, I hopped on a plane with my family, and flew to Las Vegas. (I didn’t get to gamble at all!)

The best part of pneumonia was that I (My family and I in front of the Bellagio Fountain) was in a wheelchair which meant I didn’t have to walk anywhere and my family and I got to the front of the security line at the airport. While we were in Vegas, my mom went to a New Kids On The Block (or NKOTB) concert and even after four decades, they're still hangin’ tough.

Once I came back to Portland, I volunteered as a counselor at three different camps. One of the camps was Girl Scout camp, which I did with one of my best friends, Riana. Riana and her sister, Ririka, live in Japan and come to the US about every two years to go to camp with us. After Girl Scout camp, we did a lot of touristy things around the Portland area. We went to OMSI, (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) hiked the lava (Riana, me, Ruby, and Ririka at the airport) tubes at Mount Saint Helens, swam at a waterpark and went to the Enchanted Forest.

Another thing I do a lot in the summer is party! I have a really big family, which means a lot of birthday parties. Over the summer, Ruby, my dad, and three of my cousins had birthdays. I really love going to a big party where my whole family’s there and I can play with my cousins. My oldest cousin is twenty-five and my youngest cousin is two. A fun game my family likes to play at parties is our custom version of Guess Who. We replaced the cards of cartoon people with pictures of family members. It's really fun! This summer went by very fast. From hiking to birthday parties, I had so much fun with my friends and family. Summertime really has the right stuff.

After Riana and Rirkia went back to Japan, my sister and I took a tap dancing class to prepare for an audition. During the first week of school, I auditioned for Imagine Theatre’s production of Newsies. Newsies is about the New York paperboy strike of 1899. I’ll be playing a nun and a Brookland Newsie, along with some other small roles. My sister, Ruby, will be playing Les. Newsies will be my third show with Imagine Theatre. (Previous shows include Annie and Finding Nemo Jr.)

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