my year in lists: transition seasons (ft. YOU GUYS!!)
third quarter featuring a look into the life of a high school junior, all your favorite recommendations, apathy vs hope, and YOUR stories in the love column!!
For lack of a better word, this quarter has been quite a doozy. July was filled with finishing up my summer courses and hangouts with friends within the little bit of Summer hat hadn’t been taken up by school. August was… somehow even more, juggling new courses has been a dizzying, but intensely important part in growth.
August also sparked my previous (and maybe extreme) political interest. Becoming the primary politics writer for my school's newspaper has made me more alert than ever. It was scary finding myself thinking about immigration in my free time, enlightening, but still so scary.
And September… The thought alone just makes me want to clear my camera roll. Full of an unbelievable amount of club affairs, surprises, and maybe some a couple selfies on my friend’s unattended phones…
This intro has made me realize I don’t talk about my personal life (broadly, at least) nearly as much as I thought I did. But anyway! Onto what I’m sure you’re actually here for, all the recommendations compiled over this past month :)
READING RECOMMENDATIONS
The White Album, Joan Didion
In total honesty, I just bought this book earlier this month and I still haven’t gotten around to completing it, but what I have read so far has been wow-ing me. A collection of essays throughout Didion’s 60s career, The White Album rings like a series of memoirs made so poignant I can’t help but take note for my own writing. But maybe that’s because I want to be described like the Field Medic song silver girl “Girl, your command of language has got me sprung / You express yourself just like Joan Didion”
“I was not going to Honolulu because I wanted to see life reduced to a short story. I was going to Honolulu because I wanted to see life expanded to a novel, and I still do.”
“Forgive me, I’m a Racist Reformed!”, Asisa Kadiri
I love Asisa’s work so much I genuinely can’t help but mention it even in school assignments. Over the summer, I did an editorial on her essay about the internet’s reaction to Brooke Schofield’s racist tweets resurfacing. In the hope to bring awareness to the differences in treatment of white people with platforms compared to marginalized communities hurt by their ignorance, Asisa uses piercing and unforgiving language, similar to that of how she wishes her audience to discuss Schofield and her apology. So, so brilliant.
Scold, accept, forgive has become the routine for the white middle class, female demographic, and so has also become the expectation for black people and POC too.
Terry Nguyen is exactly my kind of writer and I absolutely adore it. In this piece, she examines the cultural backing behind this genre the publishing industry has found itself pushing: romance + fantasy, or, as Nguyen puts it, romantasy.
I have no interest in reading romantasy, but I am interested in its literary and cultural implications. I pride myself on reading “good” literature, but I do occasionally wonder: Does it do readers and writers any good when we speak loftily of litfic as its own superior, stratified genre, separate from the rest of the publishing marketplace? This, of course, is never made explicit, but it’s nevertheless implied in how the industry and critics talk about, assess, and market these books.
DNC week proves there’s more than one way to stand up for Gaza, Caitlin Donohue
Okay… this is actual spoilers for a project I’ll reveal later this week, but! 48 Hills has been a longtime favorite of mine for how I get my news. In particular, I’ve been very conscious of how Palestine and pro-Palestine liberators are portrayed, Caitlin Donohue did an amazing job at the DNC accurately showing not only the broad events, but the specifics within the uncommitted delegates seen at the DNC.
“The same mechanisms of oppression, the same people who were colonizing and occupying Ireland just moved to Palestine once part of Ireland became free,”
https://48hills.org/2024/08/dnc-week-proves-theres-more-than-one-way-to-stand-up-for-gaza/
LOVE COLUMN: YOUR TURN
Three months ago, I promised to take in reader submissions for the advice column. Did that post flop? Yes, absolutely. Did I manage to only promote this on the internet maybe three times… perhaps. But, I stick to my word!
This submission comes from lily:
I feel so lonely at times wanting a boyfriend and all but then a few moments later it’s as if the idea of having one is tiring and it somewhat makes me want to puke. I think I want friends that I can do stuff with and maybe a boy that isn’t just trying to sleep with me. I want to know how would this be possible? Should I just build up a roster, the only thing about that is I don’t want to go on dating apps and it seems like that’s where everyone’s at these days.
Well Lily, it’s certainly a confusing situation you’ve found yourself in internally–but one I’ve experienced nonetheless. Rayne Fisher-Quann once asked “I wonder what romantic love would feel like if I'd never seen a romantic comedy.” It seems our generation’s perception of love has been built up so much not only by the grandiose nature of Hollywood, but the internet’s pressure to always be romantically involved in some facet–whether that be positive or negative. It’s a hard thing to say kindly, or I suppose not so straightforwardly, but focusing on yourself and your priorities is always a good start.
As a minor roster monster at one point, I would advise against it. However, if you keep your intentions clear with your romantic pursuits, there’s no harm in at least trying. If dating apps are a way that seems fitting, then so be it! My sister happens to be in a 5 year long relationship with a guy she met on Tinder, house and dog and everything.
But, to circle back and answer your question on how this is all possible… Well, you’re human! And honestly, things these days are so complicated, and often come with exceptions or extra burdens. Love is a double-sided coin, be sure you’re prepared for all outcomes. Don’t spin until you are.
(GENERAL) LOVE COLUMN: YOUR DREAM AWAITS
I’ve become so apathetic towards love sometimes I wonder if I’m aromantic.
Before, I would be free to yearn my heart away. So much so that my friends dubbed me constantly “enamoured” and my voicemail at one point saying “I’m either enamoured or asleep, either way, leave a message!” Perhaps it’s because I grew up with too much Victorian literature, but every endeavor was: Does he like me, does he not? How do I make him like me?
Now? If it’s not evidently clear or a high (high) chance of interest, it’s essentially over. Maybe that one guy1 fucked me over than I would like. It’s become less about what the other party thinks and more about whether or not I am actually attracted to them.
Or perhaps it’s just an evolution of my intense intellectualization of emotions. Constantly rationalizing why I don’t like this person, why I shouldn’t, the myriad of other things I have to focus on instead.
Afterall, it’s not you, it’s me.
You wouldn’t have to vie for your soulmate’s attention or attraction. Change in pursuit of finding your real self, all that is good will follow.
WATCHING RECOMMENDATIONS
You Are Wrong About Immigration…, Hasanabi
No, I don’t only watch Hasan Piker for his face, though it is especially helpful as an attention grabber. All jokes :) But anyway, in this video (which I mentioned in my last post), Piker did an amazing job breaking down a viewer’s beliefs about immigration and examining where each of their points stemmed from—Check it out below!
Cheaper By The Dozen (2003)
Two words. Tom. Welling.
Harris and Trump Rallies Cold Open, SNL
I had this skit on in the background as I baked cookies (at 2am, which I’m afraid has been quite the late night routine, cookies and politics) and as I walked away I genuinely thought Maya Rudolph was actually Kamala Harris–her tone of voice is perfect and encapsulating.
LISTENING RECOMMENDATIONS
Allez Les Blues, Los Campesinos
Still not at all over their concert…
Tidal Wave, Tom Misch, Yussef Dayes
A recent discovery (special thanks to my AP Lang teacher), but beloved nonetheless. This entire album is incredible, not only lyrically but sonically.
BEST song on brat, don’t bother fighting me. Also remixes don’t count in this because guess ft. Billie Eillish would clear.
And that was this month!! It’s been a great time and I’m so excited for what I have planned next! We have some cool articles coming up along with a few surprises ;)
If you liked this, be sure to subscribe, as it’s the best way to support me and my work. And also share with your local brat and romantasy lover :)
EDIT OCT 5 2024: Can’t believe I forgot to link my quarter’s playlist!! Here you are guys :)
Yes to “Love is double- sided coin”, also the advice column is a good idea!