End of the Semester?

Apr. 15 2024

So...., long time no see?

Ok so maybe not that long in the grand scheme of things, but I've really been neglecting the T updates (I will theoretically be posting an 8 month update in a week or so, though), and any non-T related updates I said I would post have... not been. I'm notoriously bad at journaling consistently, though, so it makes sense that I'm also bad at updating this blog consistently. But, as finals seasons approaches, my brain comes up with all kinds of fun little tasks that I can do instead of studying :D, hence this update.

I guess the thing that prompted me to write a blog post was thinking about the end of the semester, the upcoming summer, and all of my thoughts surrounding that. But first: life update time.

First off: I turned 20! Nothing too interesting happened, the real important year is the next one, but as a leap year baby, the real birthdays are always more exciting. Less exciting was the apparently-becoming-a-tradition of allergic reactions on or around my birthday. Cashews on the last one, peanuts only 2 weeks later for this one -- I feel obligated to eat a pistachio for the next one, now. I avoided going to the hospital about it, which was nice, but it certainly put a damper on spring break. Despite that, though, spring break was still fun! I went to one of my friends' hometown, and we had lots of fun outdoors time, featuring:

garter snakes!

lake day!

and this funky little dude I named Salvador.

Post-spring break, other events of note include:

log innoculation day

fall out boy concert + hot mulligan (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

and hydroponic lettuce progress! I've finally successfully converted one of my friends to a hydroponics enjoyer, and this is our baby. We also have 2 basil seedlings, but they took longer to germinate and are just now really getting started. Provided they survive the trip home, I'll try to post updates on them over the summer.

Okay, now with the speedrun life update out of the way, I'll go into more detail about things that have been interesting me lately, and what I hope to do over the summer (both in terms of general life things, and goals for this site).

• Druidry: So over the past year, I've been doing research into paganism, withcraft, etc., and had sort of gotten into atheopaganism as both a tool for feeling more connected to the world in terms of the wheel of the year, nature, and as a source of ritual that I feel like I'm lacking. While I appreciated the resources out there for atheopagans, especially as someone who doesn't really vibe with any kind of specific deity worship because of my christian upbringing, it felt like it was lacking something -- like I appreciated what it was there for and what it was doing for people who want that kind of ritual like I do, but who aren't fully pagan in a religious sense, but it just didn't click for me. So, I did a small ritual for Mabon and one for Samhain and let any further research into it fall to the side in favor of getting back to school. But then I found druidry, and especially having just read Braiding Sweetgrass (maybe I should do a whole book review on that because holy shit dude), I really liked the idea of it, but all of the resources I was finding online were paid courses. Now, I don't have an issue with paid courses as a concept, but when all of the resources for a practice are behind a paywall, it makes getting started difficult, or at least for me disincentivizes it. But after eventually finding some free resources online, I've felt a really strong pull towards it, and I hope that being home over the summer with (theoretically) more free time will give me the opportunity to really explore that. I'll probably post more about my practice as it develops on my tumblr sideblog.
• Summer Classes: Despite it being a ~whole process~, I was able to get registered for summer classes as a community college for the summer. This did make it to where I wasn't able to get an internship, since the only ones near me were 40+ hour weeks, which wouldn't work with my class schedule, but I'm hoping that getting those electives out of the way will give me more flexibility with my schedule going forward and let me get more opporunities in the future. We'll see. I'm actually kind of excited for the summer, even if I am dreading being back in the south. It will be nice not having a summer filled with dread and hopelessness, like the last one. Plus I miss my sister. And lots of good concerts!
• Goals for this Site: I've been getting back into my writing again, which has been super cool. I was getting worried that I'd like. broken my brain after a several-month-long stint of having no desire to write, but after making part of the page on this site for HTWE, I got inspired to basically rewrite the whole thing. So, hopefully I can use this site as a bit of a worldbuilding tool with that. Additionally, I want to finally make my about page, as well as figure out a way to mirror my druidry sideblog on here.

Ok, now time for the more feelings-y section. While I am excited for some aspects of the summer, like spending time with my sister, going to concerts, summer classes, etc. I am definitely less excited for being at home because that means I'll have to ~interact with my dad's family~ !!1! I won't go into too may details, but being around them, especially knowing what I know about them as a result of the divorce, is just not enjoyable. I also hate how I'm, once again, going to be the only one not in the city. It hopefully won't be as bad since it's only for a few months, but it still feels shitty. I'm hoping that by spending a lot of time with my sister, going to concerts, etc., I can make the summer at least slightly less miserable than the last one.

As for music I've been listening to lately, I've been enjoying the (somewhat) new frat mouse album:

until next time o7