Catarthic - Stargirl.

articles and essays I keep coming back to:

“joy” by zadie smith (about, well, joy)

“roaming the greenwood” by colm tóibín (ostensibly a book review of the history of gay literature but actually just very incisive thoughts on…the history of gay literature)

“the murder of leo tolstoy” by elif batuman (about exactly what it says in the title)

“the love that dare not squeak its name” by david rakoff (about, i swear to god, stuart little)

“a room of one’s own” by virginia woolf (I mean, you know)

the entire lingua franca archive but in particular “bio hazard” by fred kaplan (about writing a biography of gore vidal) and “the stand” by daniel mendelsohn (about the role of a philosopher (martha nussbaum love of my life) in a colorado gay rights case in the 90s)

“the professor of parody” by martha nussbaum (about judith butler)

even more concept playlists

you’re holed up in your bedroom doing schoolwork in february and praying that the drab, dreary grey that surrounds everything will melt into the warmth and fun of summer

you’re at a new years eve party in a grand hotel circa 1929, and as the excitement wanes and eyes grow glassy, you feel yourself slipping deeper and deeper into the uncanny valley

a playlist for when something in your chest begins to ache and tells you to get in your car, pull onto the nearest highway, and drive, drive, drive through the night until you reach whatever you’ve been too afraid to chase until now

you and your significant other are lying on the rooftop on a warm summer night, staring at the stars and hearing the city buzz below. they roll over and entwine their fingers with yours before kissing the back of your hand, and you don’t think you’ve ever felt such tenderness before

this is a soundtrack to a movie i’ll never make (well, maybe someday)

[concept playlists]    [more concept playlists]

This is it: this is your sign. You’re brand new, refreshed, empowered to change. Your calmer, softer times are coming. Your confidence, your happiness, your bliss, is arriving. Self acceptance is easier, and taking care of yourself is no longer a chore, but something you look forward to. You start to feel replenished - you’re *you* again - and the next chapter of your happier life begins now.

writing conclusions in papers is like the stupidest thing ever though like what’s the point of dedicating an entire paragraph to “so yeah i know you just read my paper but this is a summarization of what you read in case you need to be reminded about what you just read” like why can’t the paper just end 

Choose people who choose you.

Unknown (via onlinecounsellingcollege)

in class

me: *smiles*

teacher: why u smiling

me: nothing

me (in my mind):

Things My Math Teacher has Said and Done

-”Now I’ll take attendance in the order in which I don’t like you”

-Made us say ‘may I use the potty?’ in a British accent when we need to use the washroom 

-”Good morning, how’s my favourite class doing-they just left you would’ve passed them in the hallway”

-Had names for all of the variables: a is for apple pie, b is for brownie, c is for cookie, and D IS FOR DOUGHNUT

-”This is beautiful. Just like if you were in front of a mirror-with me standing in front of you”

-He spent like 10 minutes making sure we understood the difference between cannoli and cannelloni

- “You should join the geek protection squad, we would beat up kids like you”

-On the first day of class he drew an x in the corner of the whiteboard with a box around it and it???? somehow stayed there???? all year?????

-”you should all take French just in case you meet a pretty French lady on a plane like I did”

-We had this closet in the corner of the room, and then it just became a thing to talk about the body in the closet (especially when people not in the class would come in)

-Answered the phone in one of two ways “greetings human” or “Pizza Pizza”

-While we’re talking about phones if someone was being looked for he’d tell them that they were out in the smoking area handing out anti-smoking pamphlets

-”You guys are so loud! People would think you’re Italian or something”

-Once turned the lights on using ‘the force’, a.k.a a lightsaber he kept on his desk, and a student standing under the light switch

-”BIG LIKE HOUSE”

-He told us this story about how a few years ago if a kid was particularly annoying/disruptive he’d send them to a certain teacher to ask for a ‘long stand’ that teacher would take a loooong time looking for this item before sending the kid along to the next teacher (I think there were 4?) anyway, once the kid would get back and be like ‘there is no long stand’ he’d say ‘well weren’t you standing for a long time?’

-There was a girl who had a broken arm, who got moved out of the class when her schedule got rearranged. During attendance he’d call ‘broken arm girl’ first, and she would come into the room before we got there to write stuff like ‘broken arm girl was here’ on the board

-The day before christmas break we just talked about star wars the whole class

-called us all sunshine and when one girl asked why he called her stormy clouds for the rest of the year

-If someone came to borrow something, before he’d give it to them he’d ask if they would like to know where they could get one, and then the whole class would all be like ‘staples’ ‘best buy’ ‘dollar store’ etc