Basic Nerd

𝟤𝓃𝒹  𝑜 𝒻   𝐹 𝑒 𝒷 𝓇 𝓊 𝒶 𝓇 𝓎  🍰 ✨

Spent my day writing my research plan and it is going so well!! Research Merhodology was one of my favorite classes in the first sem ! <3 And now I am getting ready to have my first Bubble Tea w my good friend, Panna 💫

Also! Big thanks for @lamicall_official  / @lamicall for sending this cool phone stand!!! I always use it when I charge my phone or when Forest is on^^ And special thanks for my friend from the common study room for letting me borrow her phone for this pic 💕

𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝒶𝓋𝑜𝓇𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓊𝓃𝒾 🍑 

In this post, I list 7 of my all-time favorite apps / chrome extensions that I use daily.  I hope I can help out some fellow uni students who are struggling.  This might help make studying less painful and a tiny tiny bit more enjoyable. 

love, edith 🌾

a spread inspired by hakumei and mikochi. 🌿

Finally, the end of the Fall 2019 semester! I am so thrilled but still anxious about receiving my grades. I get asked a lot of questions, and one of the repeating questions I get is “what are the pro and cons of being a speech-language pathology or communication science and disorder major student” Here are some of my thoughts: (I did one for each but elaborated on them haha)

My suggestions can work with any major and if you are in high school. I just wanted to express my experience of a uni student for any new comers. 

CON Your peers:  Almost everybody that was in my classes had negative perspectives on the course and the professor. The people you surround yourself with will be an essential factor for what grade you will receive in the class. In my experience, I find that there are people who always have negative insights after exams and lectures. I feel like if you surround yourself in that group, then you will not be the best you can because you have all their negative energy on you. You will then be brainwashed (haha) and manipulated by their own perspectives that you will not be able to focus on yours. It is really hard trying to find people with a growth mindset in the major.  

some words ripen with age, but some also lose their color. 🍃

28.8.17 10:06 PM // some photos from a bullet journal shoot I did a couple days ago. Clockwise from top left: 1. timetable spread inspired by Amanda Rach Lee, + test tracker which helps me track my progress on studying and doing tests. 2. expenses log + bullet journal spread for last week, inspired by @j-christabel 3. essentials for bullet journalling last week. not a lot, but enough. p.s. that’s actually a warm yellow mildliner (idk looks orange??)

Give, as much as you can. Give time, if you have it; money, if you can spare it. Soup kitchens, spare change, a kind ear on public transport. For some people, every working day is an example of charity, of doing the right thing in spite of how difficult it can be. The time I’ve spent working in the NHS fills me with awe. The culture of decency and self sacrifice and kindness is one that makes me a better person every day and I know the same can be said for those in teaching, social work, legal work, and all the other areas of public service that are currently under pressure. Lots of people get up every morning and do jobs that are much harder, more time consuming, and less compensated than they would be in the private sector - and they do it with joy, with determination and grit and ferocity - because they love their work, and they love the people in their communities, and they want to be given the opportunity to fight for them. Believe in that spirit of decency - carry it around with you, bring it home with you, take it to work with you. Know that there are still people out there who are fighting for you, every day, and they won’t give up.

Learn about the systems that keep our poorest communities entrenched in powerlessness and poverty. Learn about how the chronic effects of poverty literally kills people, how it can reduce life expectancy by up to a quarter, even if you escape poverty later in life. Learn about communities in poverty, and try to understand why a person who has grown up in a chaotic household with no resources, without emotional or logistical support, might - when asked to study for the exams that they are required to take when they’re still fully reliant on adults in their lives - not achieve the results required to go to college or university - or even if they did, might not have the financial means to do so. Understand that a person without a degree in an area of the UK that has mass unemployment, is statistically deeply unlikely to be able to get hold of a well paying, rewarding job. Get angry about all of it.

Learn to think critically, and examine cognitive biases. Push back against racism and discrimination, think carefully about any line of logic that would have you reason in broad generalisations against groups of powerless people. Make an effort not to be cruel, even when it’s easy. Learn about the manifestos of the political parties available to you, and think about what that could mean for groups of people unlike yourself. Support electoral reform, support green deals, support the political party of your choice - and then go out and educate. Don’t accept ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion’ or ‘it’s just what I believe’. Question people, doggedly: no one is in possession of the inalienable right to cause other people harm, whether directly or indirectly. No one gets to vote for evil and ignore the consequences of their actions - hold them to account.

Fight. March in the streets. Argue on twitter. Make family dinners uncomfortable. Do not turn a blind eye to cruelty or discrimination or ignorance. Challenge people and don’t stop until they’re forced to retreat or surrender. Now is not the time for ‘unity’ - not with racists or those who would commit social violence on the poor, disabled, and powerless. Now isn’t the time for being polite, now is the time to remember that being a member of society means having a duty of care to others in that society. Now is the time to make some noise.

And if you’re one of those who the Tories would target, above all else: survive. Use whatever means at your disposal. Scrape and kick and fight. You deserve your place in the world. You deserve housing, and healthcare, and basic human rights. You deserve compassion and a life free of cruelty or systemic violence. You deserve opportunities, and education, and the means to realise your full potential. You do not deserve to be crushed beneath the cogs of austerity or discrimination. You do not deserve to burn to death in cheap council housing, or be deported while seeking refuge, or have your means of income slashed or obliterated. Ask for help, if you think it’s safe - there are still so many decent people left in the world. Stick together. Don’t give up.

Wash your hair. Don’t worry about all those articles online about the best haircare products of 2019 and whatnot, get in, wash it like you usually do, get out. Leave it to air dry, it’s less work for you.

Brush your teeth. Even if you brushed them this morning and are probably going to brush it tonight, do it anyway. Especially if it’s exam time, all that tea or coffee you’re most likely downing (props to you if you only study with water) probably makes them feel kind of gross.

I know most of these lists tell you to run a bath, but let’s face it, for those of you who even have a bath in the first place, the thought of filling that tub and sitting there in complete silence for a couple hours seems like a trek. And ironically exhausting. So instead, just brush your hair, take a nap (set a nice soothing alarm) and once you’ve gotten out of bed, wash your face or at least splash cold water on your face.

CLEAN clean clean clean CLEAN. Easier said than done, but at least start by clearing one messy component of your area; it could be your floor, your desk or your bed. You don’t need to clean and re-organise your entire room marie condo-style for you to actually have a reason to take the time to clean in the first place. A little goes a long way, and you don’t ALWAYS need to do the hard yards ya know.

I would say read a book, but sometimes your brain is melting or buzzing so it can’t really focus on anything lengthy. So instead, find someone reciting a poem online, and just listen to it. I recommend Jeremy Irons and his voicing of tons of T.S Eliot poetry, or Allen Ginsberg reciting his own poetry (Howl is a classic).

If you’re one of those people who drowns their sorrows by listening to music, don’t listen to music!! Don’t reinforce your pain!! So to that I say, listen to a podcast. If the classic podcast genre of true crime is a little too stressful and you’ve already cried twice today, listen to interviews with actors, screenwriters and directors. It can be really refreshing to listen to people you already enjoy the content of talk about their work. I recommend Awards Chatter and Happy Sad Confused.

Stop staring at screens! Just physically sit outside for a bit, you don’t need to go for a jog or do a general workout, just…sit. People-watch, try and memorise the exact scene in front of you, from the mis-en-scene to all the colours and sounds and the way the sunlight feels on your eyelashes. Write it down if you want to, you could even denote a single notebook to your little outdoor descriptions. Or just write on a napkin. To each their own.

Have you eaten today? And I mean something hearty, something that isn’t primarily made out of air and salt. Something that falls under the umbrella of snack does not count; meal is more like it. If not, eat. Preparing food might feel exhausting, but so’s going a relatively long amount of time without something nutritionally substantial.