SH

because not everyone lives near a national museum

get a penpal to write letters to and enclose personalised gifts

take advantage of local libraries

thrift old porcelain teacups, wine glasses, engraved silverware

make paper - technically not dark academia but writing cute love letters onto handmade paper and doodling hearts on it is god tier

start a book club with friends and pick a book/short story to read and discuss together

take your time going through the book section at thrift stores to find old, worn copies of classics

find a park and journal at sunset until the light fades

use postcards of your favorite paintings as bookmarks

speaking of bookmarks, use scrap paper to write out lyrics, poems, quotes from authors, words in other languages, and turn them into bookmarks or scrapbook pages

if you drink coffee, make your own cold brew or flavored coffee and drink it from the fanciest glass you own

if you’re a tea drinker, you could thrift a cheap but cute vintage looking teacup and saucer along with a little spoon to keep you company while you study

replace some phone time with a book, e.g. on public transport, waiting rooms, before bed

go to a cafe with a book and spend some alone time reading and annotating

go for a walk and pick flowers and leaves to take home and press between a book

take said pressed flowers and glue them onto a handmade birthday card or wall decoration, complete with a quote

if you have long hair, tie a ribbon around your wrist along with your hair tie and let the ends dangle down

if you’re at a campus or park that has a grassy area, take your notes and study there on a warm day

- Communication doesn’t work on bullies. Telling a bully they’re making you feel bad is the wrong way to go. They want to make you feel bad. That’s the point.

- being kind to a bully doesn’t always mean they’ll stop. Sometimes it means they’ll just use your kindness to manipulate you while still continuing to bully you.

- not every bully has a sympathetically tragic home life. Sometimes people are just mean. Sometimes people just get off on hurting others.

- on that note, a tough home life is a reason, not an excuse. You don’t have to put up with bullying because somebody’s life sucks, just like you don’t have to let someone mug you because they’re broke.

- in order to forgive someone, they have to apologize first. If your bully has not apologized to you, you do not owe them anything.

- getting bullied as a kid can still mess you up in adult life. Maybe kids grow out of being bullies, but the marks they left often don’t go away.

- there are ways to get people to stop bullying you, but they almost all involve being mean back.

- getting bullied as a kid can even mess you up as a teen

- ignoring does not work. it does not make them go away. it’s a lie told to make kids less “”problematic””

- I’m fucking serious. 

- it is the job of the adults around children to stop bullying. It is the job of the adults around children to fucking notice behaviours, to fucking notice what children are being coercive or manipulative or violent

- it is their job to protect the targets

- AND IT IS THEIR JOB TO FIGURE OUT WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE BULLIES AND CHANGE IT 

- and yes sometimes that means teaching an angry kid to self-regulate

- and yes sometimes that means teaching a kid who’s using social behaviours to control and make other children unhappy a. that you’re watching, b. that they need to stop, and c. that this is a shitty thing to do and why