denim!

people with intrusive thoughts are actually much less likely to act on these things than the average person, as we’re far more anxious about the mere concept. if you actually wanted to do the things these thoughts describe, they wouldn’t cause you distress and fear.

for lazy hazy afternoons

for when it’s past midnight and you need to dance to something trashy and pop

for when you can’t remember why you are still here

for rainy nights where you think too deeply

for when you’re only fifty percent human and the other fifty percent is something more feral and monstrous

for anxiety attacks and breakdowns

for when you only want to listen to sad white men singing about sad things

for when you’re drinking soda and the bubbles make your nose tingle

for feeling weightless

for when you’re walking on an uneven pavement and the sun is beating down your neck

for simultaneous crying and bopping

for when one more sad song might make you scream

for your bruised and tender soul

for pretending you’re in an upbeat indie electropop band with your three best friends and you’re all gay

for unconventional alternative love songs

for when you need a reminder of what living feels like because everything feels grey

for pretending you can afford all the things you added to your cart on sephora

for when you’re breaking your own heart

for drifting off into another world at night

for when you’re feeling stuck but also hopeful but also tired but also excited

for when you need your heartbeat to slow back down

for believing in love again

for daydreaming on a hillside under a soft sunset

for when you realize she has the most beautiful smile and looking at it hurts

for when you need the warmest coziest hug

for feeling as small as dust and as infinite as the universe, all at once

for when your heart needs to feel soft and easy and happy

for seeing the person you’re in love with and realizing you need to let them go and start moving on

for when you feel like you’ve been set on fire

for putting on makeup in the morning even though it feels like there’s no point but also you just want to look really fucking cute for no reason

for when you need to be eased into pulling yourself together

for summer days laying outside on your front lawn daydreaming about lemonade

for pretending you’re a depressed mermaid who lives in the arctic ocean

for when you’re daydreaming about the future so that you can forget for a moment how unhappy you are

for being transported back to 2012 when you were trashy and emo and cringey as hell

for staring in the mirror in the dark and thinking about the experience of womanhood

for punching walls and smashing people’s heads in

for cutting fruit to make into a cobbler because fuck you want to eat something cozy and comforting then

for when things are … not going quite how you thought they would

for when your life feels like an actual movie and you need to soundtrack it

for unwinding from a stressful day

for when you feel like a ghost running through a forest while it’s raining and foggy

for when you actually yell back for the first time and the adrenaline pumps through your blood

for when it’s raining outside and you’re staring out the window longing to run in the rain but instead you’re stuck inside

for feeling like you’re right inside of a black hole

for when you’re anxiety says something stupid to you and for once you know it’s wrong and you fight back

for when you need to feel bigger than what you are in that moment

for when you put your trust in someone and you’re terrified

for feeling inexplicably sad and upset and lonely

for knowing it’s okay to cry

for when it’s late at night and you can’t stop thinking about him

for haunting unholy songs that help you pretend that you’re a demon

for breathing properly, just when it feels like you’ll never be able to again

for feeling unformed and unfinished and unknown

for almost being at peace but something is nagging at you

for just really needing to hear james blake’s voice

for when you love someone so much but you can’t talk to them because the words don’t come out

for being a teenager at the fucking-things-up-and-breaking-rules stage of a coming-of-age film

for feeling lonely and you need someone to tell you you’re sexy but no one’s around so you have to convince yourself you’re sexy by dancing to stripper music at 3am in your bathroom mirror

for being so in love that no one else matters

for when you’re in your twenties, finally stable, and you feel like you missed out on what your teen years could have been, so you decide to start trying to live what you missed

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE and you will not believe it that they never used on actual productions, only rehearsals because people got creeped out and didn’t want to use it, UNTIL DAVID TENNANT IN 2008

THAT MAD MAN ACTUALLY PERFORMED WITH THE REAL SKULL!

20 books everyone needs to read at least once because people will reference them in front of you your entire life:

“the faerie queene,” by edmund spenser. this poem is both an epic and an allegory, written in (mostly) iambic pentameter. it is divided up into six books (plus a little bit of a seventh) which you should read, if for no other reason than the fact that there’s supposedly an exclusive book club at harvard university for the select few people who have finished all six sections

“romeo and juliet,” and “othello,” both by shakespeare. these plays both involve two lovers who die because of communication issues. and they’re both super important to read because there are so many references to them, both in other pieces of classic lit., and in modern culture

“the picture of dorian gray,” by oscar wilde. if you can’t tell, this is my favorite book ever. if you can get past the purple prose, it’s one of the most ‘dark academia’ books ever. it’s got references to other famous pieces of literature (which i’ll include on the list), lots of gay shit, a dramatic young adult who loves shakespeare, and ofc, murder

“the brothers karamazov,” by fyodor dostoevsky. actually started reading this one to impress a boy; i think that perhaps he and i have different concepts of what is considered impressive, but the book has turned out amazing, so i’m happy. it has lots of wonderful philosophical and theological discussions. the one thing you may not like is that Dostoevsky constantly goes off on little tangents (like Herodotus). it simultaneously fascinates me and makes me want to smack him with a stick

“the prince,” by niccolo machiavelli. this isn’t classic literature so much as it is political science, but honestly, so many people talk about ‘machiavellianism’ without ever having read the original Machiavellian treatise, and it would be so much better to just read the book and then be able to cite machiavelli himself at your next political-philosophy discussion.

“the canterbury tales,” by geoffrey chaucer. these are classics. they’re filled to the brim with medieval language and sexual innuendo, but that’s part of what makes them so wonderful. if that’s not enough of a selling point, ‘the tale of the deathly hallows’ from “harry potter” is super similar to ‘the pardoner’s tale’ from this book.

“the divine comedy,” by dante alighieri. includes a crap ton of great history references and some super sick burns directed towards the corrupt people of dante’s time.

“meditations,” by marcus aurelius. the original metaphysical journal. probably the epitome of ‘light academia’ if i’ve ever read one

“the great gatsby,” by f. scott fitzgerald. jay gatsby is low-key super relatable…and so is nick, the third wheel…and so is daisy, who feels like women are forced by society to be ‘beautiful little fools’

“the iliad” and “the odyssey,” by homer. i will never ever be able to read ‘the iliad’ again without sobbing hysterically. :’((

“frankenstein,” by mary shelley. not only is this a great book in terms of philosophical potential, but there are so many great things to debate about in it. and, it’s written by a woman :)

“oedipus rex,” by sophocles. my favorite book in 9th grade, though god knows why my mother let me read it then

“metamorphoses,” by ovid. a collection of my all-time favorite myths, which every single person needs to read because it explains how the ancient romans believed the world operated, from the way the sun rises, to the reason we hear echoes.

“the aeneid,” by virgil. suggested by @catilinas :) the final addition to the holy iliad/odyssey/aeneid trinity, written hundreds of years after the last part, by a different author, and in latin instead of the original greek. chronologically ocurrs at about the same time as the odyssey, although from the trojan perspective.

“1984” (suggested by @alexickotowaffle) and “animal farm,” both by george orwell. i’m sticking them together because although the plots are completely different, they both remind me of today’s culture in rather unfortunate ways. but they’re very well written, and i do adore orwell’s style :)

“don quixote,” by miguel de cervantes. an absolutely hysterical book; i kept laughing out loud the entire time i was reading it. it satirizes getting wrapped up in the world of books, to which i’m sure we can all relate.

baby yoda using the force

+ honourable mentions