Sapphire Castles

You did it! You finally did it! You graduated and got a job and everything has been so worth it. But I know saying “things will get better, trust me” doesn’t help in the moment, so instead I will repeat the following points, which I know you know, but it always helps to have a reminder every now and then because you’re super busy always have so much on your mind:

Just like how a house is built one brick at a time, take your journey through grad school one task at a time, one day at a time. And remember that there’s no need to worry about the color of the roof tiles when you’re still pouring the foundation. 

Don’t forget to talk to other grad students when you feel the imposter syndrome creeping in. There is so much power and comfort in realizing you’re not going through a tough time alone. 

Effort will never betray you. Keep working hard, and keep working smart. Persevere baby, because only you can do what needs to be done in order to finish this degree!

And whatever hardship you’re going through right now–whether it’s a dreaded long experiment or slogging through the millionth draft of your dissertation–remember that time will always move forward. This too shall pass. 

Don’t forget to rest. Grad school is a cross-country back-packing trip, and no one completes a back-packing trip without stopping to rest and recharge!

Comparing yourself to others will only lead to negativity. And you ain’t got time for that! Be proud and supportive of your friends and classmates, not just because they are also proud and supportive of you, but when one of us succeeds, we all benefit.

Stay kind. Even the smallest act of kindness could have a major impact on someone else’s life. Keep that close to your heart and your actions.

And things will work out in the end because we make it work out in the end. Don’t forget that all those past rejections and failures in your life did not destroy you; you still made it to where you are despite those set-backs. 

You got this, and I am so proud of you. 

Sincerely,

THIS IS WORSE. It’s so much worse.

When you hear “there’s no AC” you probably are thinking like…oh that’s rough, but still I’ve dealt with those temps. My old place didn’t have AC. It can’t be that bad.

NO. The lack of AC trickles down into every facet of dealing with the heat in a way that slowly and quite literally boils you alive. It’s not just “oh my apartment is hot this sucks”, it’s “there is nowhere you can go to cool down and if you overheat there is no help available”

For most there’s no AC anywhere. Anywhere. The coolest place available is maybe your local church, or a shopping center. Both will kick you out around 8pm, the hottest part of the day. In France and Spain in particular, the time zone is wrong (Hitler’s fault—we’re still aligned with Germany instead of the UK) and the sun doesn’t set until 10-11pm. Heat is still being actively pumped into your living spaces at 10pm.

And the temps do not meaningfully drop overnight. (Which you might expect if you’re from the American west. Southerners do understand this.) Many people live in stone walled buildings that just keep heating up. This is very literally the experience of being in a stone oven. And there’s no way to drop the temperature. You can’t escape it.

If your body temp climbs to unmanageable levels and you start experiencing heat exhaustion, you can call the hospital…most of which also do not have AC. I’m not sure how they’re treating people, I guess with ice packs? There’s already been a handful of deaths in my city, and that’s before any kind of post-wave reporting. These are real time reported deaths.

Anyway I want you to really, really internalize the sense of panic that starts to set in when you’re in these circumstances. The animal brain really starts to go wild when there’s no options and no escape. That’s why Europeans are posting about suffering.

back then i made a bunch of these but by now i lost the pic and dont know how to find the original post anymore

so anyway here is the diagram for anyone else who is interested!!

this requires pretty big carboard pieces, if you have a really big box or something you can make it from one piece, but if you don't, you can also just make each of the pieces individually and then tape them together

and then in the end you put it together like this!!

and then when you make a bunch you can put them all next to each other and stack your books like crazy

silk chiffon, that’s how it feels when she’s on me