a Carrot

when I was in high school I had a literature teacher who had a policy of unlimited extra credit. All you had to do was read a book by a notable author (his discretion) and have a little chat with him after school to prove that you read it. No limits, no need for variety (one month I decided I really loved Kurt Vonnegut and just read everything of his I could get my hands on).

I love this post so much my friend put it on my 30th birthday cake

I was playing totk and saw a bear

its crazy how feeling your feelings and having someone say "it makes sense that you are feeling that way" actually works. smh. I was having some Big Feelings about a thing that is objectively not that big a deal, due to my tragic backstory, (many such cases) and I told ship all about why this thing was bringing up all of those feelings and cried and they held me and now I'm like. Regular. now I'm like. ok I felt those feelings I didn't shove them away for being "unreasonable" OR act on them as though the amount of hurt I felt dictated the degree of Misstep on the part of the other people involved. I just felt them and we both went "it makes sense that this feels that bad" and then I was able to eat some almond butter and now I'm like ok! that hurt a lot, but that doesn't mean it sucked of them a lot. it only sucked of them a very small amount. it just hurt a lot for other reasons. and that's for me to handle. and now I can approach the situation as it is in reality, which is to say, as a situation that is Not That Big A Deal, but without feeling like I'm bottling up my reaction or betraying myself by ignoring how briefly unsafe it made me feel

this is why like. bc all trauma is relational, healing that has to also be relational. bc when we are hurt we have a strong need to have that pain recognized and acknowledged and not dismissed. if we have a safe person to express how we are feeling hurt to, who can see and validate that, then that meets that need.

This is so silly but I'm watching a short video essay on sincerity in cinema and the creator is talking about how he watched Lord of the Rings for the first time at 17. He explains that he'd grown so used to the 'ironic' meta style commentary in the movies of the 2010's that as he was watching the opening narration of LotR, he spent the entire time waiting for the joke to come. For someone to take it all back with a zinger line. He listened to Blanchett describe and explain the backstory, and he waited for the other comedic shoe to drop.

Be honest do you think that actually learning things in high school is important

Discord is supposedly saying this is going to affect "only 10% of users", but I really don't believe them at all. It's always going to be way worse and affect more people than what they claim.