🐣

Then a few months later, I went in for severe abdominal pain. It had been going on for about 3 days and I hate hospitals so I was stubborn about going. Got to the point that I couldn’t take the pain anymore. My mom took me in and after like 2 hours they brought me in for the doctor to walk up to my bed and say it’s my mentrual cramps. I insisted that it wasn’t. There was no way it was my cramps. I know what my cramps feel like. This was 1000% worse and was constantly increasing. The doctor tried to lecture me saying that sometimes they’re irregular and vary in pain and that there was nothing wrong with me. He did this for 30 minutes, refusing to listen to me.

My mom was fed up by that point. She was letting me do the talking because she knows I’m responsible enough to handle this and I was the one feeling the pain and could describe it better than she could but she could tell that the doctor saw me as a dumb 17 year old girl who needed to be taught a lesson or something. She could see the doctor didn’t respect me so spoke up and said “If my daughter says it’s not her cramps then it’s not her cramps. You haven’t done any tests on her. All that’s happened was she listed her symptoms at reception where she was made to wait for 2 hours in extreme pain while there was only 3 other people in the waiting room with mild concerns who were seen before her. You walked in a minute after she was brought back here and decided it was her cramps based off of nothing. You haven’t even examined her yet.” The doctor insisted there wasn’t a need to because it was just my cramps. I was in so much pain that I threatened to stab him with my moms knitting needle if he didn’t do something to help me. Still nothing. So then my mom said “You have 30 seconds to order some tests, examine her, and give her something for the pain or else I’m going to call our lawyer.”

That made him do something. He ordered testing and bloodwork and gave me something for my pain. When the nurse showed up to take me to my first test this doctor had the nerve to say “Take her in for a CT. It’s just her menstrual cramps but they’re insisting.” After all the tests were done I was waiting for another hour simply because the doctor didn’t want to face me. We could him just standing at the nursing station. He hadn’t moved from there the whole time after receiving the results. Not even to see other patients. So my mom complained to a nurse. The head ER doctor had to drag him over to me where he then sheepishly explained that it was indeed not my cramps and that I had a large growth on my ovary that needed to be removed within two weeks or I might not survive.

He then denied me surgery. I didn’t have insurance and the gyno had left for the night already. I told him to bring in the on call so we could get this done. He refused. I reminded him that in cases of emergency, lack of insurance is required to be overlook and surgery has to be performed regardless. He still refused saying it wasn’t an emergency. “You said I have two weeks to live. How is that not an emergency?” He ultimately refused me life saving surgery and sent me home to die just because his pride was hurt. My mom had to take me to the children’s hospital a few hours after we got home.

They immediately saw me and did a test. After which they came in and said that I require emergency surgery and that I was to be taken to my own room upstairs and that I had the first surgery spot in the morning at 9am. My mom mentioned my lack of insurance. The doctor said that wasn’t a problem. This was an emergency situation, therefore they had to perform the surgery by law. And the doctor had submitted my case to administration where I was immediately granted to receive help from the children’s foundation at the hospital so the operation was paid for. My left ovary and left Fallopian tube both had to be removed. We only got a bill from the children’s hospital for $1000 which was all that was left to pay out of the $65,000 for the surgery because the foundation paid for most of it. The nurse had helped my mom set me up for Obamacare while we were there so I was given insurance which paid another large portion of it. $1000 was all that was left for us to take care of.

Example: You get an expensive bill for a $1,000 unfortunately. U.S. healthcare really shouldn’t be so expensive in the first place…but the first thing you should do is call and ask for a review of the level of care, and while on the phone the next thing you do is ask for an itemized bill with every single charge.

They make bills unnecessarily expensive because in the backend of things, they rack up ridiculous charges like $37 for a bandaid. Once you call and request what I’ve mentioned, they’ll knock all the BS charges right off before sending you the itemized statement.

5. Walk with your keys in your hands and keep a key between each finger

6. If they put you in the trunk kick out the headlights

Stomp on their foot as hard as you can.

Elbow their stomach as hard as you can.

Punch their crotch as hard as you can.

Punch their nose as hard as you can.

Bonus: If they have a hand over your mouth, bite down as hard as you can. Also, go for the eyes as soon as you have the occasion.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNJwxJXr2jc

Get it from

@sage-derby Yes!!!

Here’s a rundown of their general policy, from literally the first article I clicked on just now:

As you might be getting from that, they’re pretty intersex inclusive, too. Here’s a sample of something that’s a little more directly about sex-specific stuff in case you’re thinking “well but they said that was just about pleasure tho”:

They have a lot of sections on their site, but number two is Gender:

“That’s probably just like hetero gender dynamics stuff tho...” Nay nay! Here’s a few of the articles from the first page of their “Gender” section:

The Adverb Rule: Only use an adverb if it changes the meaning of the verb. ie. “He whispers quietly” vs “He whispers sadly”.

The ‘Said’ Rule: Similar to the adverb rule– only use a different dialogue tag when it changes the meaning of the dialogue. The most common exception would be ‘asked’.

The Dialogue Tag Rule: Only tag dialogue when absolutely necessary. My suggestion for this is to write the first draft with minimal tags then, while editing, add tags in where there may be confusion.

The Kiss Rule: When writing romance, if your characters need to kiss (or show any other physical affection) for readers to know they’re in love, they don’t have good chemistry.

The Infamous ‘Show Don’t Tell’ Rule: Not only is it fairly self-explanatory, but you’ve probably heard it a million and one times. Basically: if you can show it, do. ie. “she thought the man was annoying” vs. “she rolls her eyes when the man begins to speak”.

The Exceptions to the ‘Show Don’t Tell’ Rule: My personal rule for this is show stuff that’s relevant to the story but tell stuff that’s going on in the background. “She rolls her eyes when the man begins to speak” is a good place to show, but you should opt for, “she thought the curtains were ugly” when simply describing scenery.

The Really/Very/Etc. Rule: In exposition, don’t overuse ‘filler words’ like ‘really’ or ‘very’. Of course there are some exceptions, but just like other adverbs, only use them for a reason.

The Change Rule: Just like you wouldn’t end a novel if no change took place, don’t end a chapter unless there is a clear, apparent change from the beginning of the chapter. If a scene doesn’t have a change, recognize that it might just be a filler and consider deleting it, if not heavily revising.

because it’s a puzzle no one else will ever arrange the same way as you.

because there are ideas that simply won’t come to you until you write down the wrong words.

because all the bad scenes are the bones of the wonderful scenes.

because someone will love it: someone will read it once, and twice, and thrice; someone will ramble to you about the complexity of it; someone will doodle your characters out of love; someone will find it in exactly what they were looking for with or without knowing it.

because they have things to say, your characters. they’ve told you all those secrets and they have more to tell you, if you will listen.

because you love it even when you don’t; even when it drives you mad or when it accidentally turns into apathy; even when you think you’re doing it all wrong; you love it, and it loves you back.

I have no answers, only questions:

A: Environment

Where is your society located geographically? What’s the weather like?

Do we recognize every plant that grows in and around it?

What about the animals? Are there horses? Cows? Various other domestic animals? Who breeds them? Are they made up creatures?

Are there dragons?

What kind of agriculture do they rely on, if any?

Where do resources come from? Are they imported? Exported?

B: Architecture

Do they build aboveground? Underground? Underwater? In trees? In the sky?

How do they access materials they need?

What is the social hierarchy of living spaces?

What shape and color and material are the buildings?

Are there built structures at all, or are they living within natural spaces like cavern systems?

C: Magic

Is magic involved?

Is it ritual magic? Intuitive? Is there a written component? A spoken one? Is it inborn or drawn from the world

Can magic be infused into physical objects?

What are the limitations? How rigid are the rules?

Where does it come from? Who can use it?

Does anyone seek to control it?

Is magic commonplace or taboo?

D: Culture

What do people eat? What seasonings are available (refer to part A.2, A.6)?

What do they wear? What materials are their clothes made of (refer to part A.2, A.6, E.8, E.9)?

What are the holidays? Is there religion? Is it state mandated?

What kind of government is there, and who runs it?

Racism? Sexism? Queerphobia? To what extent? Is it different between different countries/religions/regions?

Is there a a nation-state? Clans? Flag and national colors (refer to part E.8)? Other methods of group identification?

E: Technology

Crossbows? Guns? Armor? Seige weapons? War animals?

Pin and tumbler locks? Detailed and delicate jewelry? Clockwork?

Surgery? Medicine? Drugs? Poisons and methods of delivery?

Plumbing? Baths or showers? Private or communal?

Postal service? Messenger animals?

Ships? How advanced are the ships? What method of navigation do they use?

Musical instruments? Musical notation or no?

Paper? Inks? Paints? Dyes? Books? Printing press?

Buttons? Laces? Buckles? Pins? What kind of pins? Hooks and eyes? Snaps? Zippers? Knitting machines?

You don’t need to answer every question on this list, but you should have answers to most of them. And answering these questions will help you flesh out a world that has both its own unique flavor and internal logic and consistency, which is the backbone of good worldbuilding. Remember that you are allowed to pull from the real world and even cultures not your own as long as you do so respectfully—if you use elements of an East Asian society, you should populate that part of the world with East Asian people, for example.

For all the procrastinators out there, here’s a list of tips that a fellow procrastinator has found very useful through the years to get her actually doing stuff.

Start studying from day one

I know you’ve heard this a million times, but seriously, before the panic of “I can’t possibly catch up with all of this’ kicks in. Once this happens, you won’t even want to try so you’ll just procrastinate even more. I know it seems overkill to study on the first day, but think of it this way, you’ve covered almost no material and it will take you no time. Also, it only takes 30 days to form a habit, I promise you revising every day becomes second nature after a while.

But I’m already in the middle of my academic year and I can’t possibly catch up!

I’ve heard that excuse a thousand times, from myself that is. So you can’t catch up? Well, don’t. If it’s a class where you don’t need to know the previous material to understand what you’re learning about right now, take it from that point and keep up with it. You can catch up on the previous stuff little by little when you have free time.

But it’s a cumulative class and I need to know the previous material to understand what the heck my profesor is talking about! 

Watch some youtube videos on the material or go to Khanacademy. You just need to grasp the basics, you can perfect your knowledge on those topics later on, if you have time.

I just can’t get myself to open the book 

First, what is it you need to do TODAY? Let’s say you need to study a unit that has x pages and you have three days ro study it. Today you will study x/3 pages. You get it, don’t just study aimlessly, give yourself a finish point. Then write down what you want to accomplish (it’s incredibly satisfying to cross things out) but don’t write more than 5 tasks (unless they’re really small ones) per day.

Now is when you find that you don’t actually want to do any of the things on that list, so what do you want to do NOW? Do you want to watch a youtube video? Read a book? Pee? What were you planning to do to procrastinate? Well you can still do it. That is, once you study a page (or x pages, whatever you feel up to). This can be repeated until you hit that finish point you stablished earlier. You can also add extra weekly rewards like ‘If I do all my studying this week, I can do x or I can buy y’ (think small stuff, x can be calling a friend to hang out and y can be a color pen). But remember, just as important as getting that reward if you do your work is NOT getting the reward if you DON’T do the work. I don’t mean like don’t indulge if you haven’t finished one or two tasks, but, if you’ve been slacking all week yet you get the reward anyway, what your brain understands “It’s ok, I don’t actually need to work”.

I just want to lie on my bed for a bit

Yes, studying on your bed is awful and you should avoid it. But you know what’s worse than studying on your bed? Not studying at all. If you’re like me and sometimes you just randomly get these urges in the middle of the afternoom to lie on your bed ‘for a bit’ and then you fall asleep, bring your study materials to your bed. DON’T lie down, just get into a slightly reclined sitting possition. I find that this kind of tricks your brain into thinking that you’re resting but you can still get work done.

I have to write a paper, not study

I was planning on telling you that I have literally no tips for writing papers and lab reports (these in particular are the bane of my existence, I literally feel such hostility towards them that I will refuse to even look at the document I’m sure it has nothing to do with being a failed writer) BUT luckily I’ve found something that kind of works. So, forget about your paper for a minute, open a text document, and just WRITE. You can literally write about whatever - your day, how adorable your pet is, or a random story that makes no sense whatsoever. Force yourself to write for about three minutes. Now look back at your paper. I find that once I’ve started writing, I am a lot more willing to keep doing it, even if it’s not about the same topic. This may not work for some people though. Also, write a SUPER rough outline or just bullet points of what you want to say like “Then we add HCl. Later decantation. Test for acid pH. Finally filter and evaporate”. Expanding on something is much easier than writing it from scratch.

Clean you desk the night before

I promise having a clean space to put your books on will motivate you the next day.

And finally, a little tip from a recent experience - YOU’RE GOING TO WISH YOU HAD DONE MORE 

Personally, every time “I can just cram for this” even crosses my mind, I remind myself of how stupid I felt last semester when it came to finals and how badly I wanted to go back in time and beat past me to a pulp. But also, I remind myself of how thankful I was to past me for every little thing that she HAD studied because it was one less thing to worry about. So, when you want to slack off, think of your future self thanking you for not doing so.

So, with this advice in mind, go hit your books right now and start becoming a better version of yourself!

Other masterposts

Memorization Tips

Skincare 101

Tips on Organic Chemitry

here are tips I discovered very recently:

something is better than nothing. 5 minutes of work are better than zero. Just because you missed something on your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t still work on it, even for 5 minutes. Grow and build on this.

second drafts / reviews can be done after.

Don’t think you are going to do your very best work on the first try. Take the weight of perfectionism off your shoulders.

don’t think about doing it. just do it as fast as you can.

build on your productivity, not your failures.

If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once.

if you have a set of different goals to accomplish, begin with the most important one. Wait until the rotine of working for that one settles in (you feel productive and comfortable-ish), and then begin with the next. Repeat.

this way you’ll be building your way up and not juggling everything at the same time, hoping everything works out.

be patient with yourself, you’ll get there!

set smaller deadlines for your goals

have monthly and weekly-ish deadlines

e.g. if you are doing a project, due 22nd Feb, set personal deadlines, like have Introduction written by 2nd Feb, have Methods written by 10th Feb, have project complete by 18th Feb.

take them as seriously as you possibly can, don’t miss out on yourself.

write realistic daily tasks and don’t stop until you finish them. after them you can do whatever you want

on writing realistic daily tasks, the secret is knowing you can only do so much in one day, but trusting you can accomplish everything in the course of any period of time (a week, or 2 weeks or a month, etc.) because you will combine the work from all these different days.

it’s very tempting to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in one day to just get over with it, but the real deal is you won’t accomplish half of them. You’ll feel very unproductive then, wich leads to demotivation.

spread daily tasks in the time necessary.

have a consistent sleep schedule.

if your mind isn’t ready everything will fall apart.

have one rest day per week where you plan nothing, do whatever you want except studying. this can be harder than you expect!

As an apartment dweller, this is a game changer. My current apartment doesn’t have a laundry facility and the closest Laundromat about a 30 min bus ride which is just not practical. The mini-washer is a life saver

The panda mini washer hooks up to the sink, is incredibly lightweight (about 28 pounds, so light even I can lift it) and easy to use. 

It has a surprisingly large capacity. The basket from the first picture represents about one and a half loads. The jeans took up a whole load while the rest filled the bin only half way. 

Here’s the inside. The left is the washer the right is the spin dryer. Yes, it even drys.

Basically you shove your cloths into the washer, fill it up with water and let it go. I use my shower head to fill it up so it goes faster, the sink hook up took about five minutes to fill the whole tub, with the shower head is is down to a minute an a half. I do it in three wash cycles, a five minute rinse with baking soda, a five minute wash with soap and a three minute rinse with water. You have to drain and refill between each cycle so it’s a little more labor intensive than a traditional washer. 

That’s the spin dryer. It’s about half the capacity of the washer so one wash takes about two loads to dry. The spinner is much more effective than I was expecting. A three minute spin gets my cloths about 90% dry. I hang them up to air dry for that last 10%. 

The machine cost me about 150$. When you factor in two dollars for the bus, five for the machines (per week), the mini-washer pays for its self after only about six months worth of laundry. 

Can you IMAGINE how this is going to change the lives of college students and apartment-dwellers? Or anyone with a lower income who can’t afford a place with “luxury” appliances like dishwashers and laundry machines?

i don’t know about you, but school supplies are literally some of my favorite things on this earth. okay maybe i don’t have fancy tombow brushes, but still. i love school supplies. and i bet you do too. i mean why would you have a studyblr or be looking at a studyblr’s post if you don’t love school supplies? i don’t know about you, but i’m really cheap when it comes to school supplies. so all the supplies i’ll be listing are fairly accessible (at least in america, you can get a lot of these at target or staples, and definitely amazon). today i’ll be talking about..

my personal favorites/which ones i’m actively using

which one’s i’ve used in the past!

my wishlist !

all of this will be under the cut, including links! also, i’m curious to hear what your favorite supplies are! send me an ask, and let me know!

I decided to share my notes taken from this amazing 1 hour Youtube lecture by Marty Lobdell. i really liked him and his tips, i think they are super effective and cover a lot of situations! i highly recommend it!!!!! wow

but here are the tips and examples Marty mentions, so if you don’t have the time to go through the full hour, you can just scroll down. hope this helps somebody!

Break your study time in chunks with breaks

most students lose focus at 25 minutes

it’s a mistake to keep going once you do, since you won’t actually learn anything and you’ll hate every minute of it

so when you start losing focus take a 5 minute break

do something nice like talking to someone or listening to music

it’s something you practice so with time you’ll be able to work for more time without losing focus

in the end of the study session have a big reward you look forward to

Create a study area

environment highly affects the way you act. Bedrooms are for sleeping, kitchens for eating: you’ll feel sleepy in your bedroom and hungry in the kitchen. So if you have a study area, it’ll be easier to start studying and staying focused.

study in a specific room like an office or school library if you can

if you have to study in your bedroom use a specific object you only use for studying: a lamp/desk. Make it a no-distraction, away from your bed, blank walls area.

 The more active the learning, the better

80% active learning 20% passive

ask yourself: is it a concept or a fact?

learning a concept: understand/grasp/know it

put it into your own words

really think about the meaning of it

relate it with something you already know

teach somebody else. Recapitulate what you’ve learned. Talk out loud even if you don’t have anyone to teach - talk alone. Or at anyone that listens.

learning a fact: memorize it

use mnemonics

Acronyms (e.g. colours of the rainbow RoyGBiv – red orange yellow green blue indigo violet)

 Coined sayings - anything popular or sayings you’ve heard since you were a child.

Interacting images – work even better if they’re weird. Creative associations make you never forget specific details. (e.g. 1 gram of fat has 9 calories: picture a fat cat – each cat has 9 lives)

any time 2 things are highly similar but not the same you will get maximal interference!! USE mnemonics!! (e.g. afferent vs efferent neurons: SAME - Sensory Afferent Motor Efferent)

Be a part of  study groups

others can help you in ways you never thought before

Recognizing VS remembering

never confuse the two

while reviewing a chapter you may recognize concepts but not actually know them

and when you get to the test you won’t be able to remember any of it

so quiz yourself without looking at it

or stop in a page of your notes/textbook and ask yourself what is the concept immediately after and before it

Get your REM Sleep 

get ~8 hours so you don’t undo your studying

this is how your brain stores permanent memories

without it you’re ability to remember seriously decreases

most people don’t even begin to take the advice but it’s simple: sleep better. Do better.

There’s 162 hours in a week. There is time.

reflect on what you are doing with your time and what activities you have to prioritize to succed as a student

Taking notes is vital.

right after the class take 5 minutes to expand everything you’ve jotted down, give it depth.

NOT hours later. You won’t remember half the things you wrote down.

Ask your questions to class mates and teachers.

teachers want you to succeed and it’s more than ok to ask your question in the teacher’s office or in the next class

How to use a textbook: SQ3R technique

Survey Question Read Recite Review

Survey: skim through the entire chapter in a couple of minutes.

Raise questions: e.g. what is osmosis? What is this graphic about? What is a prototype?

it causes you to look for answers and you’ll find the information better once you actually study it after. If you intend to find something you learn it better.

Start studying for tests early.

don’t undo yourself. You should only be reviewing the days before the test. don’t leave it till the last minute!

so 2017 is here, and that means we’re all going to try to change for the better. we all know that most people don’t succeed, but why is that? my theory is that a lot of people don’t know how to keep their motivation consistent. turns out many psychologists have actually figured out a kind of equation for motivation, factors that play into whether or not we keep our resolutions, habits, and goals. i read this amazing book about this equation and“hacking” your motivation and made notes of some of the main takeaways. enjoy and happy 2017!

take advantage of “success spirals”

set yourself a series of achievable goals and then achieve all of them until you expect only success and failure is no longer familiar. this is a great way to get started living a motivated life. example: start out your new year by changing one habit that’s small enough where success is likely, and use that success to propel you to larger goals.

commit early on

choose now to limit your later options, preventing yourself form making the wrong choice in the face of temptation. signing up for a public speaking engagement that you know you should do is much easier 2 months beforehand, thereby forcing you not to chicken out when the going gets tough.

surround yourself with motivated people

have a workout or study buddy with similar goals as you. you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. example: read or watch biographies of inspirational people whose lives you would like to emulate. go on a social media diet, in which you only see motivating and positive posts by motivated and positive people.

visualize

visualize the success you want to achieve, contrasting it with the life you currently live. Add in implementation intentions and process visualization for more oomph. michael phelps does this for every race, “playing the video tape” of the perfect race in his head. this allowed him to break a world record in 2008 with water in his goggles.

get into flow

flow is a psychological state characterized by being completely absorbed in whatever it is you’re doing. musicians, writers, and other creatives often report this while making their best works. how to get into flow? tasks which are too easy or too hard are not engaging, so find ways to make tasks challenging but possible. compete against yourself, or against others. getting into flow is most achievable when something is familiar to you and you can do it automatically, but it still contains mentally stimulating elements.

connect your goals to passion

look for ways to connect tasks with major life goals, so that you can remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing. set up extra reminders of those connections where you’ll see them (ex: every day i make my goal of saving 100 dollars i am that much closer to financial freedom). make sure you’re on a path to goals you actually want and that the journey is making you happy. If it isn’t, consider something more intrinsically motivating.

care for yourself

everything is better when you’re alert. sleep well, eat well, move your body every day, guard your circadian rhythms, and avoid burnout. cure energy lows with quality breaks, movement, sunshine, and good music. match intensive tasks with periods of high energy.

kill perfectionism

if you can’t bring yourself to do your main task, at least get some other things out of the way. it’s not perfect, but perfect is the enemy of good. get used to the act of doing consistently, rather than having things be perfect, so it doesn’t paralyze you. do not be afraid of failure, because it is the fastest way to learn.

use rewards

celebrate your successes with any reward that will motivate you (treats, crazy dance parties, an hour of social media or video games?). we all know the feeling before a deadline where it seems as if our life for the next week is just a never-ending tunnel of drudgery and work. 

play hard

this one is related to rewards – plan times to have as much fun as you can - this leads to more efficient recreation, and it also lets you focused on your goals during the other times, rather than just having low-grade leisure constantly tempting you as an option. ex: rather than taking a “break” every two minutes to check your instagram feed, do something that will actually burst your mood, make you laugh, or release some of the tension in your body.

Here is the second part of the post concerning dialogue. Part 1 dealt with the mechanics. This post (Part 2) deals with stringing dialogue together into a conversation. 

Personality

It begins with a single character. If you think your characters have no personality, you might want to do a character questionnaire, like the one found here or here, or you could take the vastly helpful MBTI test found here. This post is probably beginning to sound like a post on character development. Character and dialogue is twined like this *crosses pointer and middle fingers*. It’s very important to have a good view of your character’s personality before you let them speak.

Some things you should know about your characters:

Trigger warnings – Has anything happened in their past that they don’t want to talk about? If so, they’re going to become uncomfortable, defensive, angry, scared, or panicky if these topics come up in conversation. They might do anything in their power to escape the conversation or they might have a chip on their shoulder as a result of the traumatizing incident.

Upbringing – To use a very blatant example, a modern transgender male raised by two fathers is going to have a very different worldview than the youngest daughter of first generation Puritan settlers. Children generally have similar political beliefs and leanings to their parents or guardians, but was there ever anything that caused a child to break from their parent/guardians’ worldview?

Societal Norms – Americans value two things: freedom of speech and freedom of opportunity. They’re indoctrinated about the importance of both from the moment they enter school, be it private, public, or religious. Likewise, your world or society might have a universal belief that will govern your character’s decision-making process, how they see the world, and therefore how they present themselves verbally. Think of at least three core ideals that 85% of your character’s culture holds dear. How does that affect the way they speak?

Changes – Have there been any life-changing events in your character’s life independent of upbringing that has caused them to revise their entire worldview? (This may be linked to trigger warnings.) How long did it take them to come to that decision? Are they a new convert or did it happen awhile ago? How do they feel about their change? Was it for the better or for the worse? Does the character now spit on people who are like they used to be?

Vocabulary

Your character needs an appropriate vocabulary as well. A college-educated bohemian is going to speak much differently than a high-school educated elderly farmer. I’m not talking about accents, though. I’m talking vocabulary and sentence structure. You might expect “loquacious” from the bohemian and “talkative” from the farmer, but hearing “loquacious” from the farmer would be unexpected. Likewise, a teenager isn’t going to use “excogitate” when they could say, “study really hard”. And a two-year-old kid would probably just stare at you. Also make sure that the language is appropriate for the time period. A hippy won’t say, “Waes hail!” and Sir Knightsalot won’t say, “Groovy!”

So instead of writing the essay this is exactly what I’m talking about. This shit reduces your capacity for empathy. If you can’t understand why people are hurt by a simple joke, nay, think that’s the whole point… How the hell are you supposed to feel for someone when they come to you complaining of ACTUAL oppression? It’s the foot in the door phenomenon. A little oppression isn’t too bad, cuz it’s funny, right? It hardens your heart against others

Somebody actually wrote this essay already. It’s a Twitter thread about how the alt right recruits teenage boys by getting them to post slightly offensive memes… And then when they get called out and don’t understand why the alt right channels their anger at feminists and women and people of color and liberals. According to this thread, boys are being “set up”

Read the whole thread at the link above this is just a snip

waking up and being genuinely thrilled to go to class because today is THAT CLASS you love so much you’d like it to never end

coffee breaks with friends, chatting and joking about this particularly hard essay and the prof’s mannerism

coffee breaks on your own, as you absent-mindedly watch the people around you, while thinking about what you’re working on

finding this book you’ve been dying to read for so long, and borrowing it from the library

the feeling of excitement that goes through you whenever you remember The Book is in your backpack

understanding everything during demanding classes and being genuinely interested in the subject

buying a New Special Pen and taking colorful notes that look super pretty

not being able to shut up about your school projects (no your friends dont really care about the intricate details of what you’re working on, they don’t even have the same major as you, but they’re happy to hear you rant with such a burning passion)

actually doing the extra reading and having your curiosity so piqued by what you’re reading that you go on and on and suddenly its 1am and what happened

printing the project you’ve spent so much time and energy on and feeling the paper’s warmth

actually submitting that project without feeling awful about it because you know you did your best and aren’t responsible for what happens next

when you finally finish this Super Hard And Important Essay at like 3am, open the window and feel the cold night air on your burning cheeks and everything is dark and quiet and you can see the moon and you’re at peace with everything for a few minutes

when this professor you admire says you did a great job and/or that you’re talented!!!!

realizing two concepts that seemed so far away from each other and that you discovered in wildly different contexts are actually interlinked, then Realizing™ things and linking concepts/works/articles to each other at the speed of light & being super excited about it

being so deeply immersed in your work that you didn’t realize two hours have passed

finding the Perfect Spot at the library

that Pure Joy moment when you FINALLY understand that super obscure sentence/text

when you feel anxious because you’re not done with your homework & the deadline is super tight & your friend tells you they aren’t done yet either

same but with an even more intense relief feeling when you realize you both haven’t even started yet

when the professor starts a new reasoning and you can predict what the next idea/the final conclusion will be

when the professor mention your favorite novel/author/fictional character in class and you feel like your internal screech of joy could shatter glass

the Academic Salt™ that has you like 👀👀

when the professor tears apart an author or scholar you hate and you’re like YES I WANT BLOOD GIVE ME BLOOD

when you learn that Cool New Fact that makes you reconsider your whole life

leaving the library after a long productive day and feeling like nothing is real but experiencing everything more intensely

leaving the library at night after a long study session and everybody has left already and its just you and the long neon-lit corridors then stepping outside and smelling the crisp night wind

when you’re anxious af for a class and the professor is actually super friendly and you feel confident enough to ask questions

and suddently thank to this one professor EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE

understanding that One Difficult Point and suddently you feel like you UNDERSTAND THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE

sometimes you can feel like you have too much in your bag but then one friend has a problem and they are pleasently surprised when you have Just The Right Thing