May 09, 2019
Notes from Summer: MY THESIS IS DONEEEEEEEEEEEE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONEEEEE TURNED IN & EVERYTHINGGGGGG I DID IT! I did it. 49 pages about my favorite poets. All I have left is a project for my linguistics class and another paper for a poetry class, but at this point? Anything is possible. Everything is easy. RIP my identity as a student! Publishing world hire me!
Notes from Jillian: I really don’t have anything to say that can top Summer finishing her thesis, so let’s just leave it at this: friends are extremely good, support your friends, support their work, and remind them that they are talented and wonderful and loved on a regular basis. Also, hire Summer.
The bulk of my thesis was focusing on moments of eating in the poetry of Hala Alyan, particularly looking at her collection Hijra. When I was scoping out an opening quote for the paper as whole, I decided to look through one of her other collections that I hadn’t read through in a while, Four Cities, for inspiration. While I didn’t end up pulling anything from the poems in it, it reminded me just how absolutely stunning it is. My favorite poems by her, pre-_Twenty Ninth Year_ probably come from there? “Akko, and the Sun Sets” and “The Marketplace” are both stunning, masterful works that make me emo as hell. Buy it here.
– Summer
I hope I don’t need to tell you about CBD, so I’ll just get right into it: I picked up this CBD tincture from a bougie pharmacy in Williamsburg on a frantic whim and it’s exactly what I needed in my life. I put a dropper (or two) under my tongue when I’m stressed, when I’m anxious, when I can’t sleep, when my body hurts, or when I just need a little bit of extra help relaxing at the end of the day. Bonus rec: if you want to try CBD and don’t know where to start, Nice Paper is a really good women-owned resource on all things cannabis.
– Jillian
This album! Lizzo is a goddess. I love her so much. Her music is so fun and she is such a brilliant vocalist and I literally can’t stop listening to this every single morning. Stream it on Spotify.
– Summer
Mood tracking and journaling is a really essential part of my everyday routine, but I’m also very lazy and don’t like to exert much effort or spend more than a few minutes doing it on a daily basis. Enter Youper, an AI mental health app that I’ve been using for months. (Listen: I know “AI mental health app” sounds weird and scary, but I love it.) Every day, I tell Youper how I’m feeling and what external factors are contributing to my mood, and we walk through why I might be feeling the way I’m feeling. An app will never be a replacement for a therapist, but using Youper in addition to my regular therapy appointments has made a big difference in the way I recognize and process my emotions—which is why this is one of my favorite recommendations to give so far.
– Jillian