#i wrote this for my communications class and thought I should share it
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Content Warning- this will discuss various triggering themes relating to mental health.
What would you do if you woke up one morning, alone, with nothing but a pile of your mother's clothes on the bed as a clue for what had happened? For thirteen-year-old April Ajoy, this immediately led her to think of the worst- her family had been raptured, and she had been left behind. Immediately, her mind went to survival plans- would she be forced to take the Mark of the Beast? What if she ended up beheaded, like the characters in the Left Behind books?
While this may seem like a funny story in hindsight, this shines a light on a real problem in our faith- Religious Trauma.
While Religious Trauma is not officially in the DSM-5, it is a term widely used by psychologists to describe the trauma that stems from abuse under the guise of religion. This usually takes the form of shaming, harassment, or humiliation. It can also take the form of physical abuse, though this is more common with youth and teenagers.
Clint Shnekloth from The Christian Century describes it as, and I quote; "Religious trauma is particularly insidious because it is a betrayal at the deepest level of attachment. Often those who have experienced religious trauma were intimately connected to their religious community-and through it, to God."
Oftentimes, people with religious trauma will leave the church, as it was their abuser. This process of leaving Christianity after being traumatized; and unpacking the beliefs that come with it is known as Deconstruction. Those who go through the deconstruction process after leaving the church are usually known as exvangelicals, which is a portmanteu of the phrase 'ex-evangelicals'. As of November 1st, 2022, there are over 100 thousand posts under the exvangelical hashtag on Instagram.
Some of the most common causes of Religious Trauma are queerphobia, Christian nationalism, and purity culture. These are often the most cited causes for people to leave the church and to develop signs of religious trauma.
Queerphobia can be described as "Hatred against and aversion to the LGBTQ+ Community". In Christian spaces, this trait runs rampant, as Biblical passages have been weaponized ito excuse outright hatred against our LGBTQ+ friends and family. According to the Trevor Project's 2022 Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, LGBTQ+ youth are over twice as likely to attempt suicide if they are from non-affirming households rather than accepting ones.
This is an especially important statistic, since the majority of American churches are not queer-affirming, and approximately five percent of the American population identifies as some form of LGBTQ+, or nearly one in twenty.
Another Cause of religious trauma is purity culture. This stemmed from fears of the dissolution of the traditional family and sexual purity in the 1990s, and was especially prevalent in Evangelical Christian spaces. Purity culture taught that any sexual desire, thought, or activity outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage was inherently sinful and dangerous. While there is nothing wrong with encouraging your teens not to mess around for their health and well-being, it can be extremely psychologically damaging to live under constant shame for their natural human feelings and thoughts.
Purity Culture is largely driven by books such as I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris, which advocated for tighter control over relationships with the opposite gender, limiting physical and emotional contact with them, and only engaging in relationships with them with the intent to marry, which was referred to as 'courtship'.
Not only does Purity Culture force young people to repress themselves, but it also pushes the dangerous idea that a woman's modesty, or lack thereof is responsible for a man's sexual urges. This idea is extremely damaging, as it not only places all the blame for a man's actions onto a woman's choices, but it also has been used as an excuse for assault and other crimes against women.
Additionally, purity culture advocates for a lack of sex-ed, which has been proven to reduce teen pregnancies and to help teenagers to understand their bodies better. Purity Culture's approach to this is to only teach abstinence, which is dangerous because it increases the chances of a person engaging in risky sexual behavior when they finally do become sexually active, because they were not educated on how to stay safe when engaging in intimate activities.
Finally, Christian Nationalism is another source of religious trauma, as it is a strong proponent of white supremacy and patriarchy in this country. This is particularly traumatic because of the vast difference between the Jesus of the Bible, who was a strong supporter of peace and equality for all, and "Gun Slinging, White Jesus" that Christian Nationalism preaches.
For a person of faith, reconciling these two portrayals of God may be traumatic because they are completely incompatible. Because of this, it may cause them to feel detached from their religion, as if they 'don't have enough faith' to understand why God supposedly is the way that Christian Nationalists portray him. A person might also be ostracized from their church family because of Christian Nationalism, especially if their political views differ from the ones promoted by the Christian Alt-Right.
Religious Trauma is a very real, very serious problem in the church that is massively overlooked by our leaders and our elders. Because it has not been addressed, young people are leaving the faith in droves, and the ones who leave often cite the reasons I stated as the thing that made them break away. For the church to survive, we will need to address these behaviors and strive to be a place where all people feel welcome and can thrive.
#Religious trauma#ex christian#i wrote this for my communications class and thought I should share it
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Happy Birthday and a merry 6 years to TRT! 🎂 🎁 🎈 🎉 🍰
🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯
Some FUN TRIVIA FACTS:
TRT's sun sign is VIRGO and its moon sign is LEO!
After 6 years, its current wordcount is 932k words. If you put that in size 12 arial font, single-spaced, this would come to about 2000 pages, and even more if the pages were the usual mass market paperback size!
TRT is now 40 in cat years!
The Man in the White Coat is my tribute to the Mad Scientist trope common in scifi, which is one of my favorite genres!
It is old enough developmentally to tie its shoes! Keep going, TRT!
Ciro is partially inspired by John Marcone from The Dresden Files!
TRT shares a birthday with literary great Agatha Christie! Maybe I'll introduce poison-based murder into the fic in her honor...
The idea of seeing threads came to me after seeing a meme about red threads tying soul mates together. Everything that came after - the other threads, the thread world, how it works, is unique to TRT!
TRT is now longer than War and Peace, and Crime and Punishment combined! So if you've read all of TRT so far, then you have the perfect middle finger to anyone who tries to say you can't focus on longer stories!
The inciting penguin documentary that Foggy drunkenly watched (which led to him declaring Matt and Jane 'penguins') was about Adelie penguins specifically!
Jane has a leather jacket because I love leather jackets and think all badass characters should have a leather jacket! And so you should you! EVERYONE DESERVES A COOL LEATHER JACKET.
The long hiatus between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 was because I had life things pop up. During that hiatus, I realized the plotline/ending needed some work, so I spent those two years outlining, and I also wound up doing a bunch of additional novel writing classes just because I wanted to learn. A lot of this wound up influencing TRT!
The grey threads are one of the only threads that no one has solved yet!
There are absolutely some bad people working for Cyrus James. There is also a guy named Kyle. He is there not for Evil Purposes (tm) but instead because this was the only place he could work that would allow him to pay off his student loans.
When I started TRT, I thought maybe 5 people total would read it. I was told five people total would read it by some shitty people. So I wrote it expecting five total people would read it, and told myself at least I'd enjoy it, and I could use it to learn. In other words: I had ZERO idea TRT would take off like this. None. Nada. Zip. AND LOOK AT US NOW, BABY. FUCK THE HATERS, 6 YEARS AND GOIN' STRONG.
Based on my outline, we're a bit over halfway to the end!
I hope you enjoyed these TRT funfacts. And I hope you know: this fic isn't just me. It's you, too. This fic has become so much larger than just me. It's the TRT playlist you've sent songs in for that keeps me inspired when writing. It's the fanart I look at to give me a boost. It's your sweet comments and likes and kudos and messages that encourage me when I'm sick or depressed. It's the people who've made friends over this fic, or who've been inspired to write fic themselves, adding beautiful works to the community that we all use to keep going. It's all of this love for both TRT and Matt, and I'm so happy that I've been able to contribute in at least a small way in keeping Charlie!Daredevil love alive even after the show's been gone for years now. I love you all so, so goddamn much. I love this fandom. I love TRT with all my heart. Thank you so much for being a part of these past six years through cancelations, through your high school and college years and beyond, through my ups and downs of moving and sickness and fiberglass and pandemic craziness, through late night chapter drops and wild twists and turns.
And I hope the next few years as we enter the second half of this story are just as amazing!
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Don’t Go Baking My Heart - Part 3
Summary: After a breakup, you decide to pack up your life and move to Westview. A coworker recommends you join the local community's cooking class in order to settle into the new town. It sounded like a great idea, you could learn a new skill (that you desperately need) and meet new people. However, nothing could have prepared you for the green-eyed beauty you met during class. Maybe you'll end up leaving the class with more than just a basic understanding of cooking.
Taglist: @xxxtwilightaxelxxx
Word count: ~4.1k
Masterlist
Part 4
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How to Know You’ve Found the One
Waking up the next morning, you couldn’t help but reread the text on your phone with a smile. You haven’t been this happy in the morning in a while, and you knew it could only mean one thing - but you weren’t ready to admit it yet. It was no secret that you had the tendency to fall hard and fast. You were a hopeless romantic and led with your heart. Many people said they’d admire that trait about you and gushed how more people should be this way - before later going on to break yours. You’ve dealt with a lot of heartbreak, with your last relationship being the last straw. There were things you knew that you needed to work on - boundaries you needed to set within yourself - to ensure that your future relationships wouldn’t end like the last.
So you wrote it all in a letter. Detailing your hopes and dreams for the future, but most importantly being brutally honest about the patterns you tend to follow when falling for someone, despite wanting to break out of it. No matter how much you liked Wanda you didn’t want to fall into old habits. Not that anything would be happening anytime soon between you two - based on last night, Wanda is going through a lot more than she’s letting on. It was way too early to even think about getting into a relationship right now - considering you just met - but you couldn’t help but feel your heart race at the thought.
Dear Y/n,
If you’re reading this then you’ve found yourself with a bit of a crush. Who am I kidding, you must be really down bad if you’re reading this now. There’s no need to panic, who better to help you navigate during this challenging time than you from the past. I’ll make this nice and easy, but the first step is to breathe. You don’t have to fight it, It’s okay to enjoy this feeling - the rush. Just don’t let it consume you. You don’t always have to be the one to initiate things. Allow yourself to take the backseat this time and let them set the pace.
Deciding to live by your words, you prepared for your day. You could do this, and maybe this was the best thing for your situation. You would be a fool to deny the connection you had made yesterday, but you could tell that Wanda was clearly going through something right now. You didn’t want to push her into anything she wasn’t ready for or worse, do something that causes her to push you away. You were willing to let her set the pace, and if friendship was what she needed now, then you’ll do just that. Sending Wanda a simple good morning text, you set off for work and for the first time since moving to Westview, you felt excited for the day ahead.
___
To say that Yelena was surprised to see your smiling face as you walked into work today would be an understatement. Usually, it would take you at least two coffees and a meal to draw a genuine smile from your face during the workday.
“Someone looks happy, would you like to share with the class?” Yelena looks intrigued as to what has you in such a good mood today.
You try to hide your smile as you look away. You contemplated revealing everything that happened after class yesterday. You would love to have someone to confide in but you had to stop yourself. It was too early to say anything now and considering the circumstances you felt like you’d be breaking Wanda’s trust by discussing the more intimate details (aka Wanda breaking down). It definitely wouldn’t be a good start to a friendship, and if you planned on getting closer you’d need Wanda to have faith that you wouldn’t go gossiping about her private life (even if it is with your best friend).
“Can’t I just be happy to see my best friend today?” you say hoping she buys it. Who's to say you weren’t happy to see Yelena today?
“If this is your attempt at trying to suck up to me after yesterday, then you seriously need better material” she looks at you skeptically, clearly not buying it. “Plus, I forgave you after you gave me our precious creation, it was delicious”
“Actually, I don’t remember there ever being any sort of discussion regarding the pot pie. Just you saying goodbye before quickly running out of the building carrying a suspicious container” you recount your last memories of seeing Yelena. “But if it went to a good cause, who am I to question anything. I’m just happy it’s allowed you to spice up your usual diet”.
“Hey, don’t try to change the subject. What’s up with you today?” Yelena rolls her eyes not liking your last comment or your attempts to dodge her questions.
“It’s seriously nothing” you reply, not wanting to admit the truth of what has you feeling good today. “Can’t I have some mystery to my life?”.
“No” Yelena looks at you like you’ve grown another head. “It’s a girl, isn’t it?” she asks bluntly.
Your eyes widen and a light blush dusts your cheeks. It’s embarrassing how well she knows you.
“Really? I’m happy for you Y/n, she must really be special if she has you like this” Yelena was genuinely happy for you, knowing how hard it’s been for you to make any sort of connection since you’ve been here. “So, tell me about her”
And here comes the hard part. You needed to go about this smartly, Yelena must not - under any circumstances - know the identity of the woman who’s stolen your heart. You needed to be cool and nonchalant about this.
“She’s perfect” you immediately gush. “I’ve never had this feeling before about anyone this quickly, I mean I barely know her. I don’t think anything is going to be happening between us anytime soon though so you cannot say anything.” you ramble. Definitely, way too much information that you planned on divulging to her.
“Don’t worry I won’t. But if you’re saying this then it must be someone I know” she’s piecing this together much faster than you hoped. “Hmmm…Do you want to tell me or should I try to guess who it is?” she has her hand on her chin as if a detective on their latest case.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea” you start but she’s showing no signs of stopping. Shifting your eyes nervously, you look at your cup of coffee and blurt the first name that comes to mind
“Sharon”
“Huh, as in the barista?” she never would have guessed that you would be into Sharon Carter, based on how shallow your conversations have been so far. When did you even get her number, you literally only talk about coffee when you’re in the coffee shop she works at. “I was gonna say, Wanda, I mean you could practically smell the tension between you,” she admits, starting to feel less confident about her answer after your revelation. How could she have missed this supposed connection you had with Sharon?
“Pshhh, you must be seeing things,” you say as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “I don’t even think Wanda likes me that way anyways,” you say sadly, staring blankly at your computer.
“Sure whatever you say Y/n, but you’re an idiot if you don’t see the way Wanda looks at you” she doesn’t say anything further, and you were thankful for that. You began to dwell on her words - it couldn’t possibly be true. You didn’t know why you were psyching yourself out, I mean, this is the best possible scenario. Yet, something inside is preventing you from fully believing it - a part of you that knows that once you get your hopes up it would only end in disappointment.
I know it may make you feel anxious or insecure, causing you to question whether the connection you felt was real (and reciprocated). And, I’m not gonna lie it’s gonna be difficult, giving up some control of the situation and letting the fates decide, but I promise you it’s worth it. Let them prove to you that they can make an effort. You need to recognize that the progression of a relationship isn’t dependent on one person. And when the time finally comes, and you receive that one sign that confirms the feelings between you is mutual, it’s the best feeling in the world.
Wanda :
Hey, sorry I’ve been pretty busy today. Will you be free this Friday to meet up? I want to see you again.
—
It’s been three days since you received Wanda’s text and now it was finally the day you’ve been waiting for, Friday. Sitting in the coffee shop, you’re nervously awaiting Wanda’s arrival. You may or may not have come 30 minutes earlier than the agreed-upon time. You take a deep breath and try to remind yourself to stay calm. I mean it was only your first time hanging out with Wanda outside of class. You simply needed to look at this situation as two friends hanging out and not a date.
It was about another 15 minutes before you saw a brunette walk through the door. She anxiously looked around the shop, trying to find an empty seat before making eye contact with you. She seems surprised to see you before relief floods her face. She immediately walks over to you, with a smile.
It’s too early to decide anything yet, but take notice of everything. Are they always late when you arrange to spend time together? When they first see you, is this their first instinct to smile or grimace? Consider this moment, the official first impression - it will be the deciding factor in if this moves forward.
“Hey, I wasn’t expecting to see you here so early” she greets you nervously. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long”.
“Hey Wanda, you didn’t I just got here a minute ago, don’t worry” you greet her, the small lie slipping past your lips with confidence. She looks at the table, noticing you’ve already ordered a medium coffee and two bagels.
“And you just so happened to order all of that and it arrived half-eaten?” she asks knowingly, having to suppress her giggle. “The service here must really suck”.
“It’s not too bad” you scratch your neck, knowing you’ve been caught. “I would love to buy you something though, from the uneaten side of the menu” you rush out, desperately wanting to change the subject.
“Smooth” she teases. “I’ll take a Jasmine tea and a muffin”
You quickly stand up from your seat and go to the cashier to order. You even surprised Wanda with how quick you were but the look was quickly replaced with an endearing smile as she watched you stumble to the front.
“I want a Jasmine tea and a muffin” you order.
“Wow, Y/n. Did you finish the coffee and bagels already?” the blonde barista jokes.
“Haha, very funny Sharon, but I’ll have you know that this isn’t for me” you reply. You and Yelena are regulars at this coffee shop, so it’d only make sense that you were friendly with Sharon and the other baristas here.
Sharon looks back to where you were seated and notices the pretty brunette waiting at the table.
“Ahhh, I see. Well, in that case, I’ll make it on the house” she says kindly.
As she prepares your order you continue to make casual conversation with Sharon, with her trying to get as many details about your little date. Wanda watches this interaction from afar and has to suppress the little green monster threatening to come out. She doesn’t understand why watching you speak to the blonde barista makes her feel so jealous, considering you were only friends (for now). She has to hide her glare, when you turn back around, giving her a bright smile and holding up 2 fingers - indicating her order should be ready soon.
“Here you go” Sharon says as she hands you the tea.
“Thanks Sharon, I owe you one”
“No worries but hey” she says with a concerned look. “Have you noticed that Yelena’s been acting weird?”
You instantly knew what she was referring to. You and Yelena are regulars at this coffee shop, so it’d only make sense that you were friendly with Sharon and the other baristas here. Ever since revealing to Yelena that you liked Sharon (romantically) she’s elected herself as your wingman and has been trying to leave hints to the barista that you wanted something more. It’s been very embarrassing but Sharon didn’t seem very perceptive to it until Yelena flat-out asked if she found you attractive. Thankfully, she was a good sport about it and brushed it off. You hoped that she would have just forgotten about it, but appears she has not. Now you were put in the awkward position of explaining it to her, which required a delicate hand. You look at Sharon kindly.
“You know how she is” you left it as that before rushing back to your table. You seriously needed to have a conversation with Yelena about being subtle. You could only imagine how much worse it would be if she finds out that Wanda is the one you actually liked ( *cough cough* read the Valentine's Day Special).
You set her order on the table and Wanda looks at you thankfully, as she begins to eat. The conversation flows between you two, and it feels refreshing. You both couldn’t hide your smiles as you finished your outing.
Walking out of the coffee shop together, you noticed that Wanda’s car wasn’t in the parking lot. Wanda walks with you to your car, brushing against you with each step. When you reach the door you turn back to Wanda.
“I enjoyed this, spending time with you today” Wanda fiddled with her hands nervously. “I don’t want it to end”, she finishes glumly.
“Well it doesn’t have to” you have a hopeful look you weren’t ready to say goodbye either. “I’m still not familiar with the area -unless for food- so would you maybe…want to come to my place? We could watch a movie and cook dinner together, I’m still not too confident with my skills in the kitchen” and now you’re rambling. She looks at you inquisitively. “Feel free to say no, I don’t want to pressure you” you rush out, beginning to regret your invitation.
“You’re seriously asking your cooking instructor to come cook for you” she teases. “Wow Y/n, I’ve never had one of my students propose such a thing. Are my classes not enough?”
“Well what can I say, I’m in desperate need of private lessons. I learn better one-on-one” you flirtatiously joked. Her cheeks went red instantly, and you couldn’t hide your laugh.
“I’d love to,” she says warmly. “Plus from what Yelena’s told me, you’d probably starve tonight if I didn’t come”
“Hey, she’s much worse than me. I at least have a variation to my diet” you defend yourself. You couldn’t believe that Yelena had the audacity to complain to Wanda about your eating habits.
“You both could use the help,” she says attempting to stay neutral. You give her a knowing look, but she avoids your eyes. “Shall we get going?”
Walking over to the passenger door of your car, you open the door for her.
“After you milady,” you say charmingly. She gets in shyly, before flashing you a small smile. You close the door and walk back to your side. This is a good day.
—
When you arrive at your apartment, you lead Wanda to your door. Nervousness filled your body, this was the first time you’d invited someone over -not even Yelena has seen your apartment yet.
“I just want to warn you before you go in” you begin to unlock your door. “Lower all of your expectations. I’m still in the process of decorating so” you open the door, allowing her to go through first.
“Wow” she walks at everything your living room has to offer. A couch and tv, nothing else. “It looks great”. She eyes your kitchen before looking at you for permission. You walked with her to the kitchen, knowing she was not gonna be too happy with what she finds.
“Your counters look a bit bare, but I guess that makes sense if you barely cook” she analyzes before opening your refrigerator. “It’s completely empty!” quickly closing the door, and opening your cabinets. “WHY DO YOU HAVE NOTHING IN HERE?” she glares at you.
“I just haven’t gotten around to it yet” holding your hands up in defense, you know it’s a weak response.
“You’ve been here for more than a month, how much more time do you need?” she gawks, she couldn’t believe this was real.
“You-you’re not allowed to look so surprised, I joined your class for a reason. What happened to your optimistic ‘anyone can cook’ attitude?”.
“Most people come to learn a new recipe or two. You need an intervention” she says bluntly. “I’m depressed just being in here. I don’t even know how you’ve survived this long” she looks so disappointed when she gets closer to you, offering a gentle hug and rubbing your back. You enjoy it until you begin to feel her grip tighten. Uh oh. She must have seen it.
Pushing you away, Wanda walks to your trash can and points at the numerous takeout bags - from the last 3 days - piling up to the top.
“Really?”
“I thought you’d be happier to see that I’m eating well” you joke, but Wanda doesn’t seem to find it very funny.
“We’re going to the grocery store now. Let’s go” she orders, leaving no room for any further discussion on the matter. Part of you was surprised by her tone, but a (much) larger part was kinda into it. She looks hot when she’s angry and in charge. “Now” she’s looking at you impatiently, not wanting to leave the lady waiting - you scramble to get your keys and follow her out the door.
—
The next thing to ask yourself is: How do they make you feel? And you have to be honest, don’t let the butterflies influence your answer. Can you truly be yourself around them, or do you feel like you have to play a role in order to get their acceptance? You need to know the difference, as this has led to the downfall of all of your relationships. You need to start living for yourself - as your authentic self - even in your relationships. Don’t change yourself, if they are truly worth it then they’d accept you, flaws and all.
You’ve never been one to like going to the grocery store. For one, you did not know how to buy food, like a responsible adult that is taking care of their body, or whatever Wanda called it. In your defense, your taste in food hasn’t changed much since getting older, so you bought things when you were a kid. Which was why your cart filled up with more snacks than actual food you had to cook. Wanda changed that quickly, getting a cart of her own and filling it with healthier options. You had honestly thought she was shopping for herself until you got to the checkout and she asked you to watch her cart while she went to grab something. She took your cart and never came back.
Leaving the grocery store, you actually felt happy. You were not looking forward to putting the groceries up but you’ve never had so much fun in the store. Usually, you’re being dragged around the store, not having much of a say over what’s being bought besides the occasional and reluctant ‘fine but only one’. Wanda never made you feel bad about yourself and when you saw her exiting the store with a small bag of your favorite snacks understood she wasn’t trying to completely bulldoze your life. You’ve never had someone care this much about what you were putting into your body, while also taking consideration into what you liked. Her plan wasn’t to completely change but just to make sure you’d live longer with a more (age) appropriate diet. Maybe if you could watch Wanda talk animatedly about the importance of organic fruits and vegetables in your diet, you’d always enjoy your time in the grocery store. You’ll definitely have to ask her to come with you next time, though you know she’d probably volunteer.
Arriving back home, Wanda arranged your new groceries into your fridge and cabinets. She had a satisfied look on her face as she looked at her work. She was almost satisfied enough to leave. Keyword almost - she didn’t have much faith that you would just order takeout again instead of cooking the food you just bought. She helped you prepare a simple meal and you enjoyed it while watching Friends in your living room. You learned Wanda was more of a sitcom person, preferring shows from the 50s-60s. When you revealed that you’ve never seen sitcoms from this era she almost took your remote to start an episode, but you came up with a compromise by designating a night where you would replicate the events of today but instead end with a huge binge of these shows.
—
Your day with Wanda has officially come to an end, much faster than any of you hoped. As you pull up to Wanda’s house, you see her car in the driveway. Wanting to make sure she made it inside safely, you walk her to the door. The walk is silent with a light tension growing between you as you stand there just looking at each other. You want to make a move, but you still weren’t completely confident that Wanda would want that.
“We should do this again” You give her a small smile.
“Yeah we should,” she confirms. “I might need to make weekly visits to make sure you’re eating well” she ends teasingly.
“Well, I’ll hold you to it then,” you say before turning around. “I’ll see you soon Wanda”
“Please” Her hand grabs yours, preventing you from going any further. “Don’t go yet” her voice sounds so weak.
Pulling you back towards her, you see the hesitance in her eyes. Concerned, you move closer to her and squeeze her hand - that was still holding onto your tightly - in reassurance. She really doesn’t want you to leave yet. In a leap of courage, she leans forward first, and you follow suit. Your lips connect in a soft, yet passionate kiss, even you began to feel overwhelmed with emotion for some reason and she pulled away - you understood why.
“I want this, but I don’t know if I deserve to have it” she ends with a whisper, you could barely hear what she said. Tears started to escape her eyes, but before you could ask what was going on.
BEEP
Suddenly the sound of a car horn makes you jump apart. You hadn’t even noticed the other car pulling into the driveway.
“Mom!” a tiny voice screams from inside the car.
“Dad brought us to get ice cream, look how many scoops mine has, '' another voice says, as the car door opens.
Two young boys run towards Wanda, eager to tell her about their latest adventure to the ice cream shop. They didn’t even notice you standing there until they felt their mother stiffen, as they hugged her legs. Looking at you with innocent, yet questioning eyes, they pull away from Wanda and stand in front of you. Wanda uses this time to quickly wipe her face.
“Who’s this mom?”
“This is my new friend -”
“Y/n, and I was just leaving. I hope you enjoy your ice cream boys” you cut her off not wanting to stand there any longer, you rush back to the car - mumbling a quick goodbye. As you walked back, you saw a tall figure exit from the car and walk up to Wanda and the children. He ruffles their hair, noticing they were still watching you as you sat in your car. Gathering their attention, he stares at them as he opens the front door.
“Okay kiddos, back inside we go. And let’s avoid making a mess this time” he says the last part firmly. You’re too distracted with your own internal meltdown to notice that the man completely ignores Wanda as he walks into the house. She looks so broken.
Deciding you’ve outstayed your welcome, you drive back home trying (and failing) to keep the tears at bay.
And if you listened to everything I’ve said so far, and they’re still here then you probably met a keeper, don’t ever let them go. For the first time ever you know your heart will be safe with someone and you’ll take security in knowing that they wouldn’t break it. Enjoy this feeling.
Ouch.
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A lot has happened in the past couple of days in the Gaylor world. Many feelings. Much theorizing. And a definite frustration.
Meanwhile I'm just sitting here nodding at everything 'cause I don't know what to really think since my IRL is occupying most of my brain right now.
This is the first time I'm kind of sitting down to allow myself to think about all this
First of all fuck you CNN. And or the guy who wrote that stupidly vague article. Educate yourself on queer history and take a class or hundred on reading comprehension, unpack your homophobia, read that NYT article again, look at Taylor's lyrics and wording again (or for the first time 🙄) and then you can give your evidence based opinion on the matter.
Second of all I know a lot of people are frustrated with Taylor. I am too but to be quite honest I didn't expect her to defend us even though she should. And that is mostly just my coping mechanism with all of this. She has her own life and she is a human that decides what is at the top of her priority list on life and in business and whatnot. We are not high on that list and that is just something I personally have come to accept. But I totally get everyone venting amd wanting to hold her to a standard and I really appreciate that from you guys. I think I'm just to involved with holding people in my IRL to certain standards than to think about holding a billionaire celebrity to them. I just want you guys to know I think your feelings are valid. I thank you for feeling irritated because it shows we care about ourselves and our community and the person we have all come together for.
Third of all. Why stay for me personally? I don't know. I'm still curious and hopeful I guess. Even if it takes years for Taylor to come out or I just end up seeing her flagging for years and years to come it is just such an interesting story to see unfold.
Alright I think that pretty much sums up the thoughts that have been sitting in my head and I thought I'd share in case anyone was curious. That's all for now folks. Love to you all and I hope you all are taking care of yourselves in any way you need to. 💚
#back to trying to figure out my personal issues#this was a nice break though#gaylor#gaylor swift#lgbetty#friends of dorothea#taylor swift
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What’s absolutely insane to me is that 10 months ago I started writing fanfiction on here thinking that no one was going to read it. I didn’t think my writing was all that good, but I decided to take a risk and put myself out there. It’s by far one of the most vulnerable things a person can do is post their writing publicly.
When I first started writing my OG Joel series BIAHD, I never thought anything would come of it. I was just writing for fun and like most of us, TLOU was living rent free in my little brain.
Fast forward to December 9th 2023 and all I gotta say is wow. I can hear little Gianna saying “we wrote that much? We told the stories that we wanted to tell? We made all these friends? And we’re doing something we love?” That’s who I find myself writing for is a little Gianna who always felt like she was different from the other kids. Always with her head in the clouds and stories in her mind that never quite made it down on paper.
Perhaps that’s why I became an English minor in college. I have to give some thanks to my freshman year English professor who personally took the time to talk to me after class one day to tell me that my writing is amazing, and I should consider becoming an English major or minor. I wrote a lengthy essay on Heathcliff and his character study and she absolutely loved it.
I’m feeling sappy as shit right now because this year has been a whole bunch of ups and downs, but writing has become my comfort, and I am so honored to be able to share it with each and every one of you in this community.
My advice to everyone who wants to start writing, but is apprehensive or afraid of judgement is to just do it. Write down that thought, that idea. Write what makes you happy, what makes you feel. Write what you want. Write for yourself. Write short fics, write long fics, write fluff, smut, angst, everything In between. Write reader inserts, OC’s, AU’s. Whatever your heart desires.
I for one can say that we as writers all started off somewhere, and you can too. 🤍
-Gi
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Monday... Menu?
Hi all.
The astute among you will have noticed I've mostly been away. Well... now I'm back, and I want to try and do things a little differently around here. This is, I guess the TL:DR version of what I'm about to write, some of which will be under a cut I suspect, because it's kind of long.
Be patient with me though.
At the end of August in 2023, the new school year started, and as a Special Education teacher, it's aways a bit of an insane time. I work at a very large high school, and out department should have had seven teachers. We had four. We were understaffed, scrambling to cover the classes for the missing teachers, and basically drowning in the new referrals - even MORE students showing up with special educational needs.
Add in to that mix my own neurodiversity, mental health needs, and a very busy home life, and something had to give. I was coming home stressed, exhausted, totally triggered almost 100% of the time. I literally didn't have the spoons to created content - especially not as it was all largely ignored anyway, only adding to my sense, rightly or wrongly, of failure.
No, I'm not being bitter or calling anyone out, just telling it like it is, and the result of all that was I didn't have the time or energy to be fully present here like I wanted. I pottered, I reblogged, but rare was the occasion when I actually wrote anything of worth.
But I miss my communities, and I miss being here, and now we're coming to the last quarter of a nutso school year, I'm feeling I might have a little more time and energy to jump back in.
However, some things have changed, and I want to reflect the new/old me in a way that is more authentic. so here are some of the things I came up with this afternoon that you might see appearing on this blog in the coming days and weeks.
Monday:
The Monday Menu: what it says on the box. A plan for the week
Monday Mmmm: There won’t always be one of these, just when something troubling or interesting crosses my path.
Mental Health Monday: Post related to mental health
Monday Meditation: A link to a meditation or guided meditation - maybe even sometimes by me.
Morrigan's Monday: The Morrigan is my Matron Goddess, and I might sometimes share insights She gives to me.
Tuesday:
TMI Tuesday: Ask me anything, it can be about fic, life, spirituality, whatever you'd like.
Teaser Tuesday: Where I share something I've been working on
Teaching (Tales) Tuesday: A story that teaches something that has crossed my path.
Tolkien Tuesday: where I share something Tolkien related.
Wednesday:
WIP Wednesday: News about by Works in Progress - fic and non fic alike.
Whacky Wednesday: Something weird, funny or otherwise strange.
Warrior Wednesday: Something fierce, powerful, not necessarily feminist but definitely a self advocacy thing.
Wellness Wednesday: Where I share something related to physical, mental, emotional or spiritual health.
Thursday:
Three Things Thursday: Where I share three things about a fic of anyone's choice, just send me an ask.
Thoughts on Thursday: Random thoughts or rabbit holes I may or may not have fallen down.
Friday:
Final Line Friday: Where I share things, and a final line of something I've written that week.
Fandom Friday: Sharing something about one of my fandoms
From Gwydion's Vault: Gwydion is my Patron God. In these posts I'll share some kind of wisdom or message I have received from Him.
Saturday:
Saturday Secret: Where I share something from backstory, or some kind of secret about one of my WIPs
Spiritual Saturday: A post based in spirituality - mine is Wicca.
Sunday:
Seven Sentence Sunday: Where I share seven sentences from something I have written that week.
Shifting Shape: Something transformative, either that I've written or that I've read, or otherwise come across in my journey that week.
Not everything will happen every week. Just this is a way to keep things fresh and interesting, to encourage me to write and share something each day.
Let me know in comments or reblogs if there's anything else you'd like to see me post.
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(via Small Town, Small School)
https://www.unitedbyprayer.com/ubp-today/small-town-small-school
For the first time in our lives, we moved to a very small town in Southeast Missouri. We lived in Central Arkansas for over 25 years. My wife and I made this move to be close to our daughter, son-in-law and our precious grandchildren.
The small town we live in now, population 1,000 is quiet, people are friendly and we could not have moved to a better community. Yet, a few miles up the road, we ask that you pray for this town with us.
My daughter had 3 children that were enrolled in school in this small town up the road from us. Prior to us moving here, we were aware that one of our grandsons was being bullied at this school, being the new kid in school. The family had moved back into the community about a year and a half prior to us moving to our small town. Our grandson, this same grandson being bullied, was injured playing in a school basketball game where we found out that he had torn his ACL. At the time of the injury on the court, he was instructed by the coach to walk it off, not knowing what his injury was. While in a wheel chair at school one day, he was bullied again, when some boys started throwing basketballs at him in the gym. These incidents were reported to the proper staff yet nothing was done, it was who's children they were and our grandson was the new kid on the block. Even though it is clear in the school handbook, the staff did not deal with the issue.
My daughter recently unenrolled our grandchildren from this school due to many reasons with the school being behind on their curriculum along with the unprofessional approach the leadership and teachers use. Our grandson, is a very good kid, a teenager who just wanted to fit in, very athletic, a honor student with manners. He acted up one day in class, cutting up, was reprimanded by the teacher and instructed to go out in the hall. He sat outside the classroom on the floor until class was over. He recently had his ACL operated on and found it somewhat painful getting up from a sitting position on the floor. After this class was over, there was an award ceremony in the gym for a student accepted at a college. When he was down in the gym, he was instructed by this same teacher, to sit down against the wall in a hall away from the ceremony. He told the teacher that it hurt him to sit down, she started hollering at him, she was standing next to another teacher at the time, she should have walked over to him to speak with him instead of ignoring what he was trying to express, a real concern, instead it was just a show in front of this teacher and other nearby students that was degrading and very unprofessional, bullying as such by the teacher, her failing to listen to his concerns, all on video, thanks to a concerned student nearby.
I wrote an email to the administrators of this school, prayed about it and asked my daughter for her thoughts. I still have the email in my drafts today. God has led us to not send out the email nor release the video to the public. Instead, we write this story and share the facts of the events we have experienced with you today. You see, God has a purpose for everything in our lives, we will go thru peaks and valleys and he is always there. God led my daughter to take her kids out of this school to home school them and 3 weeks later, she and the kids all realize why God led them to this very difficult decision, they are learning more at home, it is much more advanced and they are happy!
It is our job as Christians to call out others Christians in leadership roles to correct their methods. We know that many of the teachers and administrators go to church on Sunday, the teacher that was yelling at our grandson is the youth leader at the local church right behind the school.
Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. We are not writing this article to judge
We are given wisdom, discernment, and the Holy Spirit to judge between the good and the bad, and we have been given the Word of God to judge between truth and error. But we are also warned of the serious consequences and destructive force of the hypocritical, sanctimonious criticism of other believers.
This article is facts of events yet upon my daughter taking our grandchildren out of this school for better education and protecting them from leadership that fails to enforce their own school policies, they judge along with others in the community in person and on social media without knowing or ignoring the facts.
You see, as leaders in any school, business, church or community, some decisions are not always going to be popular with others. Following and enforcing policies and or laws are an intricate part of a leaders job regardless of the popularity or who it is. God has given us our procedures (laws) to follow in life and man has made laws and policies to protect others, failure to follow or enforce these has a negative impact. Think about how this story effects the bullies' if there are no consequences for their actions? Inaction has a negative effect on all who are involved including the leaders at some point.
We ask you to pray with us for this school, the children attending it, the teachers and the administrators that lead this culture. We also ask that you pray for this community, small town set in their ways and who's who: James 3:14-16.
More about who you are in this small town, determines how you are treated- Story coming soon! 0 Comments
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L'écriture est suspension pour moi de toutes les sensations autres que celles qu'elle fait naître, qu'elle travaille.
- Annie Ernaux
Annie Ernaux was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature, “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory, declared the Nobel communication committee when awarding the Prize. Her work, which is mostly autobiographical, turned her in a prominent French literary figure from the unassuming teacher in literature at the University of Cergy-Pontoise. She wrote about 20 novels all around the theme of “impersonal biography”.
Ernaux is 82 years old and has been publishing for nearly 50 years. She has long been feted in France, where she is one of the few female authors to appear on school curriculums. The extraordinary thing is how long it has taken the anglophone world to catch up. Despite a flurry of translations around the turn of the millennium, it was only in 2019, when her masterpiece The Years (Les Années) was shortlisted for the International Booker prize, that she began to be widely noticed.
Ernaux began writing - in secret, without her then-husband’s knowledge - in the French tradition of auto-fiction, a term now bandied about beyond recognition. Les armoires vides (1974) and the two books that followed were novels based on her own life, written in a conventional form. The last of these, La femme gelée (1981) was about a married mother of two who has been “frozen” by domestic life. It offered a view of women in society that would preoccupy her for decades and led readers to assume she was talking about herself.
At that point, she made an emphatic switch from fiction to fact: “No lyrical reminiscences, no triumphant displays of irony,” she resolved. She wanted to write about her late father, who had run a cafe in Normandy and from whom she had become distanced partly as a result of her education. Halfway through writing the novel she began to feel “disgust”. A novel, she later explained, was “out of the question. In order to tell the story of a life governed by necessity, I have no right to adopt an artistic approach.” Instead, she would “collate” her father’s words, tastes, mannerisms, and give an account not just of the man but of his generation and class.
It’s important to understand this about Ernaux’s work: though it is written in memoir form, she features largely as an observer or as a conduit to a shared emotion.
Despite their modesty and precision (many of her volumes run to fewer than 80 pages), the books aim to show something broader than any given self, which is why she is sometimes thought of as an ethnographer or sociologist. In the book she eventually wrote about her father, La place (1983), later translated as A Man’s Place, she admonishes herself: “If I indulge in personal reminiscences… I forget about everything that ties him to his social class… I have to tear myself from the subjective point of view.”
This viewpoint was combined with an extreme attentiveness to, and an erudite knowledge of, literary style. “This neutral way of writing comes to me naturally,” she said. “It is the very same style I used when I wrote home telling my parents the latest news.” La place was the first of her books that she felt was not “false”, and it marked the beginning of a life’s work.
Other volumes were borne of, among other things, terror (her mother’s descent into dementia), desire (a love affair with a married man), physical pain (an illegal abortion), familial pain (the death of an older sister Ernaux never knew), shame, grief and guilt (should she be setting any of this down at all?). “Literature is so powerless,” she writes. And, in Passion simple: “Sometimes I wonder if the purpose of my writing is to find out whether other people have done or felt the same things.”
The Nobel jury praised her for “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”. Her work is part of a European tradition of auto-fiction that has since produced Elena Ferrante, Karl Ove Knausgård and Ernaux’s young compatriot Édouard Louis. She now joins sixteen other French recipients for the Literature award. They include major French writers who became true leading figures of international literature of the 20th century: Romain Rolland (Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915), Roger Martin du Gard (1937), André Gide (1947), François Mauriac (1952), Albert Camus (1957), Jean-Paul Sartre (1964), Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (2008), and Patrick Modiano (2014).
#ernaux#annie ernaux#quote#french#literature#writer#author#nobel prize for literature#nobel prize#femme#arts#culture#france
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Writing Original Characters – a rant that might be useful
Hello, everyone. This is a post different than usual. If you don’t know me, first of all, “hi” and second, I should probably talk about my experience in story writing beforehand.
I’m currently a 19-year-old student in communications (I’m not a native English speaker as you might be able to tell), but I also used to be a multimedia student in high school. I started writing and adapting scripts when I was 12 as a fun hobby with my friends, but I also found interest in writing at a young age – though you can say that passion of mine always stayed “saved” in a drawer. I truly started writing scripts for school at 15/16 and I still do, as well as short fictional stories for my personal entertainment. This next university semester, I’m also planning on taking scriptwriting classes. At some point in my life, I also wanted to be a critic of cinematography in videoclips, series, games etc. but that was just another idea I set aside. Even though I keep my ideas to myself, I’m currently writing a fanfic related to a band (it’s a Slovenian band called Joker Out, I truly recommend their music).
Just like in “actual writing” – whatever that might mean to you – when you bring life to original characters, you want your audience to feel something towards them. I’ve recently finished writing chapter 7 of my fanfiction and while I adored writing these past two chapters, they kind of “destroyed” my perception of my favorite chapter until then (Chapter 4). I’ll not go into heavy detail for the sake of avoiding spoilers for the two people who are reading it (I’m not joking, I’m this passioned about something that a maximum of 2 people are reading), but I got myself rooting for the “we didn’t work out” couple instead of the main ones.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it, after all, my original character had a personality, a background, and character flaws that are crucial to any character in any media format (and trust me, I’ve been in a rabbit hole of character and movie writing analysis videos lately) - it’s the way your audience gets to connect with your character.
However, I made a huge mistake. You see, even though I try to write in the POVs of the characters, I decided to break the “archetype” of “Oh, cutsie new character is in love with x and y person and they have to choose who they like. Here ya go: a list of all things they have done in their life”. In my story, I decided that the character already pre-existed and had already interactions with the characters pre-story. And it’s not until chapter 4 where we first get their POV which also doesn’t explain much about the character… So, by the time we get to chapter 6 – which, again, I’ll not dive into– we still know nothing about this character and. We know their name, their age, their love for their country and their job, and that they are a little bit emotional and apologetic.
As I wrote more, I’ve come to realize that the only chance I’ll get “to fix” my character for it to still be likable is by getting more info out of them or else the story will just get boring and annoying. I thought I hated the character because I made the mistake of making it so similar to me. In reality, the character just lacks information. It’s good to hold back some information from the reader, but not too much. I know all their traumas, I know all my character went through and I know why their flaws make them great, but the reader doesn’t.
Honestly, the conclusion to this personal rant of mine is: Don’t be afraid to give information to your audience. People need something to relate to and especially in this day and age where the spam of our concentration was somehow reduced to less than a fucking goldfish. More than just telling compelling or realistic stories, have characters whose stories people want to dive into and learn more about, and share them in an interesting way.
If you’ve made it so far down here, hi again. Thank you for reading this. And feel free to share your thoughts and comments and other writing tips you might consider important. I want this space to feel safe for young writers and open for debate any time ;) I might be a little chaotic most days, but hey, deep down I have some nice thoughts as well… And don’t be like me: a little bitch who never follows their dreams ^^’ cya soon.
#i thought about this after my driving class lmaoooo#writers on tumblr#writings#writeblr#writing#original characters#original writing#writing rant#random rant#rant#fanfictions#fanfics#writing tips
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Sorry for the uh. Incoming word vomit.
I think your au has rotted my brain a tiny little bit. While i was reorganizing my closet yesterday (which also included taking the doors off) literally all i could think about was write neglected fic in german you know you want to you know you could do some things there you know you should write neglected fanfiction and integrate all these phrases popping into your head. No we’re not letting you work on any of your other stuff but how about you write neglected - and on and on and on. All this from like. One pm to midnight when i finally went to sleep after all. I am very surprised i didn‘t dream about it (because i think that may have happened before! I sometimes get moments of my brain not remembering the annoying noise waking me up is my alarm on my phone and instead making up wild shit it is instead. Like i remember hearing that noise and Just being like, oh shit, the lesbian horse commune! I have literally no idea what this meant, but anyway one of those turned into a weird thing where i thought it was a timer and i remember the thought “it’s fine, they’re just teen boys, they just need therapy quickly” (or something along those lines. Just much less coherent) and i am reasonably certain that was about that just from what i remember from my dream beforehand) and yeah. Successfully infected me :D
this is hilarious, thanks for sharing with me hah. sometimes this is what its like with me too, i'll wake up and go to class and all i wanna do is draw my damn turtles.
the lesbian horse commune!
man, I'm always saying this tbh. I get it.
also if you wrote a fic i would read it, even if i had to put it through google translate or something i WILL consume fanart/fic like my life depends on it.
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COACHING TUTORIAL - WEEK 2
to begin this class, we were presented with the words:
snorkeler
scuba diver
deep sea diver
these three ideas were an analogy for how deep we needed to get (in terms or working, research, creative processes etc) in order to do the best that we could, and get the best grades.
we also drew pictures around these three words! this was a timed activity so nothings perfect ofc (my personal favourite was the scuba diver one - trying to draw a coral reef in 5 minutes was definitely something)
this part of the class was kind of a refresher of all the spaces, resources and facilities that are available to be used on campus and that we should essentially make the most of it; if you do you’ll get better grades!! (with not even a mention of how a lot of this stuff can eat into actual class time and it’s really weird having to work around that but whatever🤚🏾)
after this activity, we broke into our coaching groups and sat in tables corelating to the Exploring Studio Practices theme we were interested in taking a closer look at for the project.
i sat at the language table! (with francesca, jasmine and daria - made some new friends this class😁)
at this table we all discussed our interest in language for the project and took notes from what we were saying.
at first, i held an interest in how language was explored through displays of kindness and affection, or how different dynamics would display different types of emotion towards each other (ei. familial and platonic - not the same but a lot in common!)
daria showed me the 7 Greek types of love (i remembered looking at these in RE years ago!!) and we spoke about a little about them since there was a shared interest in all of us around dynamics and body language.
i then thought a bit more about my own interest in language and thought about my connection to music and what this might mean for a project centred around language.
following this train of thought, i gave tiny interviews to my friends on the table about what music meant to them, what they liked and how it translated as a mode of communication/ a language.
im glad i decided to do this because it provided a lot of nuanced ideas early on that i am still interested in exploring now!
in darias case, speaking in English while learning was made easier by treating the language like a script on a tv show - and for jasmine, concepts that are essentially the same thing will be explored in different ways in Western and Eastern culture and knowing languages in both gives a new perspective.
on our table there was a general agreement that music was something that could convey feelings and ideas thar ordinary speech would make a lot more difficult. or maybe, some ideas can only be explored with music exclusively - i wrote to myself that learning to read and write with musical notations can be considered a language in itself and there is STILL more to it than that! for example in cultures where music is much more intuitive, there may not be any written notation for specific inflections or ways of playing/singing/performing.
i really like the idea of looking at something musical and i gen think i could talk about this forever 🛌🏾if anything, i would really like to think more about what i would like to direct my focus on. music notation being a language? the language of performance?? - which could very easily tie into body language and how a person might carry themselves to convey an idea? IDK LOTS TO THINK ABOUT!!
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If people require proof for how disability is socially constructed, I would recommend to look at the discourse that relates to people with autism, ADHD and dyslexia at the moment.
When I grew up with dyslexia I was struggling severely and got bullied for it and put down, had teachers give me worse grades because they thought I was a second class pupil who was taking up space. One teacher literally told me I did not belong on a regular school.
While I was doing my master thesis I stumbled upon a discourse that argues people with ADHD, autism and dyslexia should not be viewed as disabled but more so as neuro-diverse individuals because their brain works differently. It is so incredibly weird to see people argue for that, because the idea behind it is that it could end the stigma for those people, since there is such a huge percentage of people with ADHD, autism and dyslexia who are affected by it. This would probably be good for those who are affected by those disabilities. But it also creates a narrative which swoops away a huge percentage of people with disabilities, making the people who are classified as disabled severely less / smaller. And maybe I am guided by fear and an irrational thought in this matter but I think there is strength in numbers, when we fight for disability rights and I am kind of worried that solidarity for the disabled community will fade away if ADHD, autism or dyslexia are no longer considered to be disabilities. This doesn’t mean it would not have benefits to no longer be labelled as disabled, but it still feels like a similar experience of discrimination that has once united us will then fade to exist.
If that would happen we would have proof on how disability is socially constructed and mainly shaped by medicine and neuro-scientists who can just lay claim to the idea that those people no longer count as disabled. They would be neuro-diverse instead. At first this would still be considered a disability due to the people who were brought up with it being one, but over the years that number would decrease and be replaced with a new mindset.
If you then adapt the same logic to other disabilities and do a „what-if“ scenario, you would very quickly realise how certain institutions hold the power on whether or not someone is classified as disabled, with a stigma attached to it that says: „second class human being“. I mean like at homosexuality. At one point that was labelled as a sickness, too. You still have people using the label of homosexuality being a disease. But it isn’t labelled as such anymore. And when I wrote my master thesis about queer people and disabled people I found out that the LGBTIQ community often shared similar struggles to the disabled community, because of the way our society is and was structured.
Another argument that came to mind is that neuro-diverse people will just get a different label, while also not being adequately compensated for their disadvantages in every day life, leaving them in a group of their own to fight for their rights.
What are other people‘s thoughts on the matter, regarding the differentiation between disability and neuro-diverse people? Like how do you feel about that change and how would that affect the fight for social justice etc?
#2023#disability#ableism#adhd#autism#dyslexia#lgbtiq#Social construct#medicine#Social Justice#neurodiverse discourse
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For the writing asks: 🥺🤡🛒🤲
🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?
Grief, I recently wrote Johnny sitting at Mr. Miyagi's grave and I like cried through most of it. I'm tempted to cut it. 😂 Here's a clip.
"I mean I didn’t really try did I? I haven’t tried for anything in so long. Like truly try. Except this. Except the dojo and I’m not even good at it. Daniel’s better at it. All my kids, even Miguel likes him better.
And I get it.
Like what do I truly have to offer?
When we go to the roots of it…Daniel’s roots are you and mine are…Kreese. I’d pick you any day too.”
Also just tender care. From the same WIP and same conversation with the grave, I have this.
"He held this umbrella over me and I saw on the ride back that he’d let the rain fall on him, and I’d never been so aware of how damn pretty he was. Like on a level I knew he was pretty, but damn. And I didn’t know how to handle it."
Love and care, healing, sort of understanding one another or trying. That kind of stuff.
🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?
Here's part of something I cut from Feast for Fools:
“And you’ve checked? He hasn’t run off? Mr. LaRusso didn’t come and scare him off did he?”
Emile walked across the room and pushed open a window.
“Careful! Light on your feet like a cobra!”
“Yes Sensei!”
“Cobras don’t have feet sensei!”
“Of course not Demetri, thank you, but be careful nonetheless.”
“I’m just checking…sometimes you don’t know.”
“I have seen a real cobra and I know what feet are. But I don’t know why you’re worrying, you schemed up the terrible community service project.”
“It’s a great service project sir!”
“You show up unannounced once a week.”
“Yes, to try and get you into the right decade. It’s been hard work! But you sent a text that wasn’t all in caps yesterday.”
“Did you ever think that I sent them in all caps for a reason?”
“I thought the key was just stuck,” Demetri said.
“Sensei has typed up a totally normal message before," Miguel said.
“He has?”
“Yeah, he caught up with Ali, and wrote like ten pages. I told him it was too much, uh since then it’s been all caps.”
“It sounds like he’s talking in all caps," Cheyenne said with a frown. “Is he always that loud?”
[if it wasn't clear, Demetri schemed up for a school requirement that he had to do community service for like a national scholars thing to help the elderly, but it's just Johnny, so like once a week he harasses Johnny into learning something.]
🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.
This is one of those questions where as soon as someone asks you forget all of them. 😂 You might be able to answer that better for me.
I think hurt/comfort, healing, loneliness and found family.
Food. Flowers.
I tend to want them to be comfortable enough to tease and laugh with each other during a 🍆🍑 time. So usually there's a dumb choice in there somewhere that they can laugh about. But I also want them to be nice to each other generally. So like comfortable loving teasing.
🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?
Oh boy which one should I give you? How about the one I made a deal with Cookie about? 🐔
Daniel didn’t know what to say as he limped towards the other end of the room only for the teacher to spot him and tell him they had assigned seats. And his was right next to Johnny. Alphabetical order.
Johnny looked so stunned to see him. Blue eyes looked at him wide-eyed as Daniel limped over. He pulled out the chair for Daniel whose arms were full and Daniel was so shocked and then Johnny seemed so embarrassed that he’d done that that he turned a bright tomato red and looked away.
The face he gave in the next class they had together where they were put next together made Daniel laugh. The sort of stunned shock.
And then the third.
And a fourth.
They had six classes out of eight together that semester. And every damn one of them put them right next together.
In the fifth one Daniel slapped Johnny’s shoulder and grinned wide, “Long time no see Johnny,” he’d said while Johnny groaned.
“Miss me?” was what he said in the sixth class gently nudging Johnny’s shoulder, leaning in close and watching him turn that bright red again.
He’d been playing with fire, but a pink Johnny was better than a broken defeated Johnny.
Thank you for the ask 💖, you can find the post with others here.
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Insane anon back okay so basically- I grew up in a VERY Christian household (as I'm sure you can imagine from the pig incident yes we're calling it that now) my grandparents are extremely Christian and nearly all of my aunts and uncles are too, and the ones who aren't still do stuff like "don't say oh my god it's disrespectful" and go to church if asked and whatever. My town is generally like this too so everywhere I go I'm most likely going to see or hear something to do with religion. So I didn't really pay much mind to religion considering I'm really little and too busy collecting Pokemon cards ponder the possibilities of heaven or hell, much less moral philosophy and ethics which we're led to believe is what gets us our sentences in the first place. So my school taught us religion, but we had to have our parents say if we could attend or not. Take a wild fucking guess what my parents then condemned me to. So then I had to show up to a religion class like every day to learn about God and such. Now, because my school had only labelled the subject "religion" and not "Christianity" (which is the only religion they even taught us, dickheads) my small child brain registered that religion = Christianity and they're just two interchangeable words for each other. Which is, to say the least, not correct. But I didn't know that I was 8 and so I went on like this for admittedly longer than I should have qeygdjoaudgjldugas but anyway- I learnt all about Jesus and Mary and God and everything there was to know. Well when I say learnt I really mean "picked up as much information as I could" cuz let's face it teaching a religion class to a herd of 8 year olds who have had next to no prior experience to religion is pretty much just "yeah tbh I would murder my brother too I get it" "I wonder if Jesus played bass I feel like he would" "mr religion teacher what's a virgin and why is Mary one?" So yeah fun. But then eventually religion class ended for the term. Except. I was friends with a few other kids who were Muslim and Buddhist and Hindu and other religions that weren't Christian. And keep in mind I still don't know there's more than one religion I think it's just another word for Christianity. So while they're sharing their experiences with their gods and traditions and such, I'm registering it all as one big thing. And so my small child brain is like "oh I guess there must be just a bunch of different gods in religion huh cool I wonder when lunch will end." So all this time I'm walking around with the idea of like every god to ever exist (yes even the what 500 I think Egyptian gods they had) just existing at the same time and this made complete sense to me. And Diya my friend I am going to be completely honest with you I didn't realise religion didn't just mean only Christianity until I was like 11 it's embarassing but true 😭 I also thought Islam was a country. I'm so glad no one on this webbed site knows my irl identity I don't know how I'd cope with you people having a name to put to this 😭😭😭 but yeah point is don't be a dumb shit like me and teach your kids what religion actually means please I can't stand the thought of there being more of this nonsense. Also my religion teacher didn't believe in evolution and thought David Attenborough was manipulating us all. Idk how he got that job. But yeah. Bonus story: I asked my religion teacher "wouldn't Jesus have been black because of the place where he was born, why am I seeing a bunch of skinny white people" and he told me to ask Jesus myself and gave me a colouring sheet and walked away and I'm 8 I don't know how to commune with all-knowing immortal beings so I just wrote yes and no on my eraser and flipped it a bunch of times. So yeah if you guys were wondering Jesus is a black trans man and he loves abortion and autism and hates billionaires this is a fact because I said so okay peace ✌️
this is why we hate religion classes that only teach christianity, and that last bit about jesus, preach 🙏
#diya answers#anon#my old school had bible studies class as compulsory#even as a senior year subject when you're meant to have full agency over your classes
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Why do People I (Mostly) Admire Has A Boring Host Yet Irresistible Podcast?
I will sometimes watch a Ted Talk or listen to Ted Talks Daily. The topics are fascinating -- robots, sex and imagination, microdosing, and whatever the hell the Spermageddon is. The speakers match that dynamism in their manner, tone, and intellectual muscularity.
Now imagine this. A stodgy, flat-lined, toned economics professor has a podcast in which he holds conversations with smart, captivating people who are apt to shoot insights into the audio verse at a rapid-fire pace.
How could a podcast like that succeed?
The answer is a definitive "I have no idea," but it does.
Launched in August 2020, People I (Mostly) Admire finds University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt, co-author of the best-selling Freakonomics books, interviewing a wide array of thinkers, researchers, government leaders, authors, and the occasional celebrity.
In fact, in 2021, Adweek announced its third-annual Podcast of the Year Awards, and it chose People I (Mostly) Admire in the Best Interview Podcast category.
If you don't know, Levitt is the co-founder of Freakonomics, which is a collaboration between writer Steven Dubner and University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt, who have achieved success in publishing, radio and podcasts. Freakonomics was an early podcast adopter and has a loyal and sizable fan base.
In People I (Mostly Admire), Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt takes the podcasting reins and interviews some of the most interesting, unorthodox people around.
“The perfect guest for me is someone who's not only wildly intelligent, but also a little bit off the rails,” Levitt says. “Someone who thinks differently and who doesn't care at all how the world perceives him or her.”
Levitt has spent decades as an academic economist, “studying strange phenomena and human behavior in weird circumstances.” Now, in People I (Mostly Admire) he turns his curiosity to something new: interviewing some of the most interesting, unorthodox people around — from actresses to athletes, authors to inventors.
This is not your typical interview podcast, however, First, Levitt's vibrant mind and insightful queries encourage guests to go well beyond cursory responses and prepared talking points. Second, Levitt's roster of guests focuses on mental acuity and high-intensity intelligence instead of vapid oversharing about celebrity life. To his credit, Levitt is not only simply interested in eliciting responses from his podcast guests, but also in "fracking" for illumination and comprehension.
Take, for example, Levitt's first episode with Harvard psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, where Pinker speaks frankly about enraging people on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Levitt isn't a flashy interviewer and has a modulated tone and patient speaking cadence along with a willingness to draw out his guests into discussions that reveal something about them personally and a state of the world we live in.
After almost four years, how has Steven Levittsurvived in podcasting?
First, his guest list is top-notch, first-class, possibly genetically enhanced like Khan on Star Trek, and capable of thought bubbles that are beyond our comprehension.
His October 27, 2023 episode with data scientist Nate Silver should be required listening for all political enthusiasts. Listen to his March 1,2024 episode with "The Power of Habit" author Charles Duhigg, who wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Duhigg has written a new book, Supercommunicators," which I highly recommend.
In that episode, Levitt goes full disclosure and shares how the book helped him understand his own conversational weaknesses.
In one of my favorite episodes, Levitt tackles the criminal justice system. Talk about your tough nut to crack. On the episode, Levitt talks to Clementine Jacoby, who went from performing in a circus to founding a nonprofit that works to shrink the prison population.
Here's Levitt on the episode: "Clementine Jacoby started her nonprofit called Recidiviz around the same time I started my RISC center at the University of Chicago. We’re both trying to change criminal justice. And she’s having a lot more success than I am. I’m curious to hear how she’s made so much happen so quickly."
For people who think that locking more people away in prison will magically reduce crime, listen to this episode for a more thoughtful and ultimately more effective approach.
In many ways, Levitt is the academic equivalent of Lt. Columbo on TV. Levitt doesn't impress, and nor does he stand out with his dynamism or verbal skills. But his Columbo-like "oh, just one more thing" and deceptively profound questions ensure that no guest lets his guard down around Levitt.
If you like theatrical interviews with the pretense of scientific accuracy and the cherry-picking of low-hanging data, then listen to those two-hour Joe Rogan shows.
If, however, you understand the rigor of scientific investigation and the preference for data over confirmation bias, listen to People I (Mostly) Admire with Steve Levitt.
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WIP Questionnaire
The rules: Answer as many (or as few) of the questions about your WIP as you can.
WIP: The Lucien Project
1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?
I actually originally wrote this as a short story for a creative writing class about twelve years ago. I tried a couple times to adapt it into a novel, and then got busy with college and kind of forgot about it.
2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?
The song would be soft piano in a minor key, definitely originally composed by someone I care about because music is my other passion. I think the visuals that would go on screen with the music would look like Lucien's thoughts: flashes of dolphins, the hospital, the red-walled playroom , Aurelia, etc.
3. What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?
I have loved Lucien and Aurelia for a very long time. Part of what makes writing this piece hard is that I love them, but the story around them largely does not. I love Lucien because he feels like me, and I love Aurelia because everybody needs a friend like her.
4. What other pieces of media do you think your fan base would share?
I'm not completely sure how to answer this question. I think it would draw people who like Stanger Things, but I'd argue that The Lucien Project is in a different genre. It's about kids being forced to deal with things they are too young to be dealing with on their own.
5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?
I have always had a very set, tragic ending for this story. I don't want to write it, but, in my heart, I know that it's the way the story should end.
6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!
Animals are in The Lucien Project are more symbolic than tangible. Dolphins, because that's how Lucien says hello. Robin, because that's how Lucien sees Aurelia. (My dad thinks Lucien should be able to communicate with animals, and I'm still struggling with whether to work this in or not. There's a potential that Lucien could end up with a mimicking bird as a translator.)
7. How do your characters get around? (Ex. Trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)
So far, Lucien has only traveled on his own feet, around the halls of the hospital. Aurelia is driven by her parents in cars, and I can imagine her taking a train somewhere fancy.
8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?
Aurelia and Lucien have been separated for some time; I am working on getting their plot lines to align again.
9. What aspects (tropes, maybe) of your WIP do you think will draw people in?
The main character is autistic coded, and, hopefully, should feel relatable to some readers like him. (It feels relatable for me, at least. It's been healing to write it for the most part.)
10. What are your hopes for your WIP?
My goal was to finish the first, complete draft of the novel by my birthday. I have left the Children alone for far too long.
Tagged by @winglesswriter (thank you so much!)
not tagging anybody specifically - play if you want to!!
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