june 2024 monthly moments

Hello again, dear friends, I hope this past month treated you well. June seems to have fizzled away into the hazy summer air, as it does every year, and yet here I am once again startled at its loss. But, of course, every ending is a beginning and closing one door allows you to open a totally different portal to a magical new world. So, allow me to fondly reminisce on what this past month gave me that I'll be taking with me...

1. Rest. I am someone who is chronically on-the-go, much to the distaste of my constantly fraying nerves. I rarely give myself a break, be it physical, mental, or emotional, and if you're about to say that's just a form of trying to run away from my problems, lemme tell ya: that assumption is correct. Rest has always been something I've always had a bit of a contentious relationship with because rest typically brings time and time typically brings mental and emotional space and mental and emotional space typically brings contemplation and for me contemplation, unfortunately, brings The Anxieties™. But this June, after two months of mental health treatment...I just let myself rest. And you know what? I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you that my anxiety didn't creep in a bit, because it did. But I let those feelings and thoughts come and go and tried my best not to hang onto them for dear life. And that mentality? That mentality allowed me to rest a bit more than I usually do, and for that I am so grateful.
2. Motivation. With rest came a bit more mental clarity, which ultimatley allowed me to feel slightly more motivated than I have in recent times. I'm taking this summer and fall off from college, but, funnily enough, I feel more motivated than ever! I don't want to spend this down time just bed rotting. I want to make it meaningful. In addition to therapy, I'm thinking I'd love to volunteer and spend time getting out of the house with friends more often if possible.

I finally managed to finish a book and it feels so good!! Plus, it helps that I enjoyed the book too, haha! The book in question is Veronica Roth's latest release, a novella titled When Among Crows. I'll admit that I haven't read anything from Roth since I read The Divergent Trilogy (which was about a decade ago), so I was interested in checking out how she's grown as a writer. I was especially intrigued because despite The Divergent Trilogy holding a special place in my heart due to its themes, I can recognize that it was an objectively poorly written series. So color me surprised when I found that When Among Crows was incredibly well written!!! When Among Crows is an urban fantasy about monsters from Polish folklore and the people who hunt them. It's about the weight of carrying your wrongs with you, about forgiviness and atonement. And it's incredible in its whole. I won't go too deep into detail, because the synopsis already spoils a MAJOR twist and I think it's better to just go in pretty fresh, but what I will say is that this powerful novella is so worth the read!

First up, I loved Carley's absolutely latest hilarious, hour and a half long recap of Riverdale (part three)! Carley always has very humorous and on-point commentary about how ridiculous this particular TV series became as it progressed, and watching her videos on the topic gets me to quite literally laugh out loud! If you've yet to watch this YouTube video (or any of Carley's videos, for that matter) then you've definitely got to add it to your list!

I also really enjoy Rowan Ellis's video essays, and her latest one on the chronically online state of asexual discourse was very interesting. As someone who identifies as asexual herself, Rowan approaches the topic from a very knowledgeable and compassionate place. Whether or not you're asexual and/or see yourself as a member of the LGBT+ community, I think this video is an important watch!

Jack Edwards is one of my favorite booktubers despite our diverging taste in books, so I was eager to watch his video all about modern books he thinks will become classics. I think his picks and his reasoning for each were very thoughtful, and the video really got me thinking about which books I think will become classics. If you, like me, are a book lover, then this video is a must-watch!

• Practicing Active Gratitude