#my poor ap student

[theriverdalereviewer]

did a lot of realizing lately thank you kylie jenner

#we made fun of her for this. little did we realize how wise she was #see I have student taught at 4 VASTLY different schools #two of them were my old high school and middle school which were “urban” schools with mostly people of color and very underfunded #and obviously I identified a lot with those students because I too am a person of color with immigrant parents and poor #so I had sooooo much fun teaching them I felt very confident and comfortable taking command of the classroom #and I think my students really liked me #and then when I was at these two suburban schools with all white populations #and most of the time I am the only person of color in the room #I felt intimidated and I’d overanalyze my words and constantly ask myself if I sounded dumb or wasn’t making sense #and I just couldn’t understand why I felt like that because I had a whole year of experience and therefore I should feel more confident now #and then I finally realized that when im in a room full of white kids I automatically feel like I am dumber than them #doesn’t matter if the kids are in AP or college prep I just feel like im not good enough #and part of me feels like its because those kids aren’t as nice and genuinely are more intimidating to speak to #but once I realized that the difference was literally the demographic of students I have kinda been able to overcome the obstacle #its still there very annoying but ive gotten better with it

[nathanielzalexandria]

I love all the headcanons of "Steve is not dumb he's..." Hard of hearing, has poor eyesight, learning disability or his primary language is not English. I particularly enjoyed @dwobbitfromtheshire 's recent headcanon that he's hiding it because his father hates feeling inferior and only Eddie realizes that he is not dumb. But I would like to throw my own hat in the ring.

Steve is not dumb. Actually, he's quite smart and did quite well in school (because his parents would not expect anything less). He just wasn't into nerd culture and everyone just placed their stereotypes and rumours of him being a pretty and privileged rich jock who bought his way out of school but couldn't buy his way into college. Nevermind that he was in the top 10 students of his year and for most of his classes if not topping them and if not he wasn't failing the rest other than one or two science/math-based (rumours say the school forged those marks so that Steve could continue sports) and had a 3.6 GPA. It wasn't enough to get into his Dad's alma mater so his dad dismissed any of the other schools he got accepted into.

He does not try to hide his intelligence from Nancy or the Party, but Nancy had bought into the "Steve is simple-minded " narrative and the like before they got together and failed to realize that they are both in the same AP classes that were full of seniors and in any group or partnered project he more-than-well pulled his weight and had his own insights. So she spreads the narrative to Mike who spreads it to the rest of the party so by the time the events that befan with Dustin asks him for help with his "dog" and developed into concussed in the back of a car while a preteen drove his car, the kids have also bought into parts of the narrative. It doesn't help that he really isn't into the stereotypical nerdy stuff

Even his best friend Robin believed the lie until she worked with him and then got tortured with him by Russians. She eventually realises that he's way smarter in a practical sense than people give him credit for (he did raise himself since he was 11 or so) but does not think of it as stretching into the academic side of his life. She has not stopped calling him "dingus" though.

Eddie on the other hand knows better, which is why when a specific exam was coming up he turned to Steve.

He barged into the Harrington home a day when tye entire party was their.

"Stevie, you either have to tutor me or lend me your notes for this class. I am not failing this class and increasing the possibility of another year at fucking Hawkins."

Mike and Dustin burst out laughing at that before Steve can answer.

"I know you're e bad at that subject, but I didn't realise you were desperate enough to use Steve's notes," Dustin says with that condescending tone that means it should be obvious to Eddie.

Mike snorts at that derisively, "If he even has notes."

"Maybe," Lucas said diplomatically, "there are better options than using Steve's notes?"

Nancy steps up next offering some of her notes and flashcards since she took the class last year/is taking the class, "It's not my strongest subject but if we do a study group I'm sure you won't fail the class."

Eddie stares at the group with growing bewilderment as they agree that Nancy is the best choice while implying that Steve was not. Actually, they were acting as though he was dumb for even asking Steve, which made no sense to him.

Eddie turned his eyes to Steve. His posture by the kitchen island was much more different than when Eddie burst in. He had subtly curled into himself as if to make himself smaller, shoulders tense and a resignation on his face as if he's been through this conversation so many times before.

It was almost as if...

"You guys think that Steve is dumb, don't you?"

There was the type of silence that only comes when the quiet part is said outloud.

"No we don't think Steve's dumb," Robin begins and Eddie can hear the 'but' before she even said it, "But you know he wasn't good at the school part of school."

She continued to ramble on from there but Eddie did not hear any of it. He was too busy reevaluating the group he was with and rechecking old memories and facts to see if there was any inkling of truth to this strange idea that even the older teens should know isn't true.

It took him a moment to find the answer, and when he did he could not stop the derisive laugh that burst out and interrupted Robin's ramble.

"You guys fucking bought into the rumours, didn't you? I expect that from the kids maybe even Johnathan, maybe even Robin because of you became friends after he left school, but not from you, Nancy."

Nancy had that look on her face that she got when she was ready to argue but Eddie steamrolled over it.

"Jesus H Christ! Weren't y'all together for a whole fucking year? How do you not know that he was at the top of his year when you were together? Unless you dismissed that in favour of believing the rumours that his parents paid for his grades and the school wanted to make sure he kept on playing sports?"

He paused for a second waiting for someone to contradict him, but the look on Nancy's face was one of scrambling to defend herself. He sighed at that; she still wasn't getting it and it a sweeping look at the others proved they were lost too.

"Even if they paid off the school he would not have been in the top ten of his year, he would be like Carver and Hagan whose parents paid and their grades were just good enough to get into a decent college without too many questions. And they would not have kept on giving him high grades after he stopped doing any kind of sport in his last 2 years at that dump. Hell if Hargrove wasn't such a fucking beast at sports he would have been told he would have to repeat his senior year with me."

"It's okay Eddie; leave it go." He turned a fake sunny smile with his eyes tightly shut towards Eddie as if to pacify him.

Eddie turned to Steve who had yet to say anything throughout Eddie's diatribe up until that moment. He just continued to robotically make dinner for the party as though nothing was wrong, as though the hurt dripping off him didn't matter.

"I'm not letting this go! They had classes with you, some of which I'm pretty fucking sure were AP classes. If I had the attendance needed I would have graduated last year because of you, Stevie. So excuse me if I'm a bit annoyed that our friends are so blinded by a rumour that they can't fucking see your Salutatorian medal. Hanging. Right. There!"

All eyes except Eddie and Steve's turned in the direction that Eddie pointed at.

And there on the wall, was a framed silver medal with the word "Salutatorian" emblazoned on it. The party immediately burst into chaos amongst each other.

"Now, pretty boy, are you gonna tutor me or what?"

Or it goes something like that, I'm not sure.

#dustin immediately tries to bring up D&D and immediately gets shut down #later they collectively lose their shit when they find out he got into a college #pre steddie #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson

[moralesmilesanhour]

if you believe in me - 01

summary: You and Miles decide to make it official. Kind of. wc: 763 warnings: none a/n: I love setting my characters up for failure <3

next

Miles hadn't texted you at all since the kiss, but not for lack of trying.

He would begin to type out a message:

"hi".

No, too empty. Perhaps a bit creepy. 

Backspace.

"hey :)"

Would you expect him to use smiley faces? No, it felt too different to how he spoke in real life. Backspace.

Maybe he should rip a page out of his classmates' playbook. It always seemed to work for them when he peered over at their screens.

"wyd?"

He frowned at his phone in bewilderment. Why would he ask that all of a sudden with no context? 

Backspace. 

"Hey, Y/N! Just checking in to see how you're doing."

Miles mentally cursed himself when he realized how much the text sounded like an email.

He flopped down onto his bed in defeat, and checked his digital alarm clock. 7:30 pm. He had been sitting there for an entire half hour and could hardly get a greeting out, probably leaving you to wonder why the boy who had literally kissed you last week couldn’t be bothered to send a text. 

Miles knew that today would be special when his phone alarm actually woke him up - and from a dreamless sleep, at that. Normally the sun would practically blind him after the curtains were thrown open by his mother, yelling frantically about how he was going to be late in half an hour. The sky was miraculously just turning a periwinkle blue outside, and the possibility of actually getting breakfast seemed within reach for once.

Miles squinted to read the menu above him. Ordering a spicy beef patty before 8 in the morning sounded like a poor dietary decision, so he went with a bacon egg and cheese sandwich like everyone else. As soon as he backed up from the counter, he made the mistake of glancing to his right at the fridge containing drinks on the other side of the bodega, and his stomach dropped.

Your jacket was instantly recognizable, even from a mile away.

Miles threw on his hoodie and shuffled over to the aisle behind him, where he pretended to be preoccupied with a container of instant coffee while trying to keep his face covered. When he saw movement in his periphery, he ducked his head and inched his way towards the freezer that contained his prized can of Arizona tea. He was about to reach for the handle, just inches away from success, when your voice stopped him:

“Morales?!? Where the hell have you been?”

Fuck.

“Hey,” Miles gave you a tight smile as he turned slowly to face you. “How…how are you?”

“I’m good,” you nodded, before lightly smacking him in the arm. “Haven’t heard from you in a minute, though. Why I ain’t catch you in class?”

The boy shrugged. “I dunno. Still in the same seat every day. Maybe you just missed me.”

As he said this, Miles recalled seeing you in the cafeteria while making his way upstairs  the other day and ducking behind a trash can before your eyes could meet. You having gone back to your regular seat in AP Calc made avoidance even easier; he could simply time when he went over to his seat, a small crowd of students providing ample cover.

“Chopped cheese!” a man called out from the front, interrupting his thoughts.

“That’s me,” you said with a grin. 

“”Bacon egg and cheese!”

“And that’s me,” Miles replied as he spun around to retrieve his order, making sure to leave room for you to pass behind him after grabbing your sandwich.

Once outside, he realized that you were staring at him. Not just in passing, but expectantly. Was he meant to do something?

“What?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

“You like me, right?”

“I-um…yeah,” Miles’ eyes darted away from your face. “I don’t think I’d kiss anybody I didn’t like.”

“Don’t get smart with me, you didn’t text me at all afterwards. I was starting to get the wrong impression!”

He snorted, “Well, now you’ve got the right one.”

“Sooo…” you tilted your head. “Does that mean we’re like, a thing now?”

He tensed at the suggestion. ‘A thing’. You’d think it was obvious what that meant, but what did it really mean in tenth grade? Sit at home and kiss a lot? 

But your smile began to falter the longer he took, and the sight stung him.

“I guess we are,” Miles finally replied. He looked down. “What are you doing?”

“Holding your hand, duh!”

He let you intertwine your fingers with his, tentatively squeezing them in return.

#miles morales x reader #earth 42 miles morales x reader #earth 42 miles x black!reader #miles morales x black!reader #earth 42 miles x reader #moralesanhour

[teriri-sayes]

Reactions to Young Master Shield's Chapter 209

TL;DR - Lily worries about failure and disappointing her family. Everyone reassures and supports her. Cale meets academy staff and is overwhelmed by the welcome. Effric keeps saying stuff that makes Cale embarrassed. Sui and Alberu laughing at Cale's situation. A wanderer gatecrashes the event.

Lily's Worries The first quarter of the chapter was about Lily. She was happy that her brothers were attending, but also worried about her future. Like what if she failed? Fortunately, everyone was supportive of her.

CH said with a sincere and gentle smile that he couldn't study and was bad at it. Basen told her that he was bad at swordsmanship. And Cale told her that it was fine to fail. Her family would not be disappointed in her even if she failed. Awww~ 🥰

Effric's "Attacks" on Cale The entire chapter after Lily's part was so hilarious. Effric, the president of Roan Academy, dealt several blows on Cale that made him feel so embarrassed. And Raon's comments that his human's eyes kept shaking added to the fun. 😂

Effric: *bows at a 90 degree angle* It's an honor to meet you, LORD CALE! Cale: ... Various deans from other departments: IT'S AN HONOR TO MEET YOU! Raon: Human, your eyes are shaking! Effric: A lot of people wanted to hear your speech, and we barely managed to reduce it from the tens of thousands who wanted to. Cale: (Huh? How many thousands?!) Effric: We cleared all schedules today for your speech! Hahaha! Raon: Human, your eyes keep shaking! Effric: I'm sure you'll be a great role model for the students. And for us adults too! Hahaha! Raon: Human, why is your smile like a shrivelled persimmon? Effric: I am looking forward to it, Lord Cale. No, Commander Cale. Hahaha! Cale: ...Yes... I'll do my best...

Cale: *sees the academy plaza* Effric: What's the matter? Cale: It reminds me of the capital's plaza. Effric: You're right. It was modeled after the capital's plaza. Cale: *freezes* Effric: *smiles* I guess you remember that time. Cale: ...Pardon? Effric: Where the legend began. Cale: *freezes again* Effric: *talks more about Cale's shield legend in the capital plaza* Cale: *awkward smile*

Embarrassed Cale Next part was funny. The way to the podium had a red carpet laid on it, and Cale felt embarrassed walking on it while thousands of eyes were watching him. Raon's comments weren't helping him either, especially the one about how Sui kept laughing for some strange reason. Cale could only mentally curse and hold it in. 😂

Cale was dressed in his black commander uniform, so the students were very excited. And when Cale met eyes with a knight student, the "Shield" chant began and spread all over the plaza. Cale was embarrassed again, and Raon made it even funnier again.

Raon said that Alberu had arrived and was laughing out loud at Cale... 🤣🤣🤣 Poor Cale... 🤣🤣🤣

We did get some thoughts on Cale about his past. His KRS self found school life as dull, and he found speeches boring, so he decided to keep his speech short. And also a line about original Cale not having gone to school because he was busy acting like a trash.

Speech Curse is Real We were all expecting the speech, right? Unfortunately, Cale's speech curse is back! 😂 Anyway, we find out that CJS actually headed back to report to GoD after his time on the Central Plains. Cale had messaged GoD, asking to send CJS and reporting about his finding of the Five-Colored Bloods being like wanderers, but GoD ghosted him... 😂

As for the speech curse...

Cale to the students: Nice to meet you. Raon: Human, CJS is here! Cale: (Okay, I just greeted them...what now?) Raon: CJS said it was urgent! He said he could sense another wanderer nearby! Water AP: The sky is strange. Cale: *looks up the sky and sees an incoming black dot* Cale: (Is that a person? A wanderer? No, why is this always happening to me?) Cale: Damn it.

Ending Remarks I loved today's chapter. Reading about an embarrassed Cale is so fun~! 😂 And the speech curse at the end! 🤣🤣🤣 Given the chapter title, I guess we'll see the return of Cale's shield legend next chapter. I can't wait for Friday to come!

#tcf spoilers #trash of the count's family

[street-lamp-orange]

Hii :33 I hope you're having a great day or afternoon or night hahdahshsjsh I'm so funny

May I request an Azul, Riddle, Vil, and Malleus with a mischievous energetic reader? Prob has ADHD and absolutely hates doing nothing so they make chaos instead??? Romantic hcs ofc. Thank youuu!!!!!

☀ Chasing Sunlight ☀

Note : This took so long because classes have been kicking my ass right from the first day, and we had summer school 😭 Business studies is turning me more socialist than I already am lol

Azul

🐙 You are simultaneously the best and worst thing that has happened to him 🐙 On the one hand, he loves how full of life and energetic you are 🐙On the other, you add fuel to Floyd's perpetual fire, which causes him great distress 🐙Floyd takes great joy in goofing off with you, which in theory could keep him in control, but putting the both of you together somehow makes everything worse. 🐙Floyd's hobby of causing Azul copious amounts of distress aside, he really does love the way you are. 🐙Please, PLEASE drag this man outside. He works too much, he needs to give his poor brain a break. 🐙He probably buys you a few fidgets to keep your hands busy in class.

Riddle

🌹 At first, he was pretty annoyed with you 🌹 He really didn't like how mischeveous you were, and you causing chaos really didn't help his view of you 🌹 Of course, as he gets better with his on views on rules and strictness, and he did see the good in you with time 🌹 He loves how much light you bring into his life, although he does force you (mostly gently) to sit still long enough to get work done 🌹 However, he begs you to stop fucking with him with your miscelanneous pranks. Please (keep doing it 😈) 🌹 Please, you can't keep running off with fistfuls of hedgehogs at a time (no matter how cute he thinks you look)

Vil

👑 You two do not get along at first 👑He wants to be unstressed to prevent pimples, while you want to go ape shit 👑And your inability to stay still long enough to do any form of work is pretty irritating to him. 👑BUT THEN 👑 You two find common ground by sassing people around. 👑 Your words are the bane of nrc's student population 👑 It's glorious to watch Vil's ruthlessness with the playful way you absolutely demolish any poor soul on your warpath 👑 It would be in your best intrest to not prank him though, he does not take kindly to it. 👑 He does not have time for it, and you will find a 13 cm heel swiftly making contact with your head (/j)

Malleus

🐉 You remind him a lot of Lillia, so he's pretty used to being around someone like you 🐉 He's so sweet with helping you out with classes and stuff 🐉 He asks Lillia about helping you a lot, he's literally taking notes 🐉 And it comes in handy! Your school life gets about 10 times easier after he helps you out 🐉 He loves your pranks, and he's really impressed that you had the bravery to pull that with him. 🐉 He has literal heart eyes no matter who you are and what you do, he's just so in love with you <3

I will be slow with answering requests now as aforementioned, school is really kicking my ass. I will still try to write, and requests are still open, so please do send them in. Have a great day, and hope you enjoyed this!

#twst x reader #vil x reader #twisted wonderland #twst headcanons #malleus x reader #riddle x reader #twst #azul x reader

[earlgreytea68]

Pete saying the 8balls not from under the cork tree we are watching this basketballs game to the people in the suites made me feel a little sad. After all the talk of healing tour and mixing things up he still feels the pressure to play the old stuff? Limited to no Mania in the setlist and the somewhat poor reception for some of the post hiatus 8 balls. This is why we cant have nice things!

Awwwww! I wonder if that's why he was paying attention so keenly, because he's watching for the reception??? This makes me sad, though, because I'm still hoping for an AB/AP song for my 8 ball later on the tour hahaha.

I was wondering if really the issue is that it was distracting to him. I mean, if it was clear enough that he could literally see that they were watching basketball, it was probably distracting to him. It reminded me of how, when I lecture, I can tell when the students are doing online shopping in front of me or whatever. Like, you think it's not distracting to the person in the front of the room but it's super-distracting to feel you're being ignored. I don't call my students out for it, but I'd love to do what Pete did sometimes.

But you're right that he jumped immediately to "they didn't like the 8 ball song" in his monologue about it. Ugh. Hopefully Patrick, who still can't actually see on stage lol, reminded him of the kids all singing along in the crowd who adored it. It's hopefully Patrick's turn to nudge Pete about being confident about taking risks and trusting the audience.

There's this line Pete had when they played the Whiskey a Go Go at the HMT announcement, when he was looking out over the crowd and said that this was how it was in the old days, only with "fewer fucking suits getting drinks at the bar," or something like that. I wonder if it feels that way to him sometimes. They've got bigger and bigger crowds but there's always going to be someone there just to hear "Sugar." In the earliest days, the crowds were tiny, but if they made the effort to see them, it probably felt more genuine. This is all if Pete's head is deciding to focus on bad things instead of good, I think. Like all the fics we write for him, I'm sure he still struggles with that. And hopefully he had a bus ride with Patrick to help him focus back on exactly how many people were there with signs about how the band saved their life.

#fall out boy #fob

[capitalism-and-analytics]

How greedy are you that you do side hustles after working 60 hours a week?

I understand how it might seem like I was overextending myself by having a side hustle on top of working 60 hours a week. However, it was not about greed for me. The reason I was doing that is that I had specific financial goals (e.g. paying off my student loans within a year of graduating) and personal passions I was pursuing.

It was not about being greedy, but about personal growth and securing my financial future at the time.

Furthermore, as I alluded to in that last post:

1/ I was traveling every week, so I was usually stuck in hotel rooms 5-6 days every week and it gave me something I could do that distracted me from being bored.

2/ I was a workaholic for a large portion of my life and that's not something to brag about, it's just an acknowledgement of the mindset that I developed.

In HS, I would fill my schedule up with all AP courses and try to do any/all extracurriculars that I could.

In college, I worked full-time and went to school full-time for both my bachelor's and my master's degrees.

When I started at the Big 4, I was cranking out my last section for the CPA exam (e.g. FAR)

3/ I didn't realize it while growing up, but I grew up poor (relative to the US) and when you grow up poor and then you are given the opportunity to make money, you don't let it slip away.

TL;DR -> When you work/study 80+ hours for almost a decade, 60 hours feels like nothing. Now I work barely 40 and it feels like a cheat code.

#accounting #consulting #anon message #lovely anon #anonymous message #anon ask #anonymous #send anons

[thejudgingtrash]

Yass, time for adult!Percy!

I was wondering about life past the current Riordanverse and I really like the idea of gathering different possible jobs for Percy, for fics and for fun.

So here’s a few:

1. Teacher/Counselor

First of all, what kind of teacher? Is he an elementary teacher? Does he teach AP classes in high school? Which subjects? Public school or private school (let’s not forget, Percy spent a good chunk in his life in private schools as the token poor negro kid and was surrounded by awful arrogant rich kids like Nancy and Matt)? Montessori school?? And most importantly: no, I absolutely do not see it.

Percy’s ofc very compassionate and aware of surroundings, so he’d be on high alert with his students but with the current and former state in schools I don’t think he’s willing to get traumatized each and every single day at school.

2. Marine Biologist

Call me basic but since it’s essentially canon, Imma stick beside him (tbh I can’t remember anything past PJO lol). But marine biology is such an interesting and diverse field?? Like c’mon now!

Yes, it’s a lot more chemistry and math and physics than one might think but the possibilities? And the benefits with his powers? Let Percy get a minor in psychology and study animal behavior by actually interviewing them, IT’S A GENIUS MOVE IF YOU GET THE VISION!

3. Marketing Manager

Hehe. My field of study. Am I biased? Of course I am! Was this part of my fic Oh. It’s Them Again? Yessss, mama!

Again. Such an interesting field with many possibilities! And he’d get more than just a good check in NYC if he switches positions enough! Like… is Percy a digital marketing manager? How much does he hate Google, Meta, Amazon and co.? Is he working in strengthening brand awareness and if so, how? Is he forced to work in newsletter/email marketing? Is he a sales machine and constantly on the road? Or is he a key account manager and simply focuses on a handful of important clients?

Is he, as a disgruntled millennial, forced to work with spoiled gen z influencers he hates and has to figure out the TikTok algorithm like a grandpa on the sofa whilst unhelpful Annabeth is laughing at him (shut up Annabeth, we all know you use IG reels and occasionally YT shorts at best!!)? Does he accidentally go viral and HATES everyone calling him daddy in the comments??

Oh, the possibilities.

4. Firefighter/Paramedic

Hell yes. I saw someone else posting about this ages ago (if you can remember, feel free to @!). But this is so interesting. If you want to somewhat stick to canon and let Percy use his powers, this could be an option.

I see it, helping and saving people that way could be an option. Still, also more on the traumatizing side but I actually think this is more interesting than a teacher. And oh, the possibilities in stories are endless! Saving people and pets from burning houses. Coordinating shifts in the station, being a first responder… oof.

That said…

5. Doctor

Oof, I should really work on The Wedding Dance in the future even tho it’s hella minor plot point…

Hospital doc? Owning his own practice doc? Doing 1 first and 2 next? What type of doctor is he? Simply an internist? A gastroenterologist? Pediatrician (could be traumatizing)? A surgeon to let out his god complex? Okay, let’s note down surgeon for Annabeth… a neurologist? Endless opportunities. Where’s the PJO x Grey’s Anatomy fic we all need??

6. Hotelier

Whilst the service industry is incredibly fucked (pre- as well as post-Pandemic), this is also interesting. Let Percy and Sally own a bed and breakfast. What does it look like? How many rooms are there? How much do they hate booking.com and AirBnB for taking a good chunk of commission?

Where’s the hotel located? In Montauk? In Manhattan? In Greece?? What are the roles? Does Sally do the cooking and house keeping whilst Percy does repairs and is the receptionist/clerk?

Who are the guests?? You decide!

7. Chef/Baker

Ahhh… Chef!Percy my beloved, you will always be welcomed. So. Much. Stuff. To. Think. About. And yes, this will actually be relevant for one of my fics, IFYKY. Head chef, deputy chef, junior chef… did Percy go the Institute of Culinary Education? Did he go to Italy or France for a few years to hone his craft? Or did he purposefully say f Europe, let’s head somewhere else? What is his specialty? How much sleep does he get per week?

Also I’m never letting go of Baker!Percy and Sally who own their sweet cupcake shop and sell all kinds of sugary shit!

8. Stay at Home Dad

My fave trope, don’t get it twisted! While I think Annabeth and Percy realistically have one kid max plus two or three pets, I love the idea of Career and Business Woman!Annabeth and SAHD Percy who’s trying to make her life as easy as possible whilst tending the baby, trying to clothe the toddler and reminding their elementary school aged kid to pack their lunch.

A chaotic, yet amazing and rewarding life (which is still stressful! Just a different kind of stressful!)

Sooooo…

What do you think? Agreements, disagreements? Anyone who’s interested/in school for/already working in any of these fields? Do you think it’s unrealistic? Is it realistic?

Mayhaps, I’ll think about other demigods and what they can do in the future 🧐🫡

#pjo #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #percy jackson and the olympians #sally jackson #heroes of olympus #hoo #pjo au #adulthood

[deathsmallcaps]

(USA based sorry)

I’m definitely speaking into an echo chamber but like.

Nearly every algebra student I tutor ends up with a word problem involving the gender wage gap. And they’re all confounded by it and have no clue.

And a guy in my fucking Calc 3 class was like “wait you guys were serious? That’s real?” When it came up. BRO YOU’RE ABOUT OLD ENOUGH TO DRINK???

It’s amazing what is and isn’t common knowledge. Feminist history isn’t taught past “and then women got their right to vote :)))))).” With occasional mentions of Title IX and the late 1900s waves of feminism. Of course only in in-depth history classes, not general Ed. Wow.

I am not in training to be a historian or a history teacher, but by all that is right in the world I hope it becomes more normalized and common to speak about shit that is LESS than 100 years ago in depth when it comes to American History & culture. Wtf. I swear even when I took AP history* the professor was afraid to touch on that stuff. For some reason (happily) my English teachers were a lot more willing to teach about modern history & minority stories.

And this is just what affects my white anglo cishetallo abled-passing housed female life personally. I cannot truly imagine the feeling of personal erasure & irritation one of comes to other identities & issues that have only relatively recently been resolved, addressed, acknowledged or even only pointedly ignored. I am fucking angry FOR you and can’t wait for things to change. You ALL deserve better. Don’t forget that.

It’s not your job to educate these people or their children (unless you’re literally a history teacher or something) but I want to shake the people who decide these what gets taught until the cowardice & insecurity & thoughtlessness & malice & election-based anxiety shits out of their assholes and leaves their hearts hungering for intelligent, thoughtful & interested discussions on modern issues and genuine history that should not be squeezed into the last pages of textbooks out of fear of offending paper white & paper thin pride.

Human rights deserve attention. Human rights should not have to be a radical talking point. It should be both as natural and expected as breathing clean air & as ingrained and knowable as to be accessible in math problems.

There is so much to be done. And it is exhausting. But please know that you are not alone.

*interesting tidbit below but basically irrelevant to the above post

I took AP america history to learn about the parts of American history that are never, or barely, covered in history classes throughout the grades. Basically, if it happened outside of the Puritans-WWII, it’s got a poor chance chance of in-depth coverage. And while the class did teach me good analysis skills and some interesting facts, it mostly covered the exact fucking periods I mentioned above.

And you know what? Literally right before we took the AP test, our teacher told us “study up on periods 2-7” (im pretty sure there are 9 periods of American history, forgive me it’s been like 5 years) “they never test on 1, 8 or 9”. Guess what the essay questions were on. And guess what time periods 1,8 & 9 are? If you posited precolonial america, the mid 1900s and modern day, ding ding ding you’re the winner! :))))))

(AP classes are worth it if you’re bored and/or trying to cut down on the amount of classes you’ll take in college & thus save money. But a lot (not all) of the AP certified teachers will try to convince you it’s the be all, end all of learning in high school. Also the weighted GPAs are a scam. No one looks at those. If you’re worried about keeping a good average, stick to the class level that fits within both circles of ‘not boring’ and ‘not going to wreck your life’. You can take an AP test and have it count and not take the class. Just be warned it is genuinely difficult.)

#idk where this is went but I am feeling passionate #context: I’m in the middle of getting a Math Education degree and am avoiding homework

[curuxavermella]

Some Obey Me! Nightbringer commentary, up to Lesson 10 because I just finished it and I need to yell to the void about it 🥲 and for my own future musings when more content comes out...

I'm still missing some side lessons/hard modes because I need to get higher ranks to unlock them but the main story up to date is done!

First of all, I love a more chaotic MC. I also love time travel plots a lot, and how this game explores more deeply the relationship between the brothers: I felt they took it a bit more seriously than the og Obey Me! More seriously it's probably not the right word but... better paced? Which I like a lot considering they are still adjusting. I saw most of them struggling with issues I wanted to see in the og game and damn did I get fed. We haven't seen all of them in 10 lessons, but seeing them also worry about each other as they went through different shit was amazing, considering how they "joke" about leaving each other to their demise in the og game lmao. I liked this a lot more.

Also a day or two ago I thought about us still having the Ring of Light while progressing Nightbringer (I even went back to og Obey Me! to catch up... I left it on Lesson 68 and was saving up on rainbow sticks and AP, only for my dumb ass to forget that they have a promo of 0AP going on so I put on the seatbelt, grabbed my 70~ rainbow sticks and plowed through the damn thing up to Lesson 80 while I farmed some grimm in Nightbringer to level up my damn cards and continue the story when I was done. And I found out that yes, we still had the ring with us in the present) and how they would find out we had the thing. And lo and behold, on Lesson 10 Lucifer sees the Ring and flips his shit just like I hoped he would bc it's an important plot point and I was a bit worried they'd forgotten about it lmao. The brothers did see MC use the Ring before on Lesson 9 but Luci wasn't present and MC pulls a "oh they're just similar" and that's it bc they buy it lol I love them.

Also I thought it was weird none noticed we were human, but Diavolo was onto us on Lesson 8/9. He pulls us aside and outright asks and I was like "THANK GOD" bc SOMEONE between these powerful bastards had to notice eventually. I mean, I know people pointed out in og Obey Me! sometimes they can't tell and perhaps we've been with our demon and angel family too much so they kinda can't tell what we are. So. Yea. Also demons can change their appearance/don't always look like demons, so it made sense. But I still made fun of their radar lol.

And then Diavolo pulls a "you can't stay here as a human, the situation is already dire as it is" and I was like "WAIT NO GO BACK". I legit thought we could fly past it with a task, like the usual trials Diavolo puts MC through, but I underestimated how more serious Nightbringer was compared to og Obey Me! and at some point I legit believed we were going to get our ass kicked out of the Devildom by the end of Season 1 and we'd have to come back for Season 2, just like in the og game.

For the "Diavolo trial" (lol) I thought it was going to be the Mausoleum job Mammon mentions the moment we get back home, because it fits the usual MO (I had just done all the trials to get into the Student Council in og Obey Me!.....), but when we get there we meet Adam (who posseses poor Mammon) and hello there, YET ANOTHER MYSTERY IN THIS GAME, HOW ARE YOU? GOOD? GREAT! Leaving aside the whole Adam thing because that's a whole other suitcase to unpack another day and I'm not in the mood to revise Biblical history right now to look for Lilith+Eve stuff (and besides he said his beloved was in the Celestial Realm, so it can't be Lilith...... I think.) when he mentioned that a demon who called himself Nightbringer told him a human with the damn Ring of Light would lead him to his beloved in the Celestial Realm I almost flipped my shit. I kept changing my mind about the "unknown person" who sent us back being Barbatos because it could also be a red herring (god knows I've eaten those up way too much so I have Trust Issues with very Obvious Stuff), and past Barbatos didn't recognize us despite being able to see shit everywhere, past-present and future. But if future Barbatos wanted to keep his past self without knowing shit, I suppose he could also do it... So, yeah, I believe it's him, but for what purpose? I think he saw shit going down in the future and the only way to help us/everyone was to send us to the past without us knowing.

As an extra: before heading out to the Mausoleum job, MC wrote a goodbye letter for the brothers because of Diavolo kicking us out. When I tell you I got misty eyed xd like, damn. "Lucifer, be nicer to your little brothers." "I always had fun with you, Mammon." "We have to go bookshopping, Satan!" etc etc, it was all so sweet. We have it with us at the moment, but we didn't give it to them at the end Lesson 10 bc Shit Went Down (I'll get there in a second). Also there are little details, like them commenting how the "empty guest room" makes them feel so at ease thay they even caught Lucifer napping in there. Who tf is cutting onions.

I thought it would be a while until we revealed we're a human to the brothers but Lesson 10 had other plans (very cool Lessons 9 and 10 btw, with Beel's and Belphie's stuff going on and Lucifer trying to face Diavolo for the sake of his little siblings I love this man so much)

and then, after a Cool Heroic Moment after which we are left out in the open bc we used all of their powers oops, they leave us with this confrontation and A CRIMINAL CLIFFHANGER.

Lucifer doesn't exactly buy it for some reason because we're too op lol and Belphie is reclutant for obvious reasons. And they end it with this as the final blow:

And that's it!!! Good luck waiting for the next lesssons bitch. Have fun lol

Oh you think the next stage before the boss battle is going to be the end of this convo? Nope: it's Solomon and Simeon being cryptic. I wonder what Solomon told Simeon. He warned us about Time Paradoxes so I don't think he'd go that far to tell Simeon. Solomon did tell him something though, and we won't know what it is yet......

I am suffering here. But God Nightbringer gave me a lot of good stuff. I will eat this time travel plot like candy. I feel I'm being spoiled by the game with all the scenes they're giving me and I'm enjoying every second of it. Plus the dynamics, I already talked about the brothers between each other, but there's also new stuff, like Barbatos hating the absolute shit out of Solomon. After Solomon uses his pact on him to save our asses he takes revenge on the Sorcerer lmfao I KEEP WONDERING WHAT DID SOLOMON DO TO HIM TO GET HIM SO PISSED OFF?? But man that was hilarious do it again.

Bonus Barb: one of the last things you can say to him in og Obey me! is "I love you" so if he's Nightbringer it's going to be Fun (and I can't WAIT I've grown fond of Barbatos too agh).

Plus there's the whole Simeon being human issue, but he seems to be faring better at the end of the game. He keeps saying "He (Michael??? Their Father????) probably had a reason to do it" but it won't stop me from kicking some Angel ass ngl. It's gonna be fists out with Michael the moment I see him, I swear.

Plus I want to see the present demons losing their shit with MC disappearing. I bet they're all frantic o(-< and Solomon said he can go back and forth between fuckin dimensions, so he could probably go back and tell them we're okay???? But he hasn't. I think. This is a mess lmao poor MC and demon family. He does say if something happens to us Lucifer will have his head, so..... you can do it, Solomon, I believe in you jdfgsdg

I can now farm side lessons and hard mode at peace for extra scenes, wooo.... o(-< oh and there's new songs in Lesson 10, but only in Lesson 10. The duets/group songs remixes were there and they were a breath of fresh air ;u; I hope they add more.

Time to farm side content in peace and prepare my cards for when they release the next lessons............ whenever it''ll be. Sobs.

Edit: NEXT UP: LOSING MY SHIT ON LESSON 11 LET'S GO BABY

#Anne plays obey me! nightbringer #just thoughts I'm probably missing stuff I tend to go on way too many tangents oops #anyways I love this game #long post #obey me! #obey me! nightbringer #nightbringer spoilers

[beardedmrbean]

MILAN (AP) — Amanda Knox faces another trial for slander this week in Italy in a case that could remove the last legal stain against her, nine years after Italy’s highest court threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate.

Knox, who was a 20-year-old student when she was accused along with her then-boyfriend of murdering Meredith Kercher in 2007, has built a life back in the United States as an advocate, writer, podcaster and producer — with much of her work drawing on her experience.

Now 36 and the mother of two small children, Knox campaigns for criminal justice reform and to raise awareness about forced confessions. She has recorded a series on resilience for a meditation app and has a podcast with her husband, Christopher Robinson, and an upcoming limited series on her struggles within the Italian legal system for Hulu that has Monica Lewinsky as an executive producer.

Despite a definitive ruling by Italy’s Cassation Court in 2015 that Knox and then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito did not commit the crime, and the conviction of another man whose DNA was at the scene, doubts persist about Knox’s role with the victim’s family and the man she wrongly accused.

That is largely due to the slander conviction for wrongly accusing a Congolese bar owner in the killing, which was confirmed by the highest court in 2015. That conviction was only thrown out last November, based on a European Court of Human Rights ruling that found Knox’s rights had been violated in a long night of questioning without a lawyer and official translator.

Even now, Knox isn’t sure that a not guilty verdict in the new trial, which opens Wednesday in Florence, will persuade her detractors.

“On the one hand, I am glad I have this chance to clear my name, and hopefully that will take away the stigma that I have been living with,’’ Knox, who did not respond to an interview request, said on her podcast Labyrinths in December.

“On the other hand, I don’t know if it ever will, in the way I am still traumatized by it,” she said. “I am sure people will still hold it against me because they don’t want to understand what happened, and they don’t want to accept that an innocent person can be gaslit and coerced into what I went through.”

Knox said on her podcast that she expects to testify, but her lawyer said she is not expected in court for opening day.

The Kercher family lawyer, Francesco Maresca, said the high court’s exoneration did little in his mind to dispel doubts following Knox’s conviction by a trial court and two appeals courts, the first confirming her sentence of 26 years and the second raising it to 28 ½ years.

“This trial never ends,’’ Maresca told The Associated Press, obscuring “the memory of poor Meredith, who is always remembered for these procedural aspects and not as a student and young woman.”

Among his doubts, Maresca cited Knox’s confused retraction of her accusation against Patrick Lumumba, the owner of the bar where she worked part-time, and the verdict in Rudy Guede’s conviction for killing Kercher that maintains that the Ivorian man did not act alone.

Now 36, Guede was released from prison in 2021 after serving 13 years of a 16-year term handed down in a fast-track trial. Guede was recently ordered to wear a monitoring bracelet and not leave his home at night after an ex-girlfriend accused him of physical and sexual abuse. An investigation is ongoing.

Knox’s new trial will admit just one piece of evidence: her four-page handwritten statement that the court will examine to see if it contains elements to support slander against Lumumba. Despite having an ironclad alibi, he was held in jail for some two weeks before police released him. Lumumba has since left Italy.

Two earlier statements typed up by police that Knox signed in the early hours of Nov. 6, 2007 that contained the accusation, and were considered the most incriminating, have been ruled inadmissible by Italy’s highest court.

The four-page letter, which she wrote in the same 53-hour span of questioning over four days starting Nov. 5, reflects someone in a state of confusion, trying to reconcile what police have told her with her own recollections.

“In regards to this ‘confession’ that I made last night, I want to make clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion,’’ Knox wrote.

She referred to police statements that she would be arrested and jailed for 30 years and that Sollecito was turning against her.

Lauria Baldassare, an Italian lawyer who founded the Innocents Project, said the topic of wrongful convictions in Italy is starting to “create social alarm as it assumes important dimensions.”

He cited 10 cases of defendants being paid damages for wrongful convictions over the last decade, but said they faced difficulty in escaping the stigma of their initial guilty verdict — much like Knox.

“There is still part of the public opinion that does not accept the Court of Cassation’s decision, and these debates become a sport,’' said Baldassare, whose organization is independent from the Innocence Project that Knox works with. ”Italy does not have the maturity to accept an exoneration, because social prejudices are stronger than the finding.”

#nunyas news

[fiendfriend]

haha cirice noo dont engage in Gifted Kids discourse in current year youre so sexy aha

I’m going to be real; when I see people describing gifted programs as students being favored and receiving extra attention and extra support/help, I either think “oh, so you went to a Nice school in a Nice neighborhood”, or “you don’t know what you’re talking about and are making assumptions”, depending on the context given. I acknowledge this is unfair and it is absolutely a bitter, knee-jerk reaction. Statistically, gifted kids are most likely to be white and from a higher socioeconomic class/have some other form of privilege compared to their ‘non gifted’ peers - in many places, gifted kids very much are favored and benefit greatly from these programs while their peers are left to struggle or are left with the burden of the adults in their life viewing them as “inadequate” or otherwise “not gifted”.

The student population of my schools were primarily lower middle class or poor, and were non-white. The public school experiences of myself and my friends (both kids I knew during school, and friends I made as an adult) were all largely unsupportive/not conducive to academic success/in some cases abusive, regardless of whether we were in the gifted program, the equivalent behavioral correction program, the special education program, or no program at all. So, obviously my anecdotes don’t reflect The Research and Statistics on the topic. My perception is skewed. Yours probably is too!

This whole spiel is in response to something but it’s not worth reblogging or replying and potentially getting into it. I just feel like there’s absolutely no nuance to the subject whenever it comes around every once in a while. My cousin’s kid is going to middle school next September and this is a thing that’s just been on my mind a lot. I don’t want him to end up in a troubled teen program like I did, and I also don’t want him to end up in a gifted program like I did. They’re both unhelpful wastes of time at best and just… absolutely fucking soul-sucking at worst.

Growing up, our gifted program consisted of being given homework, reading, or schoolwork in either the same difficulty as other kids or harder, and in larger quantities. We’d then either be sent outside of class and into the hallway to do our work, or we were sat at a solo desk on the other side of the classroom/away from the rest of the class. We didn’t have entire “gifted program” classes because our school district considered AP classes and the gifted program to be different things. I don’t know if this is the same for other districts. Sometimes I see them used synonymously which just kind of confuses me.

Anyway, we were often not given help if we didn’t understand something, and were told that we needed to figure it out on our own and self-teach. There wasn’t enough of us to warrant teachers taking the extra time to teach more material when the majority of students needed the “general” lesson. This was the norm in my classes from 5th grade to senior year of high school when I was in my district’s gifted program.

But then, the Bad Worthless Delinquent Kids With Problems program (the behavioral correction program) that I was also enrolled in at the same time, for the same amount of time was... pretty much the exact same. Separated from the gen pop (under the guise of Eliminating Distractions in both cases) and given different work. We weren’t given extra help if we didn’t understand something because this work was “easier” than the general work. Mostly we did more worksheets, sat out in the hallway, or in a makeshift cubicle in the admin building with 5-10 other Troubled Teens. I had nearly straight F’s for the entire time I was in both programs. Never got my homework done, abysmal test scores, etc, etc. I only ever passed gym and the “study hall” period they forced me to take instead of an elective.

(Coincidentally, all the other kids forced into study hall were also in the gifted and/or behavioral programs. It was not a class you could choose to take.)

I very confidently say that both programs were equally detrimental to me and my peers, and they both equally contributed to me dropping out during my senior year. I wish that as a kid I was given the option to at least opt out of the gifted program, cause god knows they would never have let my ass out of the behavioral correction program with the way I was as a kid/teen. They’re all flawed, unhelpful programs. I think they damage everyone, enrolled or not, noticeably or not.

My friends who grew up in special ed programs or no programs at all have… most the same outcome of the experience. Granted we all grew up to be some flavor of neurodivergent and queer - adverse school experiences are kind of par for the course. But I see my experiences in them and they see theirs in me. And even the stuff that we can’t relate to, it’s so easy to see where they’re coming from and think “I can see how that would burn someone out” or whatever.

I don’t know. It’s not like I have solutions to this or anything. Or a way to neatly wrap this all up with a bow. I’ve never met an educational program that I liked, and I just get really frustrated when people are hurting about the way that they were treated in a way that shames people that didn’t have that exact experience. Every post I see it’s “gifted” kids saying “you don’t understand how bad we had it”, and “delinquent” kids saying “you don’t understand how bad we had it”, and “average” kids saying “you don’t understand how bad we had it”. Everyone’s fuckin suffering, might as well commiserate about it.

[therottingrota]

Wtf is actually wrong with you stop bullying Kate! Calling her mumbles??🙄

the video was filmed by the bbc and deeply concerning that you are finding these online meaning you are hate searching for Kate’s name and purposely trying to find negative stuff on her

Then, calling people deranged meanwhile you are out here being a tin hat and peddling major conspiracies when somebody is ill

Reading spare but refusing to talk about Harry’s misogyny and again talking about KATE

Oh and then trying to bully a nearly 80 year old woman just because she’s wearing baggy jeans? Just because you don’t like these people doesn’t mean you have to show such blatant disrespect toward them

Lol you can tell you are American as you are full on nastiness

Like clockwork anyone questioning the odd things surrounding the wales are automatic tinhatters.

I didn't call her mumbles. I said "she mumbles". Its not a secret, others have pointed out before. Here's a clip at a meeting with Jill Biden. She's mumbling some incoherent stuff. She's neither clear or articulate. That's why people are pointing out that that it was strange she sounded so crystal clear.

2. I'm not hate searching. The questions that are being asked, I found in the comment section of the AP youtube video. I didn't go searching for anything.

3. I've read the 1st part of Spare & I haven't finished reading the rest of your book. Know idea what misogyny stuff you're talking about. The passages I posted about Kate being demanding & personally I think whiney, are screenshots that I found on the twitter. I thought they where interesting cause people always call Meghan pushy and rude.

4. What are you going on about some 80 yr old woman? You mean Lady Colin Campbell? The "poor 80 yr old woman's" occupation is spewing rumors & lies about Meghan. I thought it was ironic that she was critiquing Meghan for being "sloppy" when she's no image of perfect fashion herself. Calling out her hypocrisy is not bullying. Also "the poor 80 yr old woman" has said all kind of wild stuff about the royal family & Queen Elizabeth. Colin Campbell has said:

The Queen Mother was born via surrogacy by a French cook

The Queen Mother really wanted to marry Edward Vlll

Queen Elizabeth II got around a bit and cheated on Prince Philip

The Queen Mother had an ilegitimate child

Princess Anne was the one who had concerns about Prince Archie's skin color

You wales fans have fits and spasms over rumored disrespect from Meghan and Harry towards the royals but quack Colin Campbell is hallowed among you people. Make it make sense.

5. Spare me the blatant disrespect rubbish. Neither Kate nor Lady Colin have done anything to earn my respect. Kate's whole world revolves around a system based of some outdated ideal of being somehow better because you happen to have the luck of being born 1st. She's ranks low on the polls of working royals & geriatrics pass her. I'm trying to think of something uniquely remarkable that she's done....The only thing I could give her credit is she's a nice mother to her kids, thats about it. As far as Colin Campbell the reasons I stated before in 4. are more than enough reasons as to why my respect for her is lower than hell

6. Critiquing Kate or Lady Colin Campbell doesn't make me American. What a dumb hypothesis. You realize there are loads of countries that lack monarchies. There are also loads of British people who are anti monarchy. Being critical of the monarchy isn't designated to a certain country🤦

#kate middleton #the princess of wales #lady colin campbell #british royal family #answered #looks like i anger another wales mafioso again

[detectivenyx]

also some literary analysis is just not fun with a certain crowd. I remember AP literature becoming my least favorite class because the class discussions were so so awful, I had to hear so much homophobic and racist garbage.

i struggle to see many activities that are fun to do with racists and homophobes (the list begins and ends at 'non-equal footing target practice where you are practicing your aim on them'). im pretty sure the issue here is that there was a lot of homophobic and racist garbage, not that the class involved literary analysis.

if someone doesn't want to do literary analysis, that's their perogative, but they don't then get to barge into fandom spaces and bully everyone who does want to do that. it's kind of this aversion to literary analysis that's led to even the deeper literary pieces being much more surface-level in recent years, as proper analysis gives way to clickbait pieces, as in-depth analysis of themes gives way to tropes, as dynamic characters give way to just having the Villain Arc or the Trauma Arc, where fullscale analysis of a piece gives way to just Underrated Or Overrated, because that produces more clicks and money than demanding people think harder about things.

given school was even more traumatizing in the past with teachers being able to beat students until not long ago and mental health services were even worse, and the looming threat of the cold war in the 20th century, i don't think it can all be trauma-related. no, the culprit i believe is nixon/reagan and those who came after them, the cultural impact of 9/11, and the commodification and widespread integration of the internet. the widespread integration of the internet isn't a bad thing, but nixon and reagan gave us the poor educational system in america, 9/11 gave american culture its horrific cynicism, that then was spread to the world when the internet was widely integrated and americans could use their sheer English-speaking numbers to overpower every other english speaker, and became all about the clicks and popularity when the internet was commodified. (of course, i might be wrong; this is just my observation)

[nokingsonlyfooles]

(Don't.)

I have some advice to supplement the loan experts who spoke to the AP: if enough of us just don't, they'll have to go back to the negotiating table and help all of us. This is a rare opportunity to effect societal change without damaging property or throwing a brick at a cop.

Take a step back and evaluate your situation, like my little family is doing. What will you lose if you begin to pay again? What will you lose if you just don't?

If you've got time for some extra credit, pick up (or pirate) Debt: The First 5000 Years.

26 Million of us were eligible for this lean, slimmed-down compromise of a program that scared liberals were willing to push through - before they backtracked and shut down the registration. We didn't pay for 3 years and the world didn't end. The banks don't need that money - ha, they can just ask for another bailout, can't they? - we do. So maybe, if they're not willing to give some back, we scare them a little more, yeah?

And I will tolerate no whining about how these people made their own decision to get into debt with predatory loan companies. IF 26 MILLION PEOPLE GOT SCREWED, WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT INDIVIDUAL POOR DECISIONS. There's a systemic issue that demands a systemic solution. If a fucked up bank gets to grab your tax dollars to straighten itself out, then 26 million individuals deserve nothing less.

You're only crying because they're not at the top of the social hierarchy and you resent having to roll over and show your belly to anyone but the biggest dog on the block. Keep it up and Cesar Milan is gonna show up on your doorstep and "tsst" you into submission like an aggressive chihuahua. (Not actual Cesar Milan, probably some politician who treats you the same.)

These are super dark, super precarious times, so I know not everyone can consider something like this. You may excuse yourself on an individual basis for matters of safety. If something like this would hurt our chances at permanent residency, we'd have to bow out too. But if we can stay where we are AND keep a little more money for buying a tiny house on a tiny plot of land somewhere, that's worth a few threatening letters and angry phone calls. And I want you to have a little more money for living your life and being safe too.

So maybe: Just don't.

#student debt relief #nonviolent resistance #just don't #maybe the banks shouldn't have loaned out more money than they were prepared to lose huh?

[apollo-cackling]

I have things I dislike about What My Bones Know but this one bit (she's revisiting her hometown to confirm her memories of it)

“[...] I was led to believe that it was common when I went to school here. As a teacher here, have you encountered a lot of kids who were abused?” [Mr. Dries (a teacher) gives her one example] Then [Mr. Dries] leans back in his chair and his eyes find mine. “[...] To casual observers, [Asian students] have the perfect life. They have everything the poor kids don’t. They’re sitting there with $1,000 iPhones. Typing into their MacBooks. But my kids are overly stressed. They’re overwhelmed, taking four AP classes every quarter so their moms can go to their tennis clubs and say, ‘Oh, we got into Berkeley and Harvard!’ So my kids are often up all night.” “But why?” I ask. “The motivation is tiger moms!” he says, with utmost confidence. “The stress of not meeting their elders’ expectations in a culture where they have to please their elders is real.” I look down at my notebook as I write furiously, trying to keep my expression neutral. This logic seems to have a Panda Express kind of simplicity to it—the hollow smell of an exoticized half-truth. [explanation of how proportion of Asian kids at the school she went to for high school was massive, but all the teachers were white and the curriculum is also still very white] Surely, I think, the racial divide might blind white teachers like Mr. Dries to our plight—immigrants can be very good at blending into the scenery. Then again, Mr. Dries is the teacher I would have gone to if I were the kind of girl who went to teachers for help. Regardless of race or background, Mr. Dries has always come off as someone who would give a shit. Who would figure it out, overcome obstacles of misunderstanding, and knock down doors to save you. [...] I talk to multiple teachers who all agree with Mr. Dries. They show me photos on their walls of students who went on to be radiologists and pediatricians. Yes, there was that one genius kid who got into MIT, struggled to find a job, then returned to PHHS in the middle of the night, tied weights on himself, and slipped under the swimming pool cover. The freshman swim team found his body early the next morning. One teacher says he had a student who was suicidal because, in her own words, “I just can’t make my essay sparkle.” He repeats this disbelievingly. “I can’t make my essay sparkle!” He says that this confession caused him to stay awake at night. He talked to his wife about it; he couldn’t sleep. It felt beyond his scope as a teacher. What could he possibly do to counter a problem like that? But that’s one person here, another there. Anomalies.

[two chapters later]

Then I tell [a acquaintance she's meeting up with] about the previous day, how all of our teachers at PHHS had not known that I, or practically anyone else, had been abused and how they said that our main concern was stress over getting As. “And I guess I just wanted to ask, is it true? I could have sworn that I knew so many other kids who were getting hit, too, and I just wanted to run a gut check by you—and I’m so sorry, of course, if I’m getting it wrong.” Steve laughs bitterly. “Of course the teachers don’t know!” he says, incredulous. “Nobody’s going to tell the teachers what’s happening to them!” I sit up straighter. “Yes. We were all getting our asses beat,” he spits. “Well, not all of us. But. I know a LOT of people who got their ass beat. Yes. Why do you think we were so stressed about getting all those As in the first place?” “I KNOW, RIGHT?” I yell at him. “Thank you! That’s what I thought! Thank you!” “Even the people who look so happy now and have great relationships with their parents on Facebook…they were all getting beat. There are varying degrees, obviously. I got fists and feather dusters. Other people got slippers, chopsticks, small stuff.”

is so so so so real

#my rambles #books