#english literature i like..i like writing in english | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

welcometogrouchland · 4 months

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I understand that literature nerd Jason Todd is kind of overblown in fanon compared to it's actual presence in canon (a few issues during his pre (and post?)crisis Robin tenure that highlight it) BUT consider that I think it's hilarious if the unhinged gun toting criminal has strong opinions on poetry

#ramblings of a lunatic #dc comics #Jason Todd #batfamily #it's just a fun quirk! it's a fun lil detail and I simply cannot slight ppl for enjoying and incorporating it into works #like obviously jason isn't the only one. I'm a big believer in the batfam having over lapping interests they refuse to bond over #i know dick canonically used the robin hood stories (which are pretty flowery in their language far as i can tell) as inspo for Robin #and i know babs was a librarian and even tho her area of nerddom is characterized as more computery she probably knows quite a lot-#-about literature as well #duke is a hobbyist writer i believe? i saw a fan mention that- which if so is great and I hope he's also a nerd #(i mean he is canonically. i remember him being a puzzle nerd in his introduction. but i mean specifically a lit nerd)#damian called Shakespeare boring but also took acting classes so i think he's more of a theatre kid.#Tim's a dropout and i don't think he's ever shown distinct interest in english lit and i can't remember for Steph?#I'm ngl my brain hyperfocused on musician Steph i forget some of her other interests I'm sorry (minus softball and gymnastics!)#and then Cass had her whole (non linear but it's whatevs) arc about literacy and learning to read #went from struggling to read in batgirl 00 to memorizing Shakespeare in 'tec and is now an avid read in batgirls!#she's shown reading edgar allen poe but we don't know if it's his short stories or his poems #point to all of the above being: i know Jason's not the only lit nerd in the batfam #but also i do need him to be writing poetry in his spare time and reading and reviewing it #jason at the next dead robins society meeting: evening folks today I'll be assigning all of us poems based on laika the space dog #damian and steph who have been kidnapped and brought to jasons warehouse to hangout: LET US GO BITCH #speaking of^ random poem i think jason would like: space dog by alan shapiro #wake up one morning in an unfamiliar more mature body with a profound sense of abandonment. the last four lines. mmm tasty

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isdalinarhot · 3 months

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me signing up for my science fiction and fantasy class last fall: lmaooo imagine if i got to write an essay about my cosmere hot takes for this class. of course this could never happen because the cosmere is Books For Reading For Fun and not Books For Reading For School

the syllabus: during week 10 we will be reading hugo award winning novella The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

me:

#I ALWAYS FORGET THAT THE EMPERORS SOUL IS LIKE. LEGITIMATE CAPITAL L LITERATURE #BECAUSE FUCKING SHAI WAS IN THE LOST METAL. A BOOK THAT IS CERTAINLY NOT CAPITAL L LITERATURE #oh my god. the professor can be normal about this book but i cant #like. i can. i can write a normal analysis of the themes within like an english student should #but im gonna be sitting there the whole time like. they dont know shai becomes an agent of fantasy jesus #they dont know about marashai femslash february. they have no fucking idea.#luke.txt #SHE LIVES IN THE SAME UNIVERSE AS DALINAR AND I HAVE TO READ ABOUT HER IN ENGLISH CLASS

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queenlucythevaliant · 3 days

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Okay, here we go. Rating literary allusions in Taylor Swift songs:

The Outside: "I tried to take the road less traveled by /but nothing seems to work the first few times/am I right?"--Starting off pretty well! She tried to take the road less traveled by, but it didn't make any difference. 8/10

Love Story: Whole song allusion to Romeo and Juliet-- All those 2008 jokes about Taylor not having read R&J weren't funny then and they aren't funny now. It's a fun, satisfying subversion. However, I am going to dock points for the fact that Romeo and Juliet aren't a prince and princess, just rich. 7/10

Love Story: "You were Romeo/I was a scarlet letter"--Is the Juliet character in "Love Story" being publicly shamed? Did she do something scandalous? There are zero other lines in this song to suggest that she did, and a fair amount of evidence that she didn't. This allusion confuses rather than clarifies and tbh this is the one people should've made fun of in 2008. 2/10

New Romantics: "We show off our different scarlet letters/ trust me, mine is better" --Hooray! She figured out what the book is about! This is a beautifully executed allusion, where "scarlet letters" represents a mark of something shameful which, in a fun subversion, is being shown off with pride. Fits the song really well. Most improved award, 11/10

Getaway Car: "It was the best of times, the worst of crimes" (A Tale of Two Cities) -- Goes in the category of "fun wordplay, but doesn't really mean anything deeper" 5/10

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: "Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year" --This is a perfectly serviceable allusion, but not a super interesting one. Sub "Gatsby" out with "nostalgic" and the song wouldn't change at all. She could've done a lot more with the reference, given the subject matter of the song. 6/10

cardigan: "I knew you/tried to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy" -- This works! You get a sense of Betty losing her innocence and choosing to leave James and of it being inevitable somehow. Plus, it imbues the song with a lovely fairy tale quality. 10/10

illicit affairs: "take the road less traveled by/tell yourself you can always stop" -- To take the road less traveled by is to do something risky, unpopular, or unfamiliar, not just to take a route through town where you won't run into people. Not totally egregious, but the regression from Debut is disappointing. 4/10

invisible string: "and isn't it just so pretty to think/ that all along there was some/ invisible string tying you to me."(The Sun Also Rises)--Ugggggh. Okay, so "Isn't it pretty to think so?" is this sad, tired, ironic note in The Sun Also Rises. Brett tells Jake, "We could have had a damned good time together" and Jake says "Isn't it pretty to think so?" because their whole situationship was never going to work. It's not a positive thing; it's pure, bitter Lost Generation irony. Completely out-of-place in a song about how two people we're supposed to believe will actually work as a couple. This one drives me nuts, and I don't even like Hemingway. 0/10

happiness: "I hope she'll be a beautiful fool/ who takes my spot next to you" (Gatsby)--Saying this about an ex's future SO is so... off. Like, the reason why Daisy hopes her daughter will be a beautiful fool is because it's easy. The two situations have nothing to do with one another, and not in an interesting way. 1/10

The Albatross: whole song allusion to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," but most notably "She's the albatross/ she is here to destroy you"--The albatross in the Rime is a good omen. The Mariner shoots is for no reason, and the albatross's death is the ostensible source of bad fortune. I wrote a whole separate post on this here. That said, culturally "albatross=bad omen" is common enough, so whatever. 3/10

I Hate It Here: "I will go to secret gardens in my mind/ people need a key to get to/ the only one is mine" -- I like this one a lot. Exactly the right vibe for the song, trying to escape something miserable by going somewhere pleasant. The key is a nice touch. Poor Archibald. 10/10

The Prophecy: "I got cursed like Eve got bitten" --No Taylor, that's not what happened. Famously, Eve was the biter in that situation. 0/10

Cassandra: whole song allusion -- correct me if I'm wrong (I haven't actually read the Illiad), but my understanding is that Cassandra died fairly far into the Trojan war, and not by burning. 4/10

#this probably isn't exhausive lol #but it's what i've got off the top of my head #this was weirdly cathartic to write #you guys know i adore taylor swift but literary allusions have always been my biggest nitpick with her #i would just like to send her to an English class or gently help her out or something idk #tay tay #i'm aware that i'm not addressing Peter off ttpd but that song is such a nothingburger that i really can't be bothered #pontifications and creations #literature makes us more human

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ladycatashtrophe · 28 days

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I know many people need their silly little scenario time before bed to fall asleep at night, but I for one also require a decent amount of immersive-daydreaming-time immediately upon awakening to fortify my soul for the day and that's why I'm an English major.

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melonnade · 7 months

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Had a really long talk with my roommate about this & we came to opposite conclusions. What do you guys think?

#polls #college au #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wwx #lwj #wangxian #this is for research purposes #normally I hate writing aus but the idea crept into my mind and would not leave me #I think wwx is an engineer. lwj screams humanities #dude would probably minor in philosophy and major in ancient history or comparative literature or linguistics #lwj is school of letters and sciences for sure #wwx compsci maybe? materials engineering? leaning more compsci but tbh I could see any engineering for him except for biomedical #I think wwx would live in the makerspace #she says wwx is pre-law polisci and lwj is compsci #she says lwj is the humanities kid —> stem major pipeline #like us lmao #probably did really well in English in hs but Asian parents/cultural influence promoted the stem degree #we agreed that Jiang Cheng is business econ though

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sailforvalinor · 9 months

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Idk if this is controversial, but studying for a English/writing degree at university shouldn’t make you NOT want to engage with writing or literature. Just a thought.

#the amount of times one of my literature professors presented us with the worst reading or interpretation (some of which were just plain #revolting) of a piece of literature almost as if she were expecting us to like it just because it was sensational and me and everyone else #going ‘um. no. sorry. not only does that make no sense but now I kind of want to throw up’#I just came here to read some gothic lit and honestly I’m feeling so attacked right now. (my fault for signing up for gothic lit I suppose)#her English survey class made me never want to look at the written word again #however I know this isn’t me having an issue with survey classes (although the rate they make you read at is kind of ridiculous and I read #fast: case in point for one of them I had to read Huck Finn in 9 days)#because I took American Survey from another professor and it was really challenging but probably the best course I ever took at university #I was not expecting to develop such a distaste for the academic world at uni but maybe that’s just my university (whenever I complain about #this my mom always tells me I need to watch Dead Poet’s Society lol)#siggggghhh anyway. hoping for some better classes with my exchange program (although none of them are writing/English as I’m almost #finished with my degree)#english lit #university #english #college

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angel-of-sweet-revenge · 4 months

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Sitting here wishing my ADHD was more severe just so people could realise I actually have a problem-

#adhd #probably adhd #undiagnosed neurodivergent #undiagnosed adhd #stuff like this makes me doubt if i have adhd at all #i tried to explain how when i was doing my gcse preparations i would take a day to do an essay #“oh it takes us a whole week”#NO THATS NOT WHAT I MEAN #I HAD A WEEK TO DO IT BUT I LEFT IT TO THE LAST DAY #ON THE LAST DAY I COULDNT PROCESS THE QUESTION #I KNEW WHAT IT WANTED. I KNEW WHAT I SHOULD WRITE. BUT I ALSO DIDNT #i love english. both language and literature #but it would take me hours to even work out what i was supposed to write unless it was under timed exam conditions #when it was timed the panic would put me into hyperdrive #but i only realised last night that maybe taking a full day to work out what to write on a simple essay might not be normal #but then people point out that this kinda thing is normal and i just. dont know.#do i have adhd or am i just giving myself excuses for being slow #or do i expect others to be so much faster and see myself as slow in comparison #im so sure i have adhd but i dont know either

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im-secretly-a-frog · 3 months

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So I started a commonplace book recently. For those of you who don't know what that is, as I did not until quite recently, a commonplace book is a collection of sorts, but rather than things, such as stamps or rocks, it is words, ideas, and quotes.

In looking for such things I have begun to read, though not in order but in any way I please, A Writer's Commonplace Book by Rosemary Freidman.

I have found it quite entertaining, but not for the reasons it was intended to be. It is mixed with a number of lovely quotes that I quite agree with, examples of these being:

"You write in order to say the things you can't say. It's a cry, or a scream or a song." -Samuel Beckett

"...writers are supposed to make you laugh and cry. That's what mankind is looking for." Saul Bellow

These quotes prove to be quite intelligent and well-picked, but as you read you find that quotes such as these are rare. In a book consisting of two hundred and fifty pages one should expect to find some mediocre or nonsensical quotes, but what one finds within these pages is quite strange. There are many quotes that directly contradict each other and some that seem to be picked at random and solely for the name attached with none of the ideals of the writer reflected within and for a book published in the modern year of 2007 it seems to have some outdated ideals. Examples include:

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." -Samuel Johnson

"I worked with a pencil and what I wrote my wife copied afterward." -Anthony Trollope

"There are too many books published. It is one of the evils of democracy." -T. S. Eliot

These quotes may mean other things within their context, but it is out of context that they are taken and set into a book which claims to uphold literature. Is it not strange that such a book, written by a scholarly woman, would hold such views?

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writinn · 5 months

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a reminder

I hope even after being broken down, crushed a million times, you get up and have the courage to start again. Life throws countless rocks at you but know that you can shield from it. Because you're strong. You can embrace your life, as it should be. The past scars shouldn't stop or affect the present or future but sometimes it does and it is okay for it to be. Nature wasn't always supposed to be all springs and summers and you aren't always supposed to be happy. You see, beautiful rainbows in horizons emerge after big pellets of rain. So, you will also heal and be happy even after the storms. You'll shine even more brighter. These are words you probably tell others but you should tell yourself that too. Because you deserve it and you need it too.

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daisies-on-a-cup · 16 days

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does anyone have any poetry collection recommendations? anything that they really enjoyed? i want to get back into reading more poetry and would love to hear anyone's recs <333

#poetry #poems #literature #guess who switched out their creative writing minor for a literature minor bc creative writing was only reserved for english majors...#regardless i am excited for it and want to fall in love with poetry and literature again since the psych textbooks have been all i have rea #in like two years

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sxyce · 3 months

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How can someone forget a soul like yours?

- Lovers of the month of courtship.

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mooshorange · 8 months

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I've been thinking about making a post discussing various interpretations of Hyde for a while now, but I thought I'd first go into some depth about a very relevant topic: Jekyll's reliability as a narrator. Most of the book happens around Jekyll and he isn't in very much of it, but we do get to hear from him in the final chapter. The first assumption is that the account he gives is entirely accurate and conveys most of the relevant information (minus what he actually wants and gets up to). It is possible that this is true, but it's also entirely possible that he skipped over some details or lied about things and I'd like to talk about both possibilities.

I'll start off with the idea of him being entirely reliable. This does make sense. This is Jekyll's final explanation for everything to his closest friend. It makes sense that he would want to get everything out, to finally tell his friend exactly what he's been hiding from him and remove all the secrets. He would want to give Utterson some closure and it also gives him a chance to get everything off his chest. He has been quite literally living a double life for a very long time. He has also been struggling with his unacceptable desires for so much of his life. That's got to be a great weight on a person. It would probably be a relief to finally let that out somewhere. He knows he can trust Utterson and, even if he couldn't, he doesn't care what happens to him anymore. He has essentially resigned himself to death so his reputation really doesn't matter anymore. He allows Utterson to do whatever he wants with the statement so he has clearly given up. It makes sense for him to be honest. It makes sense for him to finally stop hiding and find some small relief in coming clean. These are essentially his final words to anyone ever. It makes sense for your last words to be completely true and honest, especially if they are to the person you trust most in the world.

Yet, what if he isn't? We know he doesn't reveal everything. He doesn't say at any point what his actual aim was in creating Hyde. He doesn't say what he wanted and he doesn't reveal much about Hyde's actions that Utterson didn't already know. Jekyll does still conceal things, so perhaps there is more he is hiding. As much as it makes sense for him to tell the truth, it also makes sense for him to lie. He has been so obsessed with his reputation for decades. He has kept up this illusion of perfection and went to all the trouble of splitting his soul and creating an alter ego to prevent anyone from finding out about what he really wants to do. He lied to his best friends to keep elements of himself hidden. Would he really be able to give that up now? Yes, he has accepted his fate and he allows Utterson to know that he and Hyde were the same person, but it would be difficult to actually let everything out after all this time. Jekyll thinks very highly of Utterson and he wants Utterson to like him. He wants everyone to like him, but the opinion of his close friend would be especially important. He has to tell him something, but perhaps he doesn't want to tell him everything. He refers to Hyde like another person, but perhaps he just wants Utteraon to continue to view them as separate. He talks about how bad he felt about everything and about how Hyde was truly the evil one, but perhaps that's just the way he wishes he felt. Imagine having a secret which you have never shared with anyone out of shame and fear. Could you really just switch all of that off and share it with the person whose opinion matters most? I'm not sure that I could, so I'm not sure if Jekyll could either. He also leaves it to Utterson as a letter which he could share with anyone, if he chose. Of course, he probably thinks that Utterson would keep it to himself, but he has the freedom to do what he wants with it. Reputation is everything to Jekyll and he might not be able to hand everything over to potentially destroy it.

A lot of the book is left open to interpretation. That's one of the things I love about it. I've seen people treat Jekyll's statement as the full truth of the matter, as I usually do. It is called his 'Full Statement of the Case', after all. However, I've also seen people talk about it as only partially true, an attempt to clean what little of his reputation remains. Both interpretations make complete sense with the narrative. Really, Jekyll is as reliable or unreliable as you say he is. It's fun to think about the different angles of it, what he may or may not be thinking and feeling as he writes his last words to Utterson. As I said, the things left unclear are what make the book as effective as it is and keep people talking about it so many years later.

#J speaks #Jekyll and Hyde #The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde #The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde #analysis #literature #this one was a fun one #my little conclusion gave me English flashbacks but in a good way #I really like seeing all the different ways people interpret this text #some people stick to Jekyll's final statement while others think he's unreliable #all the different views are so interesting to see #whenever I eventually write that post about Hyde I may end up linking this post for some added context as the accuracy #of the final statement is very relevant when talking about interpretations of Hyde

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aconstantstateofbladerunner · 1 year

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Another unforeseen frustration in my quest to find a romance novel I actually like: a huge chunk of college romances are written by people who have clearly never been to college.

#i can’t take this shit seriously #colleges don’t have clicks #no one cares of you are a virgin #no one cares how you dress #i took every single exam in pajamas #the real weirdos skateboard down the quad with a canoe oar #posers who think they are weird for liking books don’t get invited places #i’ve gotten more pressure to drink at a single one of my mom’s book club meetings #that my entire four years of college #when are you doing class work?#have you ever had to write even an undergraduate essay?#Do you know how long those take?#why are classes just called ‘english’#and not something like ‘Literature of the Great Depression’#Why is the professor asking the class if they predicted the two leads falling in love?#and not i don’t know any actual analysis!?#and why doesn’t anyone talk about their classes outside of them?#me and my friends loved discussing our lessons #both those from my department and from other majors #no talking out a project you’re having trouble with?#no struggling with the transition from high school essay writing to college level?#No stories about your favorite professors?#no gaining perspectives from a different major?#clubs? hangouts? soccer on the tennis courts at 3am?#i thought i would like these because i loved college and miss it #but these are all just high school without a bell #plus they’re mostly just bad in other ways too #i think I’m done with this genre #booklr

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bedcorpse · 8 months

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but yeah to piggyback off that post y'all have to understand that if you're not usamerican or got lucky in regards to english teachers, even writers like myself got so sick of being handed boring, surface-level interactions with media and being discouraged from anything else that ofc we hated having to explain why the curtains are blue. because it wasn't a discussion of "okay is this meant to set a tone? tell us something about the character, like is blue their favorite color? or is it meant to symbolize something deeper? what are the different ways we could interpret this?" it was "the curtains are blue because the main character is sad. we don't have time for anything else bc public schools are wildly underfunded and overcrowded depending on the district and i make like 40k a year so any differing opinions will be shrugged off at best and punished at worst."

#emma shut up #how about you apply some of your own nuance for literature to like. actual human beings.#like i LIKED english i write essays for fun in my adult life and put them on yewchewb. and i went thru a 'THE CURTAINS ARE JUST BLUE' phase #because it felt pretentious to me because we weren't engaging with the text on a level that mattered #also most assigned reading for classes suck sorry. like shakespeare and to kill a mockingbird are outliers #i had to read shit like the fountainhead which was so long and stupid we didn't even finish it #also i can't imagine being autistic or having a learning disability that made reading for comprehension difficult #and being forced to do that shit. like whata fuck i can barely remember what i read and now you want me to explain color palettes?

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rearranging-deck-chairs · 5 months

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so im doing a preliminary translation course french-dutch in january which if i do it well enough i can do the real course starting september, and you dont need any official recognition of your level in either language they just say you have to master your working language (ie dutch here) well and that your passive knowledge of your source language has to be good, around at least b2

and, okay, ive been told i do set too high standards, but like, that feels,,,,,cheating isnt exactly the word but like. if i couldnt make the sentence, then how could i ever hope to translate it well into another language you know what i mean?

im glad, because my chances are way better to get my passive french to b2 than my active french before january, im probably already there, but like, im still gonna try to get my active french there too right?

like it just feels so.....precarious. to only have b2 and to dare to try and put a sentence into your own language? if i couldnt have made the sentence, then i would never think i can write it as correctly as possible in another language. honestly.

#maybe im just underestimating what b2 is but i dont think so #i know my written french is not there yet but i have no idea where it is. i havent been writing much #learning french is a process of me realising my french wasnt as good as i thought it was and my english is WAY BETTER than i thought it was #my written english is better than my written dutch #my spoken english is another question but my spoken dutch is also full of stammering and gaps so #i might just be being autistic there #i also dont speak english with my mouth like ever #so similar to how i thought my french was 'probably b1?' back in may or whatever (it wasnt)#i Think i can say english words #bc i can say them in my head #but my mouth is not used to them #i sound like ive never spoken an english word in my life #my written english tho #i know thats not exactly impressive since anyone on tumblr is doing fandom in english im hardly the only one but still #it would be way easier for my to translate french to english than to dutch #i need to get on that #crash course dutch literature this month

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thebirdandhersong · 1 year

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Nothing like your aunt telling you (and this is the ONLY thing she had to say apparently) through the family telephone network that you Can't get a job after getting a Ph.D and people won't hire you so don't bother and that she knows SO many people who ended up teaching high school after they got their Ph.Ds so I might as well teach high school straight after my BA and B.Ed instead of going onto study as my mother had told her i wanted to do. On NEW YEAR'S EVE

#this was like the only thing i was excited to do. i dont WANT to teach high schoop #school #that was the whole POINT of the 4th year existential panic i had this year #was the thought that teaching high school was my only option #and youre telling me that that's the only thing i can do with an english degree????#SCREAM #i was ACTUALLY SO EXCITED thinking about doing a master's and then a ph.d in literature #and doing something like what joy clarkson and karen swallow prior are doing #and actually finding joy in my work #not that i think teaching high school is lesser than or anything #it is just not what i want to do with my life and that is what i FIGURED OUT THIS YEAR #😭😭😭😭😭#every time i think i see light beyond an opening door an adult in my life sees fit to slam it in my face #i KNOW i cant write for a living let me at least find something story related that i can do AND enjoy doinh

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