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flowerflowerflo · 1 month

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girl's guide to academic success: part 2 ⊹˚. ♡

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ using media to ur advantage

i think i mentioned this in my romanticism post but pinterest is ur best friend. if i know anything about it u can trust i have a pinterest board for it; thats the same for school. gather motivating pictures & and pretty images that align with ur personal goals and style and make u wanna get up and work! i also use tumblr for this too. i'll link a couple blogs i love for this later on <3

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ surroundings

if ur studying, make sure u actually enjoy the place you're studying in, or try to to the best of your extent. whenever i study im 9 times out of 10 always at my desk and ive decorated my desk specifically so that it motivates me to get up and do whatever i need to do + its super pretty and makes me smile every time i see it <3 decorate ur area with little trinkets and both things u love and things that motivate you, and switch it up when you can! don't stay in the same place all the time. spontaneity is fun!!!

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ personalisation

make it pleasing to look at so ur more motivated to go back and revise over them if needed, and so you have something to do as well that is still related to your work if ur someone who gets distracted easily like myself. some inspo i use for my work:

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ hydration!

make sure ur drinking lots of water !! i drink lots of water and lots of tea whenever im studying or doing any kind of schoolwork and it helps me a lot, + its just those little bits of comfort yk

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ music and concentration

i work way better with any music in the background but if you're someone who gets distracted easily i'd recommend making a specific playlist for studying and listening to non-lyrical music like lofi, video game soundtracks, classical music, instrumentals of songs u like, etc. (i'm not telling you to go against the rules of ur school but i put a headphone in in class sometimes and cover it with my hair just because i know i work way better with it and it helps me a lot bc most of the people in my classes are so freaking loud. so if ur allowed 100% go for it but i don't recommend what i do if you have a strict school)

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ prioritising ur health & compromising

like i said in my other post, prioritise your health over anything else. if you didn't get a good nights sleep last night and you have a test tomorrow and need to study, then compromise; if you already know a lot about it or its not fate changing or life altering in some way or you can go over it quickly in the morning or something, go to sleep. your health is always more important in the long run and will help you to do even better in the future in every area of ur life

links ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ (some of my fav studyblr girlblog posts!)

study methods: @4theitgirls

studying plans as an accounting major: @iluvprettygirls

study tips: @honeytonedhottie

academic burnout: @seulhrts

elle woods: @4theitgirls

productivity hacks: @theambitiouswoman

paris geller: @4theitgirls

i also personally recommend @zooxanthellae for one of the study blogs! she does a lot of studyblr posts under the tag #zoostudies & they're SO CUTE ♡

lots of love <3

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 5 years

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How SparkNotes' social media accounts mastered the art of meme-ing literature

Most millennials know SparkNotes as the ultimate no-nonsense study buddy, but today’s students not only receive help with schoolwork from the website, they get high-quality entertainment, too.

SparkNotes remains a crucial tool for text comprehension — full of study guides and supplemental resources on english literature, philosophy, poetry, and more. But over the past two years it’s also become a source of some of the internet’s most quick-witted, thought-provoking, and ambitious memes.

SparkNotes' Twitter and Instagram accounts have carved a unique niche for themselves online by posting literary memes that find perfect parallels between classic works like Macbeth, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, and Frankenstein, and present-day pop culture favorites like The Office, Parks and Rec, and more.

It may come as a surprise to those who once frequented the site for the sole purpose of better understanding Shakespeare plays before a final exam or catching up on assigned chapters of The Catcher in the Rye before the bell rang, but SparkNotes is cool now, and absolutely killing the social media game.

SEE ALSO: The magic of Book Fairies

As someone who spends the majority of her workday on the internet and splits her leisure time almost exclusively between reading books and re-watching episodes of The Office, I fell in love with the account's near-perfect meme execution after mere minutes of scrolling through posts.

In a world with so many bad brand tweets and tone-deaf memes, I felt compelled to seek out the well-read meme masters behind SparkNotes' social media to learn how it is they manage to make each and every post so good.

How SparkNotes' social media became LIT ✨📚

Chelsea Aaron, a 31-year-old senior editor for SparkNotes, is a huge part of the success. She started managing the site's Instagram in September 2017, and her meme approach has helped the account grow from 5,000 to 134,000 followers.

"When I first started managing the account, I tried a bunch of different things," Aaron explained in an email. "I ran illustrations and original content from our blog, and I also borrowed memes from our Twitter ... The memes seemed to get the most likes, so I started making and posting those on a regular basis, and now I try to do four to five per week."

Image: screengrab / Instagram

Aaron discovered the account's recipe for success by not only making memes about some of SparkNotes' most popular, highly searched guides — which include Shakespeare's plays, The Great Gatsby, and Pride and Prejudice — but by mashing them together with a few modern television shows that she's personally passionate about, such as The Office, Parks and Rec, Arrested Development, and John Mulaney's comedy specials. She's also known for hilariously retelling entire works (SparkNotes style, so, abridged versions) using the account's Highlight feature.

Image: screengrab / instagram

The brilliantly sharp, comical posts seem effortless, but Aaron explained the process takes some serious concentration. Essentially, she stares at a large collection of collected screenshots "in a state of panic" until an idea strikes. "It's wildly inefficient and incredibly stressful, but I haven't figured out another way to do it," she admitted.

Luckily, Aaron always has the SparkNotes Twitter account to turn to for inspiration, which is managed by Courtney Gorter, a 26-year-old consulting writer for SparkNotes who Aaron calls "a comedic genius."

Gorter has been managing the Twitter account for about a year and a half now, and joined the SparkNotes team because she utilized its resources growing up and wanted to help "make classic literature feel accessible" to others.

"I wanted this stuff to seem slightly more fun (or, at the very least, less intimidating) to the average stressed-out student who's just trying to read fifty pages by tomorrow and also has a quiz on Friday," she said. The memes definitely help her achieve that goal.

Scrolling through the SparkNotes Instagram account, you notice it generally uses a recurring but reliably satisfying meme format. Most of the posts consist of a white block filled with introductory text and a screenshot from a television show, like so.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SparkNotes Official (@sparknotes_) on Apr 16, 2019 at 10:25am PDT

Gorter, on the other hand, ensures the Twitter account showcases a far more widespread representation of the internet. She posts everything from out-of-context screenshots, GIFs, and videos, to altered headlines from The Onion and trending meme formats of the moment, like "in this house" memes, "nobody vs me" memes, and more. The account is full of variety and gloriously unpredictable.

Hades: Orpheus I’ll let you bring your wife back from the Underworld, but if you turn and look behind you she’ll be lost to you forever. Orpheus: pic.twitter.com/FWD9P2nO0m

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 16, 2019

Normal heart rate: /\⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ /\ _ / \ __/\__ / \ _ \/⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ \/ The old man you just killed, whose heart lies hidden beneath the floorboards yet continues to beat: ⠀/\⠀ /\⠀ /\ _/ \ /\_/ \ /\_/ \ /\_ ⠀ \/⠀⠀ \/⠀⠀ \/

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 12, 2019

Gorter, who describes herself as "constantly on the internet" feels a lot of her ideas are the result of "cultural osmosis ... our collective tendency to consume references and jokes without realizing it just by being on the internet a lot."

"Sometimes I’ll be reading a book, and I’ll remember a joke I saw earlier that fits. Sometimes a new meme format will crop up over the weekend, and I’ll think, 'That could work for Macbeth,'" she said.

Though the two accounts are clearly distinct from one another, they both give off the same hip English teacher energy and running them has become a truly collaborative effort. "I constantly send her [Gorter] emails asking stuff like, 'Can I still say 'big mood' or is that over?' and 'What's the deal with this whole 'wired vs tired' thing?'" Aaron said.

Together, the two women spend their days discussing iconic works of literature, making pop culture references, and keeping up with the latest memes. (A dream job.) Their separate styles fuse together to make each other's posts the best they can be.

The meme approach works wonders

One might not initially think that Boo Radley and John Mulaney have much in common, or that Michael Scott could effortlessly embody Romeo, Julius Caesar, and Holden Caulfield if you simply alter your perspective. I certainly did not.

But Aaron and Gorter's work will convince you. Once you start merging the worlds of classic literature and modern television series, you won't want to stop.

The SparkNotes instagram is my favorite thing pic.twitter.com/FCc6sXjJly

— Jessie Martin (@jessie_martin97) March 29, 2019

Fun fact, the official Sparknotes Instagram account is probably the best one: pic.twitter.com/sIR6tsw7ZP

— Tommy (@tommy_jacobs92) February 28, 2019

When describing why the posts work so well, Aaron explained that Hamlet, Mr. Darcy, and Gatsby — three of her favorite characters to meme — have super relatable personalities, which makes the process so simple.

"They're dramatic, and awkward, and obsessive, which makes them identical to about 97% of the people on The Office," she said. "I've learned that you can use Michael Scott as a stand-in for pretty much any classic lit character, and it isn't even hard. (That's what she said)."

What wow the @SparkNotes Twitter is extremely good???? It all appears to be this good!!! https://t.co/PyEqTdQ3Ly

— Rachel Kelly 🥛 (@wholemilk) May 2, 2019

Why is @SparkNotes's Twitter so good it has no right to be this good https://t.co/eFBQpLMpe3

— Kelsey [Version 2019.05] (@flusteredkels) May 2, 2019

Gorter thinks the accounts are so appealing because they create a deep sense of community — an online space that isn't so isolating, rather a place where where bibliophiles, television enthusiasts, and meme lovers can all come together and geek the hell out. There's really something for everyone.

"When Steve Rogers said, 'I understood that reference,' I felt that deeply. I think people enjoy being in on a joke, especially when the source material (classic literature, for instance) isn’t particularly hilarious," Gorter said. "There’s a delicious juxtaposition there. I know that I personally get a secret little thrill when I understand something as contextually layered as a really niche meme, and a slight sense of frustration when I don’t."

Engaging followers and changing with the times

SparkNotes as a whole has come a long way since it was launched as TheSpark.com by a group of Harvard students in 1999.

What started out as a budding web-based dating service quickly transformed into a trusted library of online study materials, and over the years, as the publishing industry, technology, and the internet evolved, so did SparkNotes.

Like the social media accounts, SparkNotes' SparkLife blog — full of quizzes, artwork, rankings, advice, and trendy posts like "How To Break Up With Someone, According To Shakespeare" and "Snapchats From Every Literary Movement" — perfectly encapsulates the site's commitment to catering to its audience.

Whoever runs the Sparknotes twitter and Instagram pages deserves a raise

— louise🌻 (@_Fallxn_) February 21, 2019

SparkNotes does a remarkable job of shifting with the times to stay relevant and interesting in the eyes of its readers — and the quest to balance fun and education really seems to be paying off. Recently, the Instagram account tested out a post that called upon students and teachers to request custom-made memes by reaching out via email with the title of a book or subject they want meme'd, along with a message for the intended recipient.

"The response was amazing!" Aaron said. "We got almost 250 emails, and it's so great to see the genuine affection and admiration that teachers have for their students, and vice versa."

Thanks to the social media accounts, SparkNotes is not only helping students learn, but helping entire classrooms bond with their teachers. (And hopefully teaching educators who follow a thing or two about good memes.)

Print isn't dead, it's just getting some help from the internet

Aaron and Gorter are having a blast running the accounts, but ultimately, they hope their lighthearted posts will inspire people to pick up a book and read.

"I hope what our followers take away from this is that classic literature doesn’t have to be totally dry," Gorter said. "If our memes encourage our followers to engage with classic literature and be excited about reading, that's so rewarding," Aaron added.

The present-day approach to selling classic literature is undeniably unconventional, and the crossovers are absurdly ambitious, but they work so damn well. What's great about the memes is they're created in a way that doesn't diminish the literature plots, because in reality, one would have to have such a comprehensive understanding of the text to make such good jokes.

The memes are actually pretty high-brow when you think about it, sure to delight intellectuals with great taste in pop culture. I have no idea how the legendary writers would feel about their greatest works getting the meme treatment, but people online are definitely loving it.

It's refreshing to see a brand account succeed at such a genuinely funny level, but perhaps even nicer to see it thriving off of wholesome content that doesn't drag other accounts or get its laughs at the expense of tearing others down, as we've seen accounts do in the past.

SparkNotes social media accounts are genuinely just nice corners of the internet dedicated to making people laugh and hopefully igniting a love of literature.

WATCH: Steve Carell to reunite with 'The Office' creator for Netflix's 'Space Force'

#_uuid:9b22ebd8-ea58-31ce-9978-8521a7e4e858 #_category:yct:001000002 #_author:Nicole Gallucci #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable

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danideservedbetter · 2 years

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Day 268

Late to the party again but at this point, I’m just glad I made it.

Idk why it’s still taking me six hours to get through my “morning” routine, although I imagine being super sluggish and all these things don’t help whatsoever. Although I’m feeling a little better on that front, the pain I’m in just makes it hard to focus on anything at all,, including schoolwork 😅 I’ve been fighting a paper for three straight days and have barely put down my thesis. I did manage to write today, a little, which is good— one of my major goals this week is focusing on my writing again. Since the event is next week I’d optimally love to update at least one thing. The rest is gonna be touchy but as usual one thing would make me happy. I can’t believe I only updated four times last year but honestly it’s a miracle I did that much.

That said I have some French lessons I’m behind on, and a thank you note to write. It would be so cool if I could finish this paper but adfghjj even getting halfway through would be nice. But. I have Carnival break today and tomorrow and hopefully that’ll get me one solid step down the path. Unfortunately not being able to complete this paper has also put me behind on reading but 😂 itll never end. Spring break I’m hoping will be a major recovery week in getting projects I haven’t even been able to touch off the ground. Sadly it hasn’t even been school, it’s been changing medications. Although based on how I’ve felt in the early mornings before pain has a chance to set in, I think I’m on an even better track. It’s just a matter of this pain passing finally.

#goal post #update post

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say-tan-please-blog · 5 years

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Hi! I'm Kirk Landrum Sangalang Romero, currently a grade 11 HUMSS student.

We're all part of the progress our world needs. Humanity's been playing the biggest role in our world because we're the ones who are obliged to preserve it. As a student, I've never looked on the concept of "Study" in a black light, because I know that this is a learning process we all need.

Being a student is never an easy task, there are countless obligations that'll come on your way to success but as long as you're determined to succeed, you'll never quit. I can say that I have a strong will of achieving my goals because despite all the challenges life had thrown me, I still managed to overcome them and here I am, still doing my best because I know that someday this hardwork will bear a fruit that'll make my family proud.

In our class, I am giving all I can in terms of participating in oral recitation, long quizzes, surprise quizzes, group activities, performance tasks and especially during examinations. I am not the type of student that spends the majority of my day in studying. I know when to study hard, and when to enjoy the little and big things I have that nurtures my inner child.

Yes, some of us may be exhausted because of tons of schoolworks but we should always remember that if you want to give up, give up tomorrow and when tomorrow comes and you still want to give up, give up on the next day, so on and so forth until you no longer feel like giving up because winners never quit. We are Cordians, giving up is not on our vocabulary. Enjoy life! Study hard!

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toomanyfeelings5 · 7 years

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happy, part 5

drama! intrigue! sexual tension!

the fic continues. here’s a post i made that links to the other parts.

9. the door closes. there’s a long, embarrassed silence.

then, finally, after a brief cough:

“sorry about that.”

rosamund doesn’t look up from her laptop. she has a fashion design exam tomorrow morning. “no problem.”

chelsea doesn’t take the hint. she keeps talking. rosamund hears her shift from foot to foot. “no really, that wasn’t cool. i should’ve, um, texted you or something--”

rosamund shakes her head, sits straighter at her desk, skims the title of an article she has to review. “just let me know next time. it’s alright.”

chelsea almost says something, mutters under her breath, and then she asks, “are you sure?”

textile design in the industrial age: a comprehensive summary. that’s the article she has to review. she leans closer to the laptop--the text is tiny.

she tries to read, but she can’t focus, not really. chelsea doesn’t answer her texts promptly. chelsea hadn’t bothered to tell her that she had someone coming over. chelsea hadn’t bothered to answer when rosamund had texted her to ask if she could use the room to study. chelsea hadn’t even bothered to lock the door when her and some girl decided to make out on her bed and--and--

the other thing is that chelsea’s half of the room is decked out in punk aesthetic--band posters, embroidered patches, a guitar rosamund hasn’t ever seen her play--it’s a disaster. an absolute disaster.

rosamund squeezes her eyes shut. she doesn’t want to think about opening the door, about seeing her roommate half-dressed in an entirely new context, about any of it. she opens her eyes. it was just a lack of communication. that’s all. she’s just tired from schoolwork. chill. she needs to chill.

rosamund says, “it’s fine.”

chelsea probably runs a hand through her dark hair--it’s probably a mess, all tangled and loose--but rosamund doesn’t know for sure, because rosamund stares at her laptop. rosamund does not look at her. eventually, chelsea apologizes one more time, gets the hint, and leaves to get dinner with friends.

rosamund gets an A on her exam. she grips the paper tight in her hands, and it still doesn’t feel like a victory.

10. it’s been a month since dorming with chelsea beatrice, and thankfully, there has only been one other time in which chelsea forgot to text her about having "a friend” over.

chelsea doesn’t have hook-ups over often--she doesn’t seem to hook up with a lot of people anyway. mostly she skypes with her grandma and her mom and her younger sisters, hikes on the weekends, and has her artsy-music-STEM friends over occasionally, and ok, rosamund has to admit it: chelsea isn’t an awful roommate. not ideal--the sex pistols, really?-- but not awful.

there’s one friday night in early october when they both finish all of their work around the same time--this is a bit of a minor miracle, since chelsea double-majors in physics and political science, and rosamund double-majors in business and fashion--and chelsea suggests that they watch the princess bride to celebrate.

“you said it’s one of your favorites, right?”

“yeah,” rosamund smiles, pleased that chelsea remembered. “yeah, it is.”

“cool, it’s one of mine too. let’s watch it.”

it’s all well and good, sitting on rosamund’s bed, watching the princess bride on chelsea’s bigger laptop, until chelsea points to the screen when the dread pirate rogers makes his first appearance and says, “you know, i think that this movie would be a lot better if wesley was a girl.”

rosamund frowns. “i....suppose that would be nice--”

“i mean--” chelsea pauses the movie, waves her hand. “i mean like, wesley is a super hot guy, don’t get me wrong.”

rosamund nods, because of course, of course he’s a super hot guy.

chelsea continues. “so like, wesley was one of my biggest crushes when i was little, but i also totally loved buttercup. and my point is that the princess bride should have had wesley be a girl. it’d have the whole True Love theme be so...revolutionary, and...” her voice quiets. she picks at the sleeve of the weathered leather jacket she wears all the time. “i think i really needed that kind of stuff, when i was a kid.”

rosamund hums. “yeah.” she shifts slightly. she doesn’t know what to say, has never known what to say when things like this come up. “can we keep watching?”

“yeah, let’s do it,” chelsea enthuses too quickly.

rosamund wants to enjoy watching it, and in some ways she does: she likes laughing with chelsea at all of the funny parts, she likes telling chelsea her favorite moments.

the problem is that she gets distracted whenever wesley and buttercup hold hands or kiss or say, “as you wish,” because rosamund keeps picturing wesley as a girl, and she she shouldn’t want to, and it’s distracting.

the movie ends, rosamund almost flinching when wesley and buttercup kiss for the last time, and chelsea leans back against a few makeshift pillows after she’s put her laptop away. “man, that’s a classic. fezzik and inigo are totally married.”

“totally.” rosamund lets loose a laugh, a bit higher than her normal one, but at least she knows exactly how to talk about this. “my brother fred says the same thing! his friend max always says that wesley and inigo should’ve ended up together.”

“oh my god,” chelsea grins, and she shifts slightly closer to rosamund: when had she moved away? why is she so much more relaxed now? “oh my god, wesley and inigo! i hadn’t thought of that.”

“yeah, fred and max argue about it a lot.”

“it’s worth arguing about!”

they chat about it some more, and they talk about the costuming in the movie, and the sword fight choreography, and eventually chelsea nudges rosaumund’s shoulder and asks, “hey, you’re taking dance classes, right?”

“yeah,” rosamund says, raising her eyebrows. “why do you ask?”

“oh, well, you know.” chelsea adjusts her thick-framed glasses. “do you need a partner still? you were saying something about it to your friend dana--?”

“oh right,” rosamund says, frowning slightly: since when did chelsea remember so much about her, or care? “yeah, i need a partner for next week. we’re practicing the waltz.”

“cool,” chelsea almost mumbles, and stares at her hands. “i just--i did a lot of ballroom dancing when i was younger, and i’m looking to get back into it i guess. i hope it’s not weird or anything, but--” she looks up at rosamund, plaintive, and asks, “but is it ok if i’m your partner? for next week?”

rosamund raises her eyebrows, feels her shoulders tense. she had been planning to ask robert or emmanuel or jason, guys from the dance class, or even luke from the student association, but chelsea...well, she’s apparently an experienced ballroom dancer. it might be useful.

“i suppose--yes, that would be nice of you.”

“awesome,” chelsea beams. “thank you so much, i’m so excited to get back into dance--i’m a little rusty but i shouldn’t be too awful--”

“not a problem, i have two left feet most of the time anyway--”

“so i could teach you,” chelsea laughs, and rosamund shakes her head: chelsea had never teased her before. are they friends now instead of semi-cordial roommates?

chelsea is expecting a response, so rosamund says quickly, “i’ve always wanted to learn to dance. i’m just not very good at it so far.”

“that’s alright,” chelsea shrugs easily. “you’ll pick up on it the more you do it.”

“yeah. practice makes perfect.”

“eh,” chelsea shrugs again. “perfect isn’t the goal anyway.”

rosamund’s not sure what to say to that, and then she feels inept about it, so she’s almost grateful when chelsea changes the subject and asks, “is it ok if i have a girl over next week? i’ll definitely text you in advance and we won’t be long, i--”

“alright.”

chelsea frowns. her voice cools. “you’re doing that thing again.”

rosamund’s jaw twitches. “what thing?”

“that thing where you freeze up whenever i mention being with a girl.” chelsea squints. her brown eyes harden. “you didn’t do that when i brought a guy over.”

rosamund opens her mouth, closes it. her face is heating up, she can feel it. her nails dig into her palms. “i’m not prejudiced, if that’s what you’re asking. i don’t care who you have relations with--”

“i’m not saying you’re a total biphobe,” chelsea interjects. “jeez, i’m not saying that at all. i’m just....look, i have to ask: do you have a problem with me being bisexual? do you have a problem with me being with a girl?”

“no, no of course not!” rosamund smiles slightly, because this is a ridiculous line of questioning. there’s a stab of guilt in her chest--she sees max at his first pride--but she elects to ignore it this time. why does everyone keep asking her this? why does everyone assume that she’s--that she’s--“i have no problem with you being bisexual, or being with girls or guys or otherwise or whoever you want to be with. my brother’s gay, and max is basically my second brother and he’s gay, and i’m--”

“ok,” chelsea raises her hands. “ok, i get it. sorry for asking, it’s--i’ve had shitty people say shitty things to me before, and i wanted to make sure, that’s all.” her tone remains light and casual, but rosamund feels the air still when chelsea continues. “when you, uh...when you walked in on georgia and i, you’d looked--”

“terrified?”

the word slips out of her mouth, stark and open in the air.

rosamund wishes very much that chelsea would move away so their shoulders are no longer touching. she needs her space. she needs to control herself.

“i was going to say horrified,” chelsea says slowly, frowning slightly. she does not move away. “which like, yeah, it was an awkward situation--sorry again--but like, anyway. glad this is all behind us now. rosamund vincy is the one true ally, everyone.”

irritation prickles up her spine. “guess i am.”

“there it is,” chelsea mutters. “there’s that tone again.” a long pause. rosamund takes a tiny breath. she hadn’t realized she’d been holding it for so long.

in a quiet voice, chelsea asks, “why did you say you were terrified?”

rosamund forces herself to uncurl her fists. “i was surprised, that’s all.”

chelsea stares.

rosamund changes the subject. chelsea is getting way too TMI. “i’ve never danced with another girl before.”

chelsea startles, face no longer closed off. “what?”

rosamund nods rapidly. “i mean, i’ve danced with groups of friends before, but never one-on-one.” she doesn’t know why she feels this urge to prove herself, why there is this angry, heated feeling building in her chest, but she lifts her head and stares at chelsea and tells her, “i guess you’ll have to teach me.”

chelsea makes some sort of spluttering, strangled noise, and rosamund smirks a little: finally, chelsea’s the one at a loss for words.

she doesn’t realize that she’s been leaning towards her until chelsea manages, “i guess i will,” breath hitting her face.

rosamund’s smirk grows wider. “good.”

“yeah?” chelsea’s voice is low. she is looking at her in a way she never has before, and rosamund--rosamund thinks of chelsea looking at georgia--she thinks that this is a similar kind of gaze, that maybe--

slowly, carefully, chelsea murmurs, “do you want me to teach you?”

she is so close. rosamund sees the mole on her neck, the collection of freckles near her right eye. rosamund swallows, her entire body warm and tense and waiting--her hand grips the lapel of chelsea’s jacket, and chelsea is so close, chelsea is going to kiss her--

rosamund jolts back, yanks her hand away.

chelsea, dazed, hoarse: “what--?”

there’s a loud buzzing in rosamund’s head. her hands are shaking. she’s trembling all over, god, what was she thinking, what was she thinking, what was she thinking--

“i have to go.”

rosamund doesn’t hear chelsea’s reply, doesn’t sleep in the dorm that night--she stays with dana, dana has space on her couch, dana has lots of beer she’s more than happy to share--and rosamund doesn’t look back.

“so why, exactly, do you plan to move into my spacious, bodacious single?” fred’s voice is too loud and too demanding and too annoyed for rosamund’s hangover right now, so she snaps, “my roommate and i had creative differences,” and that’s the end of it. rosamund texts chelsea goodbye, that it was nothing personal, that she’s dropping dance class because it’s too time-consuming, and she moves into fred’s that saturday morning.

that’s the end of it.

she ignores chelsea’s phone calls and texts. she ignores the static in her head, the ringing in her ears, how her lungs feel constricted, how it’s difficult to breathe sometimes--there are marks on her palms from her nails digging into them, from making them bleed--

she goes by rosy now. it’s shorter, it’s what fred calls her time. rosamund is too stuffy. rosamund is too proper. who’s going to marry someone named rosamund? rosy is easy, rosy is girlish, rosy is confident, rosy is fun.

eventually rosy hears about a video project fred is helping out with, about a handsome, brilliant pre-med student named thomas lydgate who, according to dana, has spent the past semester in london and who has recently returned to middlemarch. she thinks of her list--1. find the man of your dreams--and that’s the end of it. rosy beams into the camera lens for the fifth time in a row. it is.

#mmts #middlemarch: the series #fic #my fic #well idk if this is good or not i've barely edited this whoops #this sure is a whirlwind #rosamund vincy is A Disaster #is it too angsty? we just don't know #i feel for chelsea tbh: imagine thinking your roommate is Very Straight to your roommate talking about gay princess bride headcanons #to thinking maybe she isn't straight?? to thinking but what if she's biphobic. to thinking: WHAT THE FUCK I GUESS SHE'S NOT STRAIGHT THEN #ARE WE GOING TO MAKE OUT? to thinking: wow what a clusterfuck that was. who is she. who am i.#chelsea listens to against me! and violent femmes and the slits for a solid week afterwards #you'll see a bit more of her later!!!

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carbonsequestrian · 4 years

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man i dont even know if i should share this because it’s super weird/ poorly written/ doesn’t make any sense but i feel like i keep too much too myself so here is a block of text i wrote and didn’t edit and if you read it, i love you.

Well, id like to kick off my music blogging career with a piece about a song that has continued to inspire me since the moment I heard it about 5 years ago. Something about the song awakens this dragon in me… or rather, something about the song awakens a knight that is about to go and slay a dragon, and that feeling crashes into every fiber of my being resulting in me feeling fucking powerful. Idk what the secret is. I wish I had found this sound when I did a song analysis project for my freshman writing seminar back in college. (I chose Sublime’s Santeria for that project… and it was a shit show. Believe it or not, trying to write 10 pages about a song that doesn’t inspire every fiber of your being is insanely difficult. Lesson – if you have to write a lot, write about something you fucking love and admire.)

The song is Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate by And So I Watch You From Afar of their self titled 2009 release. I think it’s their debut album. Anyway, the band makes instrumental rock music. Stuff that superheroes and supervillains alike would use as a theme song. I discovered them from Worldhaspostrock on youtube, so check them out.

Of course, now that im sitting down to write about the song I cannot think of any words to say about it. Lovely how that happens. Especially after bragging about how easy it is to write about something you love. HA>

If you’ve ever done something you hate, you sure know how that feels. Part of you feels trapped -momma didn’t raise no quitter – and another part of you is too busy daydreaming about what you’d rather be doing to formulate a plot to get you there. Feeling stuck doing something you hate is exactly how I felt when I discovered this song. I chose my major at college based on what a guy who I’d met over the internet was studying, he called me pretty and would send me ‘good morning’/ ‘sweet dreams’ texts, so we were obviously super serious. And I was going to study the same thing as him and we would conquer the world together, duh. Lo and behold, I hated my major. And because I hated my major, I didn’t really fit in with any of the people I met through my major. There was one chick who I liked because she hated it too, but we were very different people. I did sports in college instead of joining a music group (being in an acapella group was a last minute goal of mine) because A. everyone in my family was super sporty B. no one in my family thought very highly of music and C. I was fucking terrified of it. Every bit of it sends anxiety chills down my spine and up my toes. Singing in front of people in a room? Singing with people? Having people rely on you to do your thing correctly in order to achieve a desired result? Fuck that’s anxiety inducing. And let me make this clear, I don’t have stage fright. But I do have Perfectionist Block (a totally real issue, created by me, ill discuss it further in another post) which makes me extremely hard on myself.

So anyway, to paint the picture – 20 year old me is in the library for the 50th hour that week (no kidding, I went to Cornell, and seriously spent 6-10 hours a day in the library studying during regular term. Finals/ testing weeks, it’d double) looking for upbeat instrumental music that could make me feel like a bad ass and I find this band. The first song I found by them was The Voiceless, off the same album. That song fucking slaps. I must’ve listened to it 30 times before saying “hey, why don’t I check out their other stuff?” and thus gave this album a listen. I was so stressed that week, so tired, felt so lost and alone. I hated every fucking minute of my life but I was pushing through it because I wanted to make my mom proud. Every morning I would angrily get ready for class, pissed off that elitism and this desperate urge to prove oneself through menial shit such as ‘ivy league’ degrees would push someone to find the line of their breaking point and balance on it. All for what? If I died tomorrow, who could speak of who I am? At cornell, I was a cornell student. That was it. By being there, I wasn’t anything of myself anymore. I wasn’t strong, I wasn’t funny, I wasn’t good with animals, I wasn’t a hard-worker, I wasn’t smart – though, those last traits were implied – I simply became a product of an institution. One that I loved, don’t get me wrong. I had been looking for reassurance/ acceptance/ approval my entire life, and that letter that I got from a world renowned school was it – so I thought. But then I got there and my imposter syndrome went wild. I wasn’t truly smart, or good at learning. In fact, high school had been so easy for me that I was able to scrape by with great grades without ever working on schoolwork outside of school (I’d do my work during lunch, when I would eat in the chorus room/ my English teacher’s room since I had no friends.) at school, I thought I’d made friends, but they ditched me when I needed them most. In retrospect, I should’ve been more forgiving – no one’s perfect - but ill blame my poor socialization through high school here. I saw kids who worked their asses off day and night. A 16 year old math prodigy lived in my hall. And I had nothing to show for my intelligence outside of the fact I was able to take enough HS classes in middle school that I’d manage to have 4 hours of school my senior year (typically, that time would be so that kids could take extra APs. But I said fuck that.)

Truth is, I was so insecure and unsure of myself that being thrown into the lava pit that is college – any college, not just an ivy league – was emotionally and mentally overwhelming. I found myself getting drunk to the point of almost dying most nights. Every time with strangers. I’d often go to the bridges, where so many had leapt to their deaths before, and ponder if that’s where I belonged. Crashing amongst the rocks and water in the gorges. Man, I was fucking depressed. And a ball of anxiety. I had no real identity, you’d ask me what I liked or what I wanted from my life and I’d have no real answer. My answer would vary based on what youtube videos I had been watching that week. I was so scared of being judged.

Point is, I found nothing that I felt a connection to. Not my major. Not my peers. Occasionally my surroundings, but typically only in the morbid, I’d like to throw myself off this sort of way. Life is so much more complex than those things, and truth is, ill never really be able to explain away all of the different shit in my life that was bringing me down. Making me feel worthless. Dumb. Like I didn’t belong. And the first thing that I felt like understood this, was this song. Even writing that out I feel like it confirms my worst fears, that I am worthless/ delusional/ crazy/ not even a real person. How does one go through 20 years of life and can only feel connected to a pile of noises that a stranger has made and recorded? Wavelengths generated by someone else’s finger tips never felt so good. They resonated through my brain and spoke to my soul. It was like I was being sucked into a black hole and obliterated to nothing. And that was what I needed, because I was able to look at who I was and take a chance to rebuild. To change.

With no one to talk to, no one who understood me, and no real goals or aspirations in my life/ being too crippled by fear to even take a chance to achieve my goals/ aspirations in life, I darted in the complete opposite direction. Left that ‘dream school’ for a state school 2000 miles away. I still waste plenty of time doing things I hate, but every day I try to do my best to find the things I love. It’s been a long hard road, and I am so unsure of myself. I realize I’ll never have the validation I seek, at least not externally. Still, going to cornell is my greatest achievement and those close to me hold a grudge that I left without fulfilling my diploma. And looking back, I could’ve done it. Taken some time off, sought a therapist outside of the free service offered, opened up to some of the people I had met. Hindsight is 2020. And im here now.

This song means the world to me. The suspense of the guitar plucking in the intro is an emotion I was swallowed in. the anger and noise of the guitars from 1:11-1:30 was how I felt every morning when I looked at the day ahead. The desperation of the guitars at 2min how I looked at the people around me, who appeared to have their shit all together. Their heads above the water. Looking at me drowning below the surface. But I had a smile on my face, so I must have been fine. Then the clarity that comes at 3mins. The music starts to feel like it’s getting itself together. 3:35-4:15, when big changes happen. And the la la lalalalalas. That’s how I was, just “la de da-ing” my way through life, not really thinking about what I was going to take from this world and my short time getting to experience it. The song gets progressively happier, and calmer, as I hope my own life will be, though I’m still in my 3min phase when it feels like it’s starting to get itself together.

Ill always hold onto the hard times I went through at school. And ill wish everyday for a time machine, so I could go back in time and tell 18 year old me to just chill and ‘discover yourself, man’ before going to a place that has so much potential. Because the truth is, I was too insecure to be successful at such an institution. I still think I’m too insecure. But at least now I know, and I’m not living under this idea that because I got into a good school I am a good person and good things will come to me.

#and so i watch you from afar #don't waste time doing things you hate #post rock rocks

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flauntpage · 6 years

Text

NYC Softball Phenom Christina Crockett Is Living the DREAM

Over the past two months VICE Sports has been profiling 16 athletes as they evolve into national superstars. Keep checking back here to find them all.

The first game of the spring is still months away, but the East Harlem-based youth softball and baseball program DREAM keeps kids in training all year round. Even on a chilly Thursday evening in November, a dozen high-school girls happily show up to run fitness drills in the AstroTurf-covered basement of a community center on 116th Street. They lift tires above their heads and do squats as their coach, Rob Saltares, murmurs encouragement.

Christina Crockett isn't the first player you notice in this group. The high-school junior isn't a show-off or a smart-aleck. The most common word her teammates and coaches use to describe her is "shy." Lanky, with rectangular glasses framing thoughtful eyes, she looks a bit embarrassed while a photographer with VICE Sports shoots her portrait. Still, Christina is one of the top softball players in New York City, a formidable batter who also anchors the center field for the Saints, a DREAM-administered travel team of all-stars from throughout the citywide NYC RBI league. She also plays for Hunter College High School, where as a sophomore her .611 batting average, 17 RBIs, and 1.083 slugging percentage helped secure her a slot representing Manhattan in last year's Public School Athletic League Battle of the Boroughs, a sort of all-star game for local high-school players. "Typically, junior year is when colleges begin to approach players," says Saltares, whose history with DREAM goes back to 1998, when he was a ten-year-old baseball player in the program. He anticipates that come springtime, Christina will garner plenty of interest from recruiters, saying, "She's in a position where she could go anywhere she wants."

"In the past three years, she's become a leader on the team," Saltares adds. ""Christina is a person who balances things out—she has this calm personality, and she can be the voice of reason."

Laurel Golio

That maturity is essential to Christina's excellence on and off the field. Her knack for staying cool under pressure delivered a crucial victory for the Saints in last year's playoffs. Near the end of a game against a tough rival squad, The OLS Lady Twins. Christina's team was up by two runs, but their opponents had just gotten a pair of batters on base. "Then this girl hits the ball to me, and it bounces," she recalls. The runner on second base saw an opening to score, but as she rounded third, Christina threw her out at home. She's humble and measured throughout our conversation, but she flashes a big grin as she tells me, "That was a pretty long throw!" The play closed out the inning and allowed the Saints to advance to the next round. They ended up at the regional 18-and-under division's championship game for the second time in the past three years.

Along with anchoring Hunter's team and the Saints, a selective squad comprised of just 15 of DREAM's best players, Christina plays goalkeeper on Hunter's varsity soccer team, which makes the fall just as hectic for her as the spring, when she's playing both travel and school softball. On her busiest days, Hunter shuttles her to nearby Randalls Island to play soccer after classes, then she hurries home for dinner and schoolwork before heading back out to practice with DREAM. What's even more impressive is that she doesn't seem frantic or drained, like most over-scheduled kids. "I've learned to manage my time over the last few years," she explains.

The way she sees it, her sports commitments aren't a distraction from her academic pursuits, but a way of maintaining healthy habits that improve her focus in all facets of her life. "I don't play a sport in the winter. You'd think that when I have more time, my grades would be better, but they're not," Christina says. "I get the best grades in softball season because I'm the happiest. When I have a sport, I do my homework during lunch. I can't procrastinate. If I don't get enough sleep, I'll be tired for my game tomorrow. When I'm in season, I'll eat a healthier lunch—like, I won't get pizza. If I'm off season, it doesn't matter."

"Sometimes I think she has it more figured out than I do," jokes Saltares. It's stories like Christina's that present DREAM—as well as Major League Baseball's nationwide Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, with which it is affiliated—as a free, more-than-viable alternative to the city's private school system for young softball and baseball players who hope to play in college.

Laurel Golio

Christina, who will turn 16 in December, is an ideal DREAM athlete—not just because of her talent on the field, or that she lives a block away from its East Harlem headquarters, but because she's equally ambitious as a scholar. Between two workout sessions, many of the students pull out their folders, pencils, and photocopies to get some homework done. The first adult I meet at the practice is Stefano Barros, DREAM's High School Leadership and Service Coordinator, who works to keep the kids' educational progress on track and organizes outings such as college visits. In addition to honing their skills on the field, DREAM participants attend mandatory, year-round classes and tutoring sessions aimed at giving them the same advantages wealthier kids have in the classroom, with the ultimate goal of shepherding the athletes through high school and into college. When they reach Christina's age, the options expand to include SAT prep courses, campus tours and immersive, multi-day trips to colleges like Marist and SUNY Old Westbury, where students often meet DREAM alumni who've matriculated.

As he often does, Barros watches the girls run their drills from the sidelines and playfully calls out the ones who aren't giving the exercises their all. Later, when questions about homework crop up, he's there to help with those, too. Not that Christina needs much in the way of help. Barros calls her a "quiet role model" and kvells about her stellar grades at Hunter, which is one of the most selective and prestigious public schools in the country. "You can tell that she just knows what she wants," he says.

Laurel Golio

Founded in 1991 as a modest, volunteer-run baseball league for 75 teenage boys under the umbrella of RBI, DREAM has slowly grown to address the academic, social, emotional, and family needs of over 2200 kids. Executive Director Richard Berlin, who joined DREAM as a volunteer baseball coach in 1994, explains that the evolution happened out of necessity: "The reality was that kids would come and go [from the sports program] because of life circumstances that were certainly beyond our control and often beyond theirs." Now, "playing on a baseball or softball team is the hook," he says. "We're thinking about longer-term outcomes that help kids and families break the cycle of poverty. To do that, you've got to start with kids very early and stick with them late."

The outcomes are remarkable. In a neighborhood where 42 percent of minors live below the poverty line and less than 40 percent enroll in college, DREAM has maintained a 94 percent college acceptance rate for its seniors since 2005. That academic success inspired the creation of DREAM Charter School, on 2nd Ave. and 103rd St., in 2008. Beyond East Harlem, the organization now runs extracurricular programs in the South Bronx and Newark, NJ. Formerly known as Harlem RBI, DREAM recently adopted its new name to reflect that broadened scope but continues to administer the MLB's RBI league for New York City.

Laurel Golio

When Christina joined her middle-school softball team in sixth grade, her knowledge of the sport was practically nonexistent. "I had no idea how to play," she recalls. "I was using my dad's old glove." She quickly fell in love with the game, but, as one of the youngest and least experienced girls on the team, she sat on the sidelines for her entire first season.

Determined to improve her skills and intrigued by the games and community events she saw happening on DREAM's field, she signed up for the program in seventh grade. At first, it was hard to find her place in a group of kids who already knew each other. Over the years, though, as she's become one of the veterans, Christina has grown close to the handful of other girls who've stuck around since middle school.

And they can't say enough nice things about her. It's no surprise that they're eager to praise their friend, but I'm struck by the specificity of their compliments. Milly Rodriguez calls Christina "hard-working, fun to be with, energetic, flexible." Bianca Mercado tells me that she's known for her speed, but also that "she brings the team together in a very positive way" and "wants to be the best person she can be." They stress how generous Christina is on the field, backing up her teammates and offering soft-spoken help.

It didn't take long for her to become a standout athlete, either. After a few months with DREAM, Christina was good enough to be a starter on her middle-school team. By then, she'd also come to appreciate the rigor of year-round training and the commitment of the kids and adults she met in the program. She formed a particularly strong bond with one longtime coach, DREAM's High School Program Coordinator Matt Gonzalez. "He strikes a good balance between fun and actual working," she says. "He makes sure at the end of practice we'll play a game or something."

Laurel Golio

Speaking to me over email, Gonzalez expresses pride in Christina's gradual transformation from shy seventh grader to team leader. "I'll always remember when she hit the game-winning home run in the 14-and-under semi-finals to send us to the championship," he writes. "One of her teammates looked over at me and said, 'Coach Matt, Christina is the real deal.'" That, he says, was the day she earned "an infinite amount of respect from her teammates."

DREAM also aims to strengthen the bonds between kids and their families. "Our kids typically come from tough family circumstances," says Berlin. "Almost everyone is living well below the poverty line, and that creates all sorts of pressure on kids and families," he says. "If we think we're going to help a kid move from vulnerability to resilience without the support and engagement of the family—well, anyone who thinks that is woefully mistaken." Games bring parents into their children's lives in an explicitly positive context, and DREAM staff makes a point of proactively forming relationships with families, instead of just calling home about behavior problems.

Christina's father is one of the program's most engaged parents, Barros tells me. In addition to attending most of her games, he also keeps up with what she's learning in DREAM's enrichment courses. "Sometimes it's weird when my dad's asking questions and poking around," she says, her obvious affection shining through the veneer of annoyance. "But it is nice when you have support on the sidelines."

Laurel Golio

Whether because of the MLB connection or just because of the unfortunate reality that boys' sports still get more attention than girls' sports, DREAM's baseball program makes more headlines than its softball program. But the girls' teams tend to make it to more championships. Barros doesn't hesitate to confirm that Christina and her friends are "better than the boys"—and often outperform them at school, too—but he laments that the girls "don't get enough shine."

That the softball program even exists is a testament to the determination of a previous generation of East Harlem girls. In DREAM's early days, Berlin tells me, "six young women who lived down the block marched into our then-300-square-foot storefront office to inquire, not-so-politely, 'How come only boys are playing?' It took a while, but that led to building a softball program that is on par with the resources, coaching, and attention that the boys get." Berlin notes that, as the current news cycle keeps reminding us, girls aren't exactly growing up in a feminist utopia. "But, if you want the world to be a certain way, better start at home," he says. "So we try to do that. There are amazing girls in our program, but there are also amazing women in our leadership." The organization's management team is over 60% female.

Laurel Golio

DREAM recently became a minor character in Donald Trump's long, quixotic battle with the NFL over Colin Kaepernick's act of kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. Kaepernick and his partner, the Hot 97 radio personality Nessa, paid the program's charter school a visit on the same day that a reporter with CBS Sports falsely claimed that Kaepernick would stand for the anthem if the NFL rescinded its rumored blackballing of the quarterback. Rather than use his appearance to address the issue, his talk stressed the importance of speaking out against injustice, even when it feels most difficult. GQ recently named Kaepernick its Citizen of the Year, and a video accompanying the feature captures him hugging and laughing with some awestruck DREAM students during that visit.

As momentous as an appearance by a figure such as Kaepernick may be, DREAM also excels at creating its own role models. Among its full- and part-time staff, about 20 are alumni of the program. Meanwhile, older athletes such as Christina have opportunities to mentor the program's youngest participants. As part of a work experience initiative, she wrote a resume, interviewed and landed a job in DREAM's summer program, where she's spent the past two years coaching and teaching five- and six-year-olds. "I worked with some of the same kids both years," she says. "It was really cool to see how they got better. Some of them didn't know which hand the glove went on, and [the next summer] they were the ones teaching other kids which hand it went on."

The gig opened Christina up to the possibility of working with children when she's older. Although she hopes softball will play a part in her adult life, she idolizes Michelle Obama more than any sports star—she tells me she can imagine becoming a teacher. But she's understandably wary of committing to any career path yet. She just took the SATs and intends to sharpen her focus in college and, if all goes according to plan, continue her studies in grad school.

As she patiently builds a promising future with help from Matt, Rob, Stef, her family, and her teammates, it's the concrete victories softball provides that sustain Christina. She waxes rhapsodic on the small, tactile pleasures of smashing her bat into a ball or trapping a pop fly in her glove, her eyes going dreamy as she enthuses over "the sound the bat makes and the feeling you get. There's nothing else like it, you know?"

NYC Softball Phenom Christina Crockett Is Living the DREAM published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 6 years

Text

NYC Softball Phenom Christina Crockett Is Living the DREAM

Over the past two months VICE Sports has been profiling 16 athletes as they evolve into national superstars. Keep checking back here to find them all.

Christina Crockett isn’t the first player you notice in this group. The high-school junior isn’t a show-off or a smart-aleck. The most common word her teammates and coaches use to describe her is “shy.” Lanky, with rectangular glasses framing thoughtful eyes, she looks a bit embarrassed while a photographer with VICE Sports shoots her portrait. Still, Christina is one of the top softball players in New York City, a formidable batter who also anchors the center field for the Saints, a DREAM-administered travel team of all-stars from throughout the citywide NYC RBI league. She also plays for Hunter College High School, where as a sophomore her .611 batting average, 17 RBIs, and 1.083 slugging percentage helped secure her a slot representing Manhattan in last year’s Public School Athletic League Battle of the Boroughs, a sort of all-star game for local high-school players. “Typically, junior year is when colleges begin to approach players,” says Saltares, whose history with DREAM goes back to 1998, when he was a ten-year-old baseball player in the program. He anticipates that come springtime, Christina will garner plenty of interest from recruiters, saying, “She’s in a position where she could go anywhere she wants.”

“In the past three years, she’s become a leader on the team,” Saltares adds. “”Christina is a person who balances things out—she has this calm personality, and she can be the voice of reason.”

Laurel Golio

That maturity is essential to Christina’s excellence on and off the field. Her knack for staying cool under pressure delivered a crucial victory for the Saints in last year’s playoffs. Near the end of a game against a tough rival squad, The OLS Lady Twins. Christina’s team was up by two runs, but their opponents had just gotten a pair of batters on base. “Then this girl hits the ball to me, and it bounces,” she recalls. The runner on second base saw an opening to score, but as she rounded third, Christina threw her out at home. She’s humble and measured throughout our conversation, but she flashes a big grin as she tells me, “That was a pretty long throw!” The play closed out the inning and allowed the Saints to advance to the next round. They ended up at the regional 18-and-under division’s championship game for the second time in the past three years.

Along with anchoring Hunter’s team and the Saints, a selective squad comprised of just 15 of DREAM’s best players, Christina plays goalkeeper on Hunter’s varsity soccer team, which makes the fall just as hectic for her as the spring, when she’s playing both travel and school softball. On her busiest days, Hunter shuttles her to nearby Randalls Island to play soccer after classes, then she hurries home for dinner and schoolwork before heading back out to practice with DREAM. What’s even more impressive is that she doesn’t seem frantic or drained, like most over-scheduled kids. “I’ve learned to manage my time over the last few years,” she explains.

The way she sees it, her sports commitments aren’t a distraction from her academic pursuits, but a way of maintaining healthy habits that improve her focus in all facets of her life. “I don’t play a sport in the winter. You’d think that when I have more time, my grades would be better, but they’re not,” Christina says. “I get the best grades in softball season because I’m the happiest. When I have a sport, I do my homework during lunch. I can’t procrastinate. If I don’t get enough sleep, I’ll be tired for my game tomorrow. When I’m in season, I’ll eat a healthier lunch—like, I won’t get pizza. If I’m off season, it doesn’t matter.”

“Sometimes I think she has it more figured out than I do,” jokes Saltares. It’s stories like Christina’s that present DREAM—as well as Major League Baseball’s nationwide Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, with which it is affiliated—as a free, more-than-viable alternative to the city’s private school system for young softball and baseball players who hope to play in college.

Laurel Golio

Christina, who will turn 16 in December, is an ideal DREAM athlete—not just because of her talent on the field, or that she lives a block away from its East Harlem headquarters, but because she’s equally ambitious as a scholar. Between two workout sessions, many of the students pull out their folders, pencils, and photocopies to get some homework done. The first adult I meet at the practice is Stefano Barros, DREAM’s High School Leadership and Service Coordinator, who works to keep the kids’ educational progress on track and organizes outings such as college visits. In addition to honing their skills on the field, DREAM participants attend mandatory, year-round classes and tutoring sessions aimed at giving them the same advantages wealthier kids have in the classroom, with the ultimate goal of shepherding the athletes through high school and into college. When they reach Christina’s age, the options expand to include SAT prep courses, campus tours and immersive, multi-day trips to colleges like Marist and SUNY Old Westbury, where students often meet DREAM alumni who’ve matriculated.

As he often does, Barros watches the girls run their drills from the sidelines and playfully calls out the ones who aren’t giving the exercises their all. Later, when questions about homework crop up, he’s there to help with those, too. Not that Christina needs much in the way of help. Barros calls her a “quiet role model” and kvells about her stellar grades at Hunter, which is one of the most selective and prestigious public schools in the country. “You can tell that she just knows what she wants,” he says.

Laurel Golio

Founded in 1991 as a modest, volunteer-run baseball league for 75 teenage boys under the umbrella of RBI, DREAM has slowly grown to address the academic, social, emotional, and family needs of over 2200 kids. Executive Director Richard Berlin, who joined DREAM as a volunteer baseball coach in 1994, explains that the evolution happened out of necessity: “The reality was that kids would come and go [from the sports program] because of life circumstances that were certainly beyond our control and often beyond theirs.” Now, “playing on a baseball or softball team is the hook,” he says. “We’re thinking about longer-term outcomes that help kids and families break the cycle of poverty. To do that, you’ve got to start with kids very early and stick with them late.”

Laurel Golio

When Christina joined her middle-school softball team in sixth grade, her knowledge of the sport was practically nonexistent. “I had no idea how to play,” she recalls. “I was using my dad’s old glove.” She quickly fell in love with the game, but, as one of the youngest and least experienced girls on the team, she sat on the sidelines for her entire first season.

Determined to improve her skills and intrigued by the games and community events she saw happening on DREAM’s field, she signed up for the program in seventh grade. At first, it was hard to find her place in a group of kids who already knew each other. Over the years, though, as she’s become one of the veterans, Christina has grown close to the handful of other girls who’ve stuck around since middle school.

And they can’t say enough nice things about her. It’s no surprise that they’re eager to praise their friend, but I’m struck by the specificity of their compliments. Milly Rodriguez calls Christina “hard-working, fun to be with, energetic, flexible.” Bianca Mercado tells me that she’s known for her speed, but also that “she brings the team together in a very positive way” and “wants to be the best person she can be.” They stress how generous Christina is on the field, backing up her teammates and offering soft-spoken help.

It didn’t take long for her to become a standout athlete, either. After a few months with DREAM, Christina was good enough to be a starter on her middle-school team. By then, she’d also come to appreciate the rigor of year-round training and the commitment of the kids and adults she met in the program. She formed a particularly strong bond with one longtime coach, DREAM’s High School Program Coordinator Matt Gonzalez. “He strikes a good balance between fun and actual working,” she says. “He makes sure at the end of practice we’ll play a game or something.”

Laurel Golio

Speaking to me over email, Gonzalez expresses pride in Christina’s gradual transformation from shy seventh grader to team leader. “I’ll always remember when she hit the game-winning home run in the 14-and-under semi-finals to send us to the championship,” he writes. “One of her teammates looked over at me and said, ‘Coach Matt, Christina is the real deal.'” That, he says, was the day she earned “an infinite amount of respect from her teammates.”

DREAM also aims to strengthen the bonds between kids and their families. “Our kids typically come from tough family circumstances,” says Berlin. “Almost everyone is living well below the poverty line, and that creates all sorts of pressure on kids and families,” he says. “If we think we’re going to help a kid move from vulnerability to resilience without the support and engagement of the family—well, anyone who thinks that is woefully mistaken.” Games bring parents into their children’s lives in an explicitly positive context, and DREAM staff makes a point of proactively forming relationships with families, instead of just calling home about behavior problems.

Christina’s father is one of the program’s most engaged parents, Barros tells me. In addition to attending most of her games, he also keeps up with what she’s learning in DREAM’s enrichment courses. “Sometimes it’s weird when my dad’s asking questions and poking around,” she says, her obvious affection shining through the veneer of annoyance. “But it is nice when you have support on the sidelines.”

Laurel Golio

Whether because of the MLB connection or just because of the unfortunate reality that boys’ sports still get more attention than girls’ sports, DREAM’s baseball program makes more headlines than its softball program. But the girls’ teams tend to make it to more championships. Barros doesn’t hesitate to confirm that Christina and her friends are “better than the boys”—and often outperform them at school, too—but he laments that the girls “don’t get enough shine.”

That the softball program even exists is a testament to the determination of a previous generation of East Harlem girls. In DREAM’s early days, Berlin tells me, “six young women who lived down the block marched into our then-300-square-foot storefront office to inquire, not-so-politely, ‘How come only boys are playing?’ It took a while, but that led to building a softball program that is on par with the resources, coaching, and attention that the boys get.” Berlin notes that, as the current news cycle keeps reminding us, girls aren’t exactly growing up in a feminist utopia. “But, if you want the world to be a certain way, better start at home,” he says. “So we try to do that. There are amazing girls in our program, but there are also amazing women in our leadership.” The organization’s management team is over 60% female.

Laurel Golio

DREAM recently became a minor character in Donald Trump’s long, quixotic battle with the NFL over Colin Kaepernick’s act of kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. Kaepernick and his partner, the Hot 97 radio personality Nessa, paid the program’s charter school a visit on the same day that a reporter with CBS Sports falsely claimed that Kaepernick would stand for the anthem if the NFL rescinded its rumored blackballing of the quarterback. Rather than use his appearance to address the issue, his talk stressed the importance of speaking out against injustice, even when it feels most difficult. GQ recently named Kaepernick its Citizen of the Year, and a video accompanying the feature captures him hugging and laughing with some awestruck DREAM students during that visit.

As momentous as an appearance by a figure such as Kaepernick may be, DREAM also excels at creating its own role models. Among its full- and part-time staff, about 20 are alumni of the program. Meanwhile, older athletes such as Christina have opportunities to mentor the program’s youngest participants. As part of a work experience initiative, she wrote a resume, interviewed and landed a job in DREAM’s summer program, where she’s spent the past two years coaching and teaching five- and six-year-olds. “I worked with some of the same kids both years,” she says. “It was really cool to see how they got better. Some of them didn’t know which hand the glove went on, and [the next summer] they were the ones teaching other kids which hand it went on.”

The gig opened Christina up to the possibility of working with children when she’s older. Although she hopes softball will play a part in her adult life, she idolizes Michelle Obama more than any sports star—she tells me she can imagine becoming a teacher. But she’s understandably wary of committing to any career path yet. She just took the SATs and intends to sharpen her focus in college and, if all goes according to plan, continue her studies in grad school.

As she patiently builds a promising future with help from Matt, Rob, Stef, her family, and her teammates, it’s the concrete victories softball provides that sustain Christina. She waxes rhapsodic on the small, tactile pleasures of smashing her bat into a ball or trapping a pop fly in her glove, her eyes going dreamy as she enthuses over “the sound the bat makes and the feeling you get. There’s nothing else like it, you know?”

NYC Softball Phenom Christina Crockett Is Living the DREAM syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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theperfectloveproject · 7 years

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The Perfect Love Project

My name is Matthew Sloane, and for the past 3 months, I’ve been working nonstop on writing a book entitled, “The Perfect Love Project”. The concept of The Perfect Love Project is for me to gather original quotes from my peers, and anyone else who wants to pitch in on what they feel makes the perfect love. Ex. (“The perfect love to me is, …….insert quote here…..”) Once I get their quote, I write on it; and do my best job of decoding their words, in an attempt to interpret what they are saying, while putting my own input in on it as well. To coincide with the book, I am also working on starting a podcast to serve as a forum where myself, and the person who gave me their quote, can use to discuss what I thought about their quote, their true meaning of the quote, and just to have a general conversation with the topic being the perfect love. It is commonly understood that no one person is a perfect being, but I am a firm believer in multiple things coming together, and being perfect for each other; As corny as it sound, peanut butter is perfect for jelly, syrup is perfect for pancakes, cheese is perfect for grits, you get the point; but anyway, as those things are all perfect for each other, I believe people can come together to make the perfect love. Whether it be a large number of people coming together to make the perfect love in the arena of Family or Friendship, or just 2 people who are perfect for each other, coming together in a romantic way to form the perfect love, the perfect love exists, and that is the goal of this book; To obtain a central idea on what exactly is the perfect love, all the while doing with the help of friends, so in essence we’re all helping each other out, finding it together.

Due to the fact that majority of my peers who already volunteered to assist me in this project are all students, as am I, getting a quote at the moment is difficult because of the amount of schoolwork we all have, but to keep myself busy, I began writing prelude chapters to my book, based on the 5 tools I feel are mandatory to have, to love.

1. Selflessness 2. Patience 3. Submissiveness 4. Resilience 5. Faith

Tomorrow, starting off with selflessness, I will my release first body of work explaining what selflessness means to me, and why I feel that it is the the first thing needed in order to obtain the perfect love.

If you made it this far reading this, I thank you so much! It’s tremendously difficult trying to explain an idea you have through writing and trying to get it across that way, opposed to actually verbalizing it with someone in person, but I made my best attempt on trying to do that today; so if you didn’t really understand what I was trying to say today, hopefully you get a full understanding of what I am trying to do with the release of my first body of work tomorrow; Again, Thank you SO MUCH!

All Love,

Matthew Sloane

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allihargrove-blog · 7 years

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Schedule for 1/12- extra credit

To start this post, I would like to conclude on how the rest of my night last night went. I was so glad to spend my night with my mom stress-free because I had finished my homework early. It was really nice to spend some quality time with my family as I had not really seen them the whole week. I also was able to practice on my intelligence virtue by finishing The Hundred-Foot Journey, a movie about an Indian family living in France and trying to survive in the restaurant business. Not only was I able to pick up on some french words, which will help me overall in french class, I was able to learn about the cuisine of both Indian and French culture. I managed to get to bed around 10:00, which was later than I had planned, but I still got my daily goal of around 8 hours because I had a first-period free (sleep virtue). I woke up at 7:30 this morning, and for breakfast I had a bowl of cheerios and a banana (physical health virtue). Later this morning, in my English class, I was able to practice the virtue of intelligence when I was annotating a poem titled The tide rises the tide falls. At first, the poem seemed to be about just the tide and the nature around it, but after analyzing it with my group, we found major symbols within the poem as well as a hidden deeper meaning. My group and I were actually getting really, really excited when we would find new objects, because it was just completely mind-blowing how much hidden symbolism was in this poem. Once we figured out its meaning, we became suspicious about the author, that maybe what he was saying in his poem had something to do with an event in his life, as the poem was talking about how people come and go during a lifetime. Sure enough, his wife had died previous to him writing the poem, which justified the melancholy tone that he used. It felt really good to become that excited over schoolwork, because it means that I am getting involved in my work as well as enjoying it. I was able to practice my chosen virtue of religion by helping my friend Julia with her history homework. It wasn’t that big of deal to spend 15 minutes of my lunch period studying with her and helping her take notes, but it meant a lot to her and I was glad that I could help. For lunch, I had an Italian sandwich and a banana muffin with a bottle of water (physical health). Also under the physical health virtue, I had some snacks after school because basketball practice was later (at 4:00). I had some of a Cliff bar and some strawberries. I got out of basketball practice around 6:15 and got home for dinner at 6:30. For dinner, I had a small piece of fish and a sloppy joe with a glass of water. I finished dinner around 6:45, and got started on my algebra homework right after. I was able to quickly finish that at 7:00, and continued on my writing of a research paper for history that is due next Tuesday. Then, at 7:30, I left for my softball practice (physical health). I made some good progress at practice, although I do need to spend some more time practicing softball because the season is quickly approaching. I got home from softball around 8:40, and I immediately started writing this blog post because I have no other immediate homework. Once I finish this, I plan on doing my night routine (washing face, brushing teeth) and then quickly going to spend a few minutes with my dad before I go to sleep because I haven’t seen him in a while either (family virtue). My goal for tomorrow is to track all the water I am drinking, because I think that is what might have triggered my dizziness yesterday at practice and to commit more than one act of kindness for my religion virtue.

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flauntpage · 6 years

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NYC Softball Phenom Christina Crockett Is Living the DREAM

Over the past two months VICE Sports has been profiling 16 athletes as they evolve into national superstars. Keep checking back here to find them all.

"In the past three years, she's become a leader on the team," Saltares adds. ""Christina is a person who balances things out—she has this calm personality, and she can be the voice of reason."

Laurel Golio

NYC Softball Phenom Christina Crockett Is Living the DREAM published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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