May’s Moments of the Month: September // School is Still Killing Me

…Long time, no see!

I said in my August recap post that it was very likely that I’d take a hiatus in September, and, as I always am, I was right!

I’ve been having a good time off from posting, and though I didn’t catch up on comments/posts like I’d hoped I would, this month was definitely better than August in terms of my health! Which I’m going to consider a win.

(We will ignore the lack of reading, the lack of writing, the lack of sleep…)

I read 4 books this month! Which is… a much smaller amount than I’d wanted!!

I don’t have much to say about the books I read this month, other than the fact that half of them were rereads and all of them were fantasies, so you could say I’m sorely in need of comfort from my favorite books/genre. I’m trying not to feel panicked about reading because why would I feel that way over a HOBBY, but I’m 4 books behind schedule on my Goodreads challenge, so I’m just… [yelling in the distance].

     

• The Titan’s Curse Rick Riordan // [reread] get you someone who will travel across the country and hold up the world just to save you… ★★★★★
• Iron Heart Nina Varela // I can describe this entire book in one word, and that word is: GAY (yearning) ★★★★☆ [3.5] [review]
• The Sword of Summer Rick Riordan // [reread] I thought I’d been wrong to rate this 3 stars when I first read it and upon reread I discovered that… I wasn’t wrong, but I love Magnus so much!! ★★★☆☆ [3.5]
• The Silvered Serpents Roshani Chokshi // I was bored for a majority of the book but oh my god, I absolutely lose my MIND over the ending!!! ★★★☆☆ [3.5]

updates

As I predicted, I took a short hiatus. I really am running low on content inspiration and overall motivation (if you have any kinds of posts you’d like to see from me, let me know!), so it’s hard to know if I’ll be posting a bunch this month. I missed writing posts and talking to you guys a lot!! But… I’ve been abhorrent at replying to comments, and I’d rather do that than continue to make content without responding.

Right now, I have two post ideas, so perhaps look forward to those! But I’d really like to get back into commenting/replying to comments—feel free to send me your latest post to check out <33

favorite posts from others

• Fadwa @ Word Wonders wrote an amazing discussion post about how the ownvoices label has lost its way, and I highly recommend giving it a read.
• Melanie @ Mel to the Any shared her Notion pages, as well as some templates you can use, and I love them so much!
• Lauren @ Love Yo Shelf wrote about lessons she learned as a new book blogger, and… even some of these I still need to be reminded of.
• Reads Rainbow made a list of sapphic science fiction books to read, and as someone who wants to read more sci-fi, I love it!!
• Sofia @ Bookish Wanderess shared some upcoming 2020 Latinx releases—so many of them look absolutely amazing!!

I didn’t work on my WIP, because I just had no time, energy, or inspiration to do it with school draining everything from me!! Which is bad, because I’d planned to start outlining it this month for NaNoWriMo next month, but this happens every year so I’m not surprised.

I didn’t write any poetry, but I was able to start on a short story! I didn’t finish it, but I think it’s fun to dip my toes into some new fresh idea just for a little bit. In the future, I definitely want to continue writing short stories regularly, just to practice and have fun!!

I’m still doing online school! I think I’ve settled into the pattern of doing everything online, and honestly… I’m kind of liking it? There are of course some things that I’d do a lot better with in person (and Zoom fatigue is very real), but I’m just kind of vibing now. However, I still hate school in general very much, and I would like to drop off the face of earth so I can stop experiencing this hell!!

Strangely, this month my mental health was… okay? I think it was a combination of getting used to school again, stressing less about blogging/reading/writing, and also going back to dance. I think dance genuinely is saving me right now—it takes my mind off things and it’s so freeing, and I’m just really grateful to have it. And being active 4/7 days a week, especially with Zoom classes all day, is amazing!!

The second best thing that happened to me this month was starting to use Notion! My friend Skye had introduced it to me a few months ago, but recently it got big on Twitter and had me feeling inspired. So I took the dive and I’m in love! Notion is a versatile website/app for organization, and I can’t wait to show you guys my pages on my blog soon. (Above is my current home page!) If you have any particular questions/things you’d like me to talk about, feel free to let me know!!

Media-wise: I started rewatching ATLA with my mom (her reactions are the cutest), continued watching Legend of Korra (I’m gay for Korra), rewatched Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse for the millionth time, got briefly re-obsessed with Miraculous Ladybug, watched Toy Story 4… Basically I am consuming media meant for 8 year olds. And I love it!

• read 9 books ✗ (to have the confidence of myself a month ago…)
• plot WIP ✗ (this is a problem)
• write 3 poems ✗
• write a short story… maybe? ✓ (I wrote about Death <3)
• keep up with Reader ✗
• reply to comments! ✓✗ (I did it at one point during the month..)
• do driver’s ed ✗
• work out ✓✗ (technically I didn’t actually Work Out, but I’ve been staying active through dance!)
• college prep ✓

• read 10 books (I have some shorter books planned + fall break so hopefully I can do it!)
• outline WIP for NaNoWriMo (this will go badly)
• keep up with Reader
• reply to comments!
• do driver’s ed (like… for real this month)
• get more sleep PLEASE (according to what I tracked in ~Notion~ I’m only getting an average of 6.7 hours…)
• college prep

I get a week off from school! Most schools in my area don’t have a week break in October, but it’s honestly a blessing. I really, really need a break and I’m so excited to just not worry about school things (as much) for a week. I’m hoping to get a lot of reading, writing, and blogging done during then!!

WIP outlining: I’m not sure if I’ll be able to come up with a good enough outline for me to be able to actually write 50k words in November, since what happens Every Single Year is that I… believe I can plot and outline in a single month, end up with half a page of an outline, and then ditch NaNo after five days. But you know what, I’ll be idealistic for once because these past few months have been completely full of pessimism!

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how was your September? was your reading month better than mine? do you use Notion? I’ve missed you all, chat with me!! and if you have any blog posts/specific things for my Notion post you want to see, let me know!

p.s. for once I have a recap post that’s closer to 1k words than 2k. there’s a first time for everything!!