No single thing is perfect by itself. That’s why we’re born to attract other things to make up for what we lack. I think we start walking in the right direction only after we start getting our counterparts beside us.
one day you will wake up refreshed, drink coffee and be able to read a book the same way you did when you were little. you will have a cat who curls up to sleep on your lap or a playful dog who is happy to see you. you will be the kindest you can be, listening to stories, and checking up on people often. you will make pancakes in the morning and decorate your abode with plants, your old paintings and cozy cushions. you will fill photo albums with blurry photos of your new friends and road trips and summery evenings. you will visit your favorite bakery and library often, and keep in touch with people you love. things won’t be perfect, but you’ll be at peace with yourself and you will be in love with life again.
A few of you have been asking about ways to revise (that’s not just making notes). Here’s a list of some different techniques you can use to revise/study:
Notes - making notes is the ‘standard’ way of studying - summarising information from textbooks/revision guides into your own words
Mind-maps - making these is a great way to organise ideas and link different ideas
Posters - big and colourful posters are a great way to summarise info as well as a more fun way of working
Teaching - teaching others (anyone who will listen to you will do) is a great way, as it will really show whether you really know the info by how well you can explain it to someone who knows nothing about it
Videos - watching videos can be a nice and easy way to revise, and are useful for visual and/or auditory learners
Podcasts - you can download and listen to podcasts when you are walking to school etc. which is a great way to get extra revision in, and they’re great for auditory learners
Flashcards - these can be useful for making really concise notes, as well as making Q&A or key word and definition cards - they are also really compact so you can take them with you
Group study - working with friends can help bounce ideas off each other, bringing up things you might not have thought about alone - you will all have different strengths that will help each other out
Past questions - doing past papers and looking at mark schemes will help your timings and application of knowledge/exam technique
Write (don’t type) - making notes on tablets/laptops is fine, but when it comes to writing practise essays always write because that’s what you will be doing in the exam (unless you use a laptop for some reason) so it’s best to practise for timings etc.
Further reading - reading articles and books around the subject areas will give you a broader idea of the concepts and a better overall understanding
Accents/voices - some people find using different accents or characters of voices helps them remember things (in the exam you can recall info because you remember you said it in an Australian accent for example)
Key word lists - making lists of words and definitions can be useful, as using key words in context in essays/questions is what gets you the higher marks
Post-it notes - writing key ideas on post-it notes and sticking them in places you go commonly (on the fridge, by the light switch, in your bedroom, on the TV etc)
Apps - there are loads of great apps that you can download to make notes and flashcards etc. as well as apps for generally increasing your productivity - see my studying apps post here
Songs/mnemonics - making funny little songs to remember processes can be really useful, as they really stick in your head
Charts/timelines - depending on the subject, making timelines and charts can be really useful as a different visual representation
I’m sure a ton of people already know how to do this, but I only learned recently, so I wanted to share one of my favorite thumbnailing tricks! Color matching is SUPER helpful to quickly map out potential color schemes :D
[EDIT] this is in Adobe Photoshop, sorry for forgetting to mention that!
I love seeing grown humans setting about little creative tasks out of boredom and then looking quietly pleased with themselves, like maybe a middle-aged woman on her train home from work manages to make a tower out of empty coffee creamers and gazes at it proudly for a few seconds.
I love seeing other people make the overblown OOPS I FORGOT SOMETHING performance for no-one that most of us do when we have to turn around in the middle of the pavement.
I love seeing stony-faced people in queues unable to contain a smile when a baby looking over its mother’s shoulder in front of them locks eyes and does that astonished stare.
- when someone is standing in line and they don’t quite dance to the music playing, but you can SEE their head bop and them mouthing the words
- when someone thinks no one’s paying attention and they sing-talk themselves thru a task
- when they laugh or try to hide a laugh when looking at their phone
- when someone does the thing where they enter another space (such as a supermarket aisle) striding with total purpose, then suddenly forget what they’re doing/looking for, and stop there looking blank for a millisecond while they reboot.
- when people are looking for scissors, in their home or in a store, and they make the scissors gesture with their non-dominant hand as an aid to remind them what they’re doing.
- when automatic social interactions glitch, like when you tell a waiter that you hope he enjoys his food too, or tell the stranger on the phone that you love them.
- the hand gesture people make when they’re thinking at their computer, not typing, and their elbow rests on the table, and they feel the edge of their fingernail with their thumb. This is such a lovely little gesture and to my knowledge I have never seen it in fiction. You’d think it would come up all the time in fic.
- when you’re sharing an experience with a complete stranger (like watching a seagull throw up in public, or waiting for a late train) and you make eye contact, and some comment to each other, and then you guys are, like, ALLIES now. Like you would willingly ride to war to save them. You can’t make eye contact again, but you are very aware of them.
- just evidence of other people’s rich, baffling and complex inner lives.
i love watching couples or friends walking in tandem. i love seeing when they make each other laugh
This is what Hozier means when he says ‘I fall in love just a little bit everyday with someone new.’
“I dedicate this to all the Indigenous kids in the world who want to do art and dance and write stories, we are the original storytellers and we can...
