Here’s what I got up to in September.
Where I Went
Rutherfordton, North Carolina –
Other than that, no travel for me this month except for a trip to the IKEA in Charlotte.
On the Blog
This month I finally started writing up my posts from our big Scottish Road Trip in July. In the first post, I wrote out our itinerary from the trip. I’m hoping to do about one post a day.
What I Read
I’ve started the Financial Diet, but I still haven’t finished it.
I’ve mostly been reading academic papers as part of my graduate school applications.
What I’ve Been Listening To
I’m in a bit of a music rut for the past six months or so, but I’m still really enjoying podcasts. This month, I became obsessed with Jameela Jamil, who is an actress on the Good Place. I have tried to listen to all the podcasts she’s ever done. I really liked her episode on Girl Boss Radio and Why Won’t You Date Me.
She also did a two-part documentary podcast with BBC Radio 4 called The New Age of Consent, which I thought was a really nuanced discussion on our understanding of consent.
What I’ve Been Watching
Speaking of Jameela Jamil, I watched the first episode of the new season of the Good Place. I’m excited to see what this season holds.
I started watching Fresh Off the Boat, and I liked it enough, but then I was talking about it with someone and apparently the creator and guy who’s life it’s based on left because it glossed over the really hard things and was too light-hearted. Now that I heard that, I lost interest in the show, because I think it would have been way more interesting if it had dealt more with those really tough issues.
This month we have also been re-watching the Harry Potter movies. I’ve re-watched the first four movies and am hoping to keep watching over the next few weeks.
Challenges
Grad school applications have been the biggest project on at the moment. Obviously, they’re part of arranging my life after finishing my undergrad, so it’s important and I’m really excited about it. But it’s also one of the biggest sources of stress day-to-day. One of the sources of stress was re-taking the GRE. I decided to cancel the test, because my score from last year was okay and I didn’t feel like I was going to do any better.
To support myself and save some money, I have been working as a waitress in the evenings 4-6 days a week. I also got a temporary job as an office intern. It has been really good to have structure in my days and to start saving money and paying off my student loans before I have to, but it’s not rewarding at all. I like working with and being around people, but it really makes me think about what I actually want to be doing and what is going to be rewarding long-term.
Living at home has also been a challenge. I live in a city with bad public transportation and I don’t have a car, so I’m often stuck at home all day except when I go to work. I only have one friend from high school here, and we’re both busy applying to grad school/jobs, so we’re not free to socialize all the time. It’s been really hard going from being surrounded by people my age all doing the same course and all roughly in the same place in life to being home and feeling isolated and alone. I often go days and days without really talking to anyone my own age in person and that’s been one of the hardest things about being back here.
Another challenge for North Carolinians this month was Hurricane Florence. We were really lucky and we barely got any of the rain. We just had one tree fall in our backyard and luckily it fell away from the house and got caught on another tree. We’re hoping to get some people in to cut it out without crushing our fence. I’ve been thinking a lot of the people whose homes were destroyed or people who have gotten sick from returning to moldy homes. I’ve been thinking about how this has affected lower income people who don’t have the resources to fix their homes or stay elsewhere.
Highlights
One big highlight this month was that I was accepted to speak at two linguistics conferences. One is in Russia and I can’t really get the funding together for that. The other is the West Coast Conference on Linguistics in Fresno, California. I think I’ll do whatever I need to do to get the funding for that, because it will be really good experience. It will also mean that I get my research published! I’m excited to prepare for the conference and have this experience.
One thing I tried this month was detoxing from social media. For a lot of the month, I deleted my Instagram app from my phone. I have also not had the Facebook app on my phone for a few weeks. I download those apps if and when I want to use them, which has really cut down on the amount of time I’ve spent scrolling on Facebook. It’s also made me feel less anxious and better about myself. I’m interested in reading more about why social media is bad for us and learning how I can make social media have less of a roll in my life without cutting it out completely. It’s kind of funny because I’ve only told a few people – obviously I didn’t post it on social media. I’m hoping to use that energy to reflect on it on my blog.
Another positive outcome of my social media detox has bee that I’ve been messaging my friends more. Instead of scrolling through my feed, I’m individually keeping up with people and engaging more personally. This sounds so simple and obvious, but it’s also making me feel less isolated and lonely.
Because I’ve been working, I feel like I can put away money and pay off loans and still have some money to buy things I need or want. I’m excited to buy myself a new phone to replace my three and a half year phone that barely lets me do what I need to do.
I went to a good concert a few days ago by the Tannahill Weavers in High Point. It was a nice thing to do on my only night off this week!
This month, as part of moving back home, I made a few adjustments to my room. I printed out some of my pictures and got them framed. It’s nice to finally see some of my favorite pictures from my travels in real life. When we went to IKEA, I also got some new bedding, which also lightened up my room and made everything feel fresh.
Up Next
I’m going to San Diego next month! I bought tickets this month to go see my boyfriend there. I’m going for a full week and this is my first time in California or the West Coast. It will be nice to see him and do some sightseeing.
I’m also going to Charleston, South Carolina to see my cousins. We’re going during my sister’s fall break, so we have a long weekend there. I’ve never been so we might also do some sightseeing there.
