Back to the New.

G’day.

Hope everyone is holding on. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This week was the first week coming back to school. It was actually pretty fun—fun getting to see other people again and resuming my character trope of being a high school student. I have a new backpack which I have grown rather fond of in the past couple days plus a new determination to dress according to one style. Said backpack is black, so it goes nicely with everything and is quite a contrast to my previous, zapped blue accessory. It also has a ‘Save Texas History’ badge sewn on, so if someone asks me about it, I have a delicious opportunity to subtly brag about how it was won in an essay contest back in good ol’ 7th grade. That backpack has also been with me through a church trip under an organization called World Changers where we were given the opportunity to fix up houses. If you look closely on the front, you’ll see flecks of white paint on the black fabric, faded now that my mother has thrown it to the mercies of the washing machine. So, my backpack has not only been the home of the sometimes terrible weight of multi-colored binders and folders, it’s also housed a hammer, bandanas, dirty gloves, and lots of good memories. I really hope it doesn’t break because I can already see the strain of the threads connecting the straps. My habit of wearing a backpack with only one strap on my right shoulder isn’t exactly helping sew things back together, either, but I’ve gotta say, the Battle of the Fray (haha, get it? Battle? Fray? No?) is only a testament to the unfair amount of brick-equivalents I lug around with me, and seeing as how my previous backpack was seriously going to break, I need to keep the packs as evidence of some kind of spinal distress if I ever live to see my 40s.

I’ve also decided to dress more fashionably, matched to the 1800s/1900s era where plaid skirts, blazers, and trench coats were more commonplace, the sky was always cloudy for some reason, and the cobblestone streets were always damp, a style now dubbed ‘dark academia.’ I was also inspired by Howl’s Moving Castle, one of the movies that I rewatched over winter break (which has a quirky cast of characters in old-fashioned dress taking place during the Iraq War and an altogether outlandish and thrilling plot).

Now, do I have the premonition that I will get tired of putting excessive effort into coordinating outfits as this semester progresses?

Yes.

And yet. I am here to try. 

So, you know.

If I do end up as a leeched celery stick who couldn’t be bothered to care whether a pair of jeans and shirt looked horrifyingly ordinary together, you’ll know that school caught up to me again and I once again must divide the resources I have to HUSTLE.

Oh, and I have the urge to speak in a British accent now whenever I’m mumbling to myself in the shower or at home. It just seems so sophisticated, do you know what I mean? It doesn’t help that I’ve been watching the Sherlock Holmes series on Netflix and am now magnetically attracted to being a master of deduction and having a John Watson-esque habit of speaking. Throw that together with ‘dark academia,’ and voilà.

I hope that once I’m in college, I’ll be able to study abroad in the UK somewhere and come back with an accent, fake or gained naturally. Natural or no, everyone would just have to believe that the grandeur of the place (the hazy lamp posts, Buckingham Palace, the magnificent marble archways, the like) had sunk into me. And every time they saw me they would be compelled to ask if I wanted a crumpet or maybe some tea and scones. It just makes for such an irresistibly mysterious and elegant facade, and pair that with an umbrella and a formal suit, maybe a briefcase while I’m at it?

Move over, Mary Poppins.

In any case, it’s a new year, and it’s a new semester, and though I have no doubt that there are going to be fantastical challenges coming up, I know that in the moment, I am fine. In the present minute, I’m doing good.

Best wishes to you and yours! And as always, thank you for making time for my antics.