#academic coquette

[crystalheart11]

september vibes

[cursemyexistences]

there’s just something about them

[shakespearesdaughters]

[malusokay]

What's the point of a diary if you're not lying in it?

On Anaïs Nin, literary self-mythologizing, and why personal writing should always be slightly dishonest. (from my substack)

If you’re not lying in your diary, you’re just journaling, and journaling is for people who don’t know how to edit.

A diary is not a record of events; it is an act of creation. The best diarists know this instinctively. Anaïs Nin knew it better than anyone. Her diaries were not mere confessions but performances, half-lit mirrors where the truth shimmered, distorted but no less real.

Nin understood that life is not lived in a single register. Her diaries are a study in contradiction—one moment, she is in love; the next, repulsed. She is independent yet wholly consumed by those around her. But contradiction isn’t falsehood; it’s literature. She rewrote and edited her diaries, sculpting herself into the character she wanted to be. And is that really so dishonest?

People love to be outraged by the idea of a diary that is not entirely factual. But fact is not the same as truth. Diaries, at their best, are emotional truths, shaped by mood, by desire, by the need to impose a narrative on the chaos of daily life. Nin was not interested in being objective—she was interested in being immortal. She once wrote, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” But why stop at tasting? Why not rewrite, reshape, embellish? If we can curate the lives we present to others, why should we not do the same for the versions of ourselves we leave behind?

Nin herself was a master of this. She edited her diaries before publication, removing, refining, turning herself into a protagonist. She blurred lines, shifted timelines, made herself more alluring. She called it shaping reality. Others call it lying. The truth, of course, is that all personal writing is selective. Even in confession, there is curation.

The danger, of course, is that history will take the performance at face value. That the diary, once private, will harden into biography. But this, too, is a kind of truth. A diary is not a static object. It lives, it breathes, it deceives, but always in service of something larger than the mundane details of existence.

[briechyne]

Soft mornings, well-loved books, and the quiet charm of everyday moments. ☕📖👜✨

[urxiaolongbaos]

[a-lady-and-her-quill]

[dreamingawayyour1ife]

[girlthatgotawaysdiary]

how to prepare for 2025 𐙚

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

as im writing this, there are only 2 days left in the year. i spent a couple of days preparing for the year, and this is what i have decided to do! so grab ur journal(or just a notebook) and write these questions down with me…🎀

#1 revise.

revise your goals at the beginning of 2024, and will you be bringing them in 2025? what have you achieved? what will you leave behind? what can you do to achieve these goals next year? what did u love from this year that u can bring to 2025? 

little tip: for next year, let's make it a habit to write down small goals(e.g. drinking 2L of water every single day)every month, it will eventually become the norm for u. this will keep you more focused & determined. i also recommend using the app ‘habit’ it is SO helpful.

#2 aspirations/resolutions.

grab a piece of paper and brainstorm ideas on who you aspire to be for the up and coming year. make sure u make these goals believable. an example of a believable goal is to hope i lose 10kg, not lose 30. even tho its possible, its never a good idea to be overconfident, because it would lead to burning out.

little tip: make a vision board, a couple of days ago i made one for 2025, and it was so therapeutic !!! i also recommend putting it somewhere u will always be looking at it.

#3 do’s & donts 

i used to always do this, so i just primarily write down the habits i acquired this year that i want to continue and the ones i dont. i write this on a piece of paper(basically a list).

#4 mistakes.

if u have made mistakes in 2024, you have the choice of either making the same mistake over and over and over again, or learning from the mistakes and the choices u made that led up to it. 

#5 regrets

what did you regret this year, and how can u make up for it in 2025? usually when people regret doing something, they fall back into bad habits, what can you do to prevent that from happening to you?

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

[crystalheart11]

rant... please feel free to ignore

so my school has this awful system for finals where we have 3 days back to back on which we have 2 finals each day. and I'm a really good student who tries really hard in school but this is just insanity. like what the hell? how do they expect us to study for this?? like trying to learn everything from a year for 2 classes is SO mentally and emotionally draining and you just have to keep doing it 3 days in a row except it isn't just those 3 buffy before the tests as I've been studying for DAYS at this point. and not to mention all the teachers that give projects and say you have it easy. like no! how is your 10 page essay easy? do you even know how much time that takes. and don't even get me started on the awful teacher who gave us BOTH a project and final. you actually suck and it really shows how little you care about your students especially considering that you don't even teach in that class.

basically this cycle of finals is so toxic and unfair to the students and so counterproductive to people who are actually trying to learn and are working hard because they're putting such unreasonable demands on us.

that's all, thanks for reading if you made it this far and if you didn't that's totally fine too. if any of you have finals right now good luck and I hope it's going better for you all than it is for me. ♡♡♡

[seraphim-eternal]

Not as the world gives do I give to you.

John 14:27

[cursemyexistences]

from september to january I’m dainty dead academia doll, and february to august I’m beach blonde baby doll

[shakespearesdaughters]

[sobbing-org]

[days-may]

a place of power within you

˖ ִֶָ་࣪˖ ִֶָ་࣪ °˖ ִֶָ*·.｡.° ·｡.·*˖ ִֶָ་· ࣪˖ ִֶָ་༘･࿐

[messyoungie]

you will run out of time if you procrastinate