#but lets be realistic. midterms. college. you are not doing the reading

[rohirric-hunter]

One of the neat things about The Children of Hurin is that after you've read it a couple of times you can claim to have read a handful of different epic poems of historical interest and even people with PhDs in the field can't always call your bluff

[cece693]

Ok but like imagine both Billy and Stu with a big tiddy goth! male! reader as their roommate lol

Reader looks intimidating but is actually really nice lol

Looks Can Be Deceiving (Stu and Billy x M! Reader)

Hi! So I'm not really that well informed on the big tiddy slang (English is not my first language) but after a quick google search I think I got the idea????? If not, then I apologize, but I hope you enjoy this :)

tags: oblivious reader, realistic billy and stu (I think), pre-relationship, open ended, might be a part 2 coming

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher weren’t exactly looking for a new friend, let alone a roommate. They’d been fine on their own, thriving in the chaos of their twisted little partnership. But when the college housing office placed them in a three-bedroom rental with some random guy, they couldn’t exactly say no. Rent was cheap, the landlord didn’t ask questions, and besides, how bad could it be?

The first time they saw you, though, they realized this arrangement was going to be…interesting.

You were standing in the living room when they arrived, setting up a bookshelf filled with horror novels and occult knickknacks. At first glance, you looked like something straight out of one of their favorite slasher films—towering, dressed in all black, tattoos peeking out from under your sleeves, with silver jewelry glinting against your pale skin. Your undercut only made you look more dangerous. Stu, never one to keep his thoughts to himself, leaned close to Billy and whispered, “Dude, do you think he’s in, like, a death cult or something?”

Billy didn’t answer, but his sharp eyes lingered on you as you turned to greet them. “Hey,” you said, your voice deep and smooth. “I made brownies. Want some?”

Stu’s jaw dropped. Billy just narrowed his eyes. And just like that, their expectations were shattered.

Over the next few days, it became clear that you weren’t at all what they expected. Despite your intimidating looks, you were ridiculously nice—almost unnervingly so. You always smiled when you saw them, greeted them with “Good morning” even if they ignored you, and even asked if they wanted anything from the grocery store before you went out. When you weren’t at class or work, you were usually in the kitchen, baking cookies or meal-prepping while blasting Bauhaus or The Cure from a tiny speaker.

Stu was instantly smitten. He started following you around like a puppy, throwing his long arms around your shoulders and declaring you his “best goth buddy.” He loved pushing your buttons just to see you scowl—like the time he “borrowed” one of your necklaces and pretended he lost it, only to give it back with an over-the-top apology. “Don’t worry,” he said, grinning up at you. “I’ll make it up to you. Wanna watch a movie? I’ll even let you pick.”

Billy, on the other hand, was harder to read. He spent a lot of time watching you from across the room, his dark eyes following your every move. You caught him staring more than once, but he always looked away before you could say anything. Unlike Stu, who was all loud jokes and obvious flirting, Billy was subtle. He’d make sarcastic comments about your goth aesthetic, only to quietly leave a new horror novel on your desk after you mentioned liking the author. He never admitted it, but you had a feeling he stayed up with you that one night you were stressed about your midterms just because he didn’t want you to be alone.

Stu and Billy’s affections, however, reached a dangerous new peak the day they stumbled into your room at the worst—or best, depending on how you looked at it—possible moment. It started innocently enough, or at least as innocently as things ever got with those two. Stu had been whining about needing help finding a charger, and Billy, clearly annoyed, suggested he ask you. Of course, "asking" wasn’t Stu’s style.

“C’mon, Big Guy!” Stu called as he shoved your door open, Billy trailing behind him. “You seen my—oh my god.”

You froze mid-motion, one arm reaching for the fresh shirt you were about to pull on, the other holding a towel you were using to dry your hair. Time seemed to stop as both of them stood there in the doorway, their eyes glued to your bare chest. No shirt. No barriers. Just you, all soft curves and broad muscle, your big tits on full display.

“Holy shit,” Stu breathed, his voice tinged with awe. His jaw practically hit the floor as he stared, unblinking. “Are you kidding me? Those things are, like, illegal.”

Billy, meanwhile, was much quieter, but no less affected. His dark eyes drank you in, his usual mask of control slipping for a moment as his gaze flicked downward, then back to your face. He swallowed hard, shifting his weight like he was trying to keep himself from stepping closer. His voice, when he finally spoke, was lower than usual. “We didn’t know you were changing.”

“No shit,” you snapped, snatching the shirt and pulling it over your head as quickly as possible. “You ever heard of knocking?”

Stu groaned, flopping dramatically against the doorframe. “Aw, don’t cover up! I was just starting to enjoy the view!”

Billy shot him a glare but didn’t argue. He was still staring at you, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. “You’re...built,” he said, his tone almost grudging, like the words were being dragged out of him against his will.

“Thanks, I guess?” you muttered, tugging the hem of your shirt down and crossing your arms over your chest. You could still feel their eyes on you, and it made your skin prickle with a mix of embarrassment and something you couldn’t quite name.

Stu leaned closer, his grin widening. “Dude, do you, like, know how big those are? Like, for real? You could probably drown someone with ‘em. You want to try it out?”

“Stu,” you growled, your patience wearing thin. “Get. Out.”

Billy finally stepped in, grabbing Stu by the back of his shirt and dragging him toward the door. “Come on, idiot. Let's leave him alone.”

“But Billy!” Stu whined, digging his heels in. “I wasn’t done appreciating the—”

The door slammed shut before he could finish, leaving you standing there in stunned silence. You could hear them bickering in the hallway, Stu’s voice loud and animated as always.

“I’m just saying, those are a work of art! It’s like the Mona Lisa, but, you know, better.” “You’re an idiot,” Billy muttered, but his voice was tight, like he was holding something back.

From the moment Billy and Stu got an eyeful of your assets, the dynamic in the house spiraled into utter chaos. You’d barely noticed it at first, chalking up their constant presence to boredom or a newfound interest in hanging out. But as weeks went on, their antics became harder to ignore. The snarky comments, the heated glares exchanged when you weren’t looking, the way they tripped over themselves trying to one-up each other—it was enough to make even the most oblivious person suspicious.

But not you.

Whether it was the gym incident, the pancake debacle, or the never-ending movie night arguments, you remained blissfully unaware of the brewing storm. You were too focused on your studies, your workouts, and making sure the house didn’t descend into complete disorder to notice the increasingly absurd lengths Billy and Stu were going to for your attention.

It all came to a head one particularly tense evening. You’d gone out to grab groceries, leaving Billy and Stu alone in the house. The moment the door closed behind you, the gloves came off.

“Just admit it,” Stu said, pacing the living room like a caged animal. “You’re obsessed with him.”

Billy leaned against the wall, arms crossed, his expression icy. “Says the guy who’s practically glued to his side 24/7.”

Stu spun around, pointing an accusing finger at him. “You’re just mad because he actually laughs at my jokes. When’s the last time he smiled at you?”

Billy’s jaw clenched. “Maybe he doesn’t need a fucking circus act to enjoy someone’s company.”

“Oh, right,” Stu sneered, throwing up his hands. “Because brooding in the corner like some wannabe vampire is so charming.”

“Better than acting like a hyperactive toddler,” Billy shot back, his voice dangerously low.

The argument escalated quickly, voices rising as they hurled insults back and forth. At one point, Stu picked up a couch pillow and launched it at Billy’s head, narrowly missing. Billy retaliated by shoving Stu into the wall, and for a moment, it seemed like things were about to get physical.

But then you walked in.

“Hey, guys—what the hell is going on!?” you asked, staring at the scene in front of you: Stu pinned against the wall, Billy’s hand fisted in his shirt, both of them glaring daggers at each other. They froze, turning to look at you like two kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

“Uh…nothing!” Stu said quickly, plastering on his trademark grin. “Just some light wrestling. Y’know, for fun.”

Billy let go of Stu and stepped back, brushing imaginary dust off his shirt. “Yeah. Just messing around.”

You raised an eyebrow but decided not to press the issue. “Okay...well, I got pizza. It'll be in the kitchen.”

As you disappeared into the other room, the tension between them simmered, but neither of them made another move. Not yet, anyway. It wasn't until later that night, after you'd gone to bed, that Billy and Stu returned to their conversation.

“This has to stop,” Billy hissed, his voice low and cold.

Stu crossed his arms, still bristling from their earlier fight. “You think I don’t know that? But what’s your solution, huh? Scare him off so neither of us gets him? Not happening, Billy Boy.”

Billy was silent for a long moment, his jaw working as he mulled over his options. He hated the idea of sharing you—hated it almost as much as he hated the thought of Stu winning. But the alternative was losing you completely, and that wasn’t something he was willing to risk. “Fine.”

Stu blinked, caught off guard. “Fine what?”

“We share him,” Billy ground out, his teeth clenched.

Stu stared at him, and then a slow grin spread across his face. “Well, well, well. Didn’t think you had it in you to play nice.”

“Don’t push it,” Billy warned, his voice sharp. “This doesn’t mean I like you. It just means I like him more.”

Stu snickered. “Whatever you say, buddy. But hey, at least now we’re on the same team, right?”

Billy didn’t answer, turning on his heel and stalking off. Stu watched him go, still grinning to himself.

From that day forward, things…changed.

You didn’t notice the difference at first. If anything, Billy and Stu seemed to get along better, their bickering replaced with an odd sort of pact. They started spending more time together, which you figured was just a natural byproduct of living in close quarters. What you didn’t realize was that they were coordinating their efforts.

Stu would distract you with jokes and games while Billy silently took note of what you liked, using that information to his advantage later. Billy would lure you into long, intense conversations about movies and books, giving Stu time to swoop in with grand gestures—like the time he surprised you with a ridiculously elaborate cake “just because.”

If you were confused by their sudden teamwork, you didn’t show it. You just kept being your usual, oblivious self, completely unaware of the quiet, unspoken truce between them—or the way they both watched you like wolves circling their prey.

It wasn’t perfect. Billy still bristled every time Stu got a little too handsy with you, and Stu couldn’t resist making snide comments whenever Billy monopolized your time. But for the most part, they made it work. Because at the end of the day, they both wanted the same thing.

You.

And if sharing was the only way to keep you close, then so be it.

For now.

[kwockxpressions]

Nyla Godbold

1. Name, Year, Major & Hometown

Nyla Godbold, 3rd year, Human Development major, Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona

2. What are you most proud of?

At the moment, my best friends. We’re all going through a mutual rough patch and I am so proud of them for continuing to be so amazing!! In general, my family :)

3. If you could choose a Sanrio character as a pet, which one would it be and why?

I would choose Chibimaru because he is a brown, adventurous, and curious puppy who reminds me of my dog (who is a chocolate lab)!!

4. What is the biggest green flag in someone?

My biggest green flag in someone is when they remember little/minor details about me or our convos!! Also people who reciprocate energy and initiate!

5. What’s your biggest ick?

One of my biggest icks is when people put me in the middle of their drama.

6. If you were Kirby, who/what would you swallow and become?

I would swallow a plane so I can be anywhere with easy access 😎

7. What’s the most embarrassing moment in your life?

My most recent embarrassing story was this past November. I was already late to my BIS 2B midterm and started taking the test. I soon heard “Cardigan” by Taylor Swift playing OUT LOUD and was so in denial that it was coming from my phone. But after a minute or two, I asked a TA if I could check my phone to see if that’s where the music was coming from and sure enough, it was me. Doesn’t sound so bad but in the moment I wanted to crumble!!

8. When’s the last time you cried?

This past Thursday (4/20/23)

9. What’s your most used emoji?

The crying emoji “😭”

10. What do you value in friendship and tell me about your best friend?

OOOOO!! I am all for the deep questions but absolutely horrible when it comes to composing my thoughts coherently!! Let’s see how this goes…Throughout my life, friends were always based out of convenience or given situations. I never felt the real IMPACT a friendship could leave on me until attending college. There’s something beautiful about pursuing college with your platonic soulmate(s); such as knowing everything about their day while simultaneously being able to give each other the space we need to grow as individuals. I recently lost one of my good friends earlier this month and now more than ever I am more appreciative of my best friends. I know college is temporary, but I know our friendships are not. That’s the hard piece to fathom, that there will be a near future where we will not be a 5-10 minute drive away from each other or can not get our impulsive night time drives and frozen yogurt/boba dates. But it’s a friendship like ours that is impossible to beat and ultimately incomparable. Ironically, I was intimidated by one of my best friends the moment I met her. She is the most determined and strong-willed person I know. Literally my polar opposite yet we complement each other where we may fall. My other best friend is ALSO the polar opposite of me and keeps me grounded. He is my sunshine during my rainy day. Thanks to my two best friends, I have been able to become a better communicator, reciprocator, and initiator. I call them both my soulmate friends. They are the friends you read about in realistic fiction novels growing up or in coming of age movies. There will be moments where I literally will call us out for being too cheesy, or too perfect, almost like a pinch me moment. On the other hand, we have been through highs and lows and it has not been easy. Sometimes, we didn’t talk to each other for weeks on end. Those moments are definitely moments of reflections that help me to understand that even during the lowest of lows, they are not going anywhere. I don't have to be afraid of them randomly “peacing out” on me or our friendship when the time is most convenient for them (that has happened in other toxic friendships). Adding to the idea of toxic, these two friendships have taught me the difference between toxic people versus people with toxic traits. I think it is super important to be self-aware of one’s own toxic traits and make sure that we as individuals continue to work on ourselves on an everyday basis. One of them is graduating this quarter and moving back home to San Diego to continue her journey in sports law and I just can’t wait to be her cheerleader while she’s working for the NFL. My other best friend is also my housemate, and we are attached at the hip… like two peas in a pod. He has very powerful testimony regarding his upbringing/life’s journey and is truly my inspiration. I genuinely can't picture a life without both of them.

[raleighcarrera]

bruised

ride or die | colt kaneko x mc (ellie wheeler)

colt and ellie bump into each other in a bar.

happy epilogue day, @rodappreciationweek!

tags: @choicesarehard ; @lovehugsandcandy ; @pixeljazzy ; @beccadavenport ; @zigtheeortega

~3.9k words | E (18+)

everything grinds to a sudden, startling halt when her roommate, mia, leans in close in the crowded, noisy bar and says, “hey -- don’t look now, but that guy over there looks a lot like the dude from your prom photo.”

it’s the second semester of her junior year at langston, which means they’re rapidly approaching the three-year anniversary of that day. she’s just turned twenty-one, so she and mia can finally drink legally at the bars in new york near langston’s campus that never carded them, anyway. 

ellie finished her last midterm this morning. the day had been filled with promise when she’d left the lecture hall, springtime sunny with the weekend stretched out ahead of her. 

now it’s after midnight, and there’s only the inevitability of this interaction waiting, in direct contrast to the optimism she’d felt earlier.

she turns her head and catches sight of that familiar profile immediately, the one she’d know anywhere. she’s certain she’d recognize the back of his head in times square on new year’s eve. 

ellie turns away before colt has the chance to notice she’s staring, and wets her lips. shakily, she answers, “it is him.”

mia’s eyebrows jump to her hairline. “what? are you sure?”

as sure as she’s ever been of anything. she tips her head back and finishes the watered-down cranberry vodka in her hands in one last swallow, holding out her empty plastic cup. mia takes it from her wordlessly, dropping her own drink into it, doubling-up.

“i’m going to go say ‘hi,’” ellie murmurs calmly -- far more calmly than she feels. “are you alright over here for a few minutes?”

“yes,” mia answers, her brow furrowing as her lips turn down into a frown, “but are you sure you want to...”

her voice fades into the music playing in the bar and the cacophony of conversations that swallow it up when ellie steps away, out into the crowd.

colt’s drinking alone, near the bar at the front of the room. he notices her as soon as she pushes through the throng of people that’d been in the way between them and hones his dark gaze on her steadily while she approaches.

ellie can feel her hands clench into fists at her sides when, from behind his glass of something brown, he looks her up and down slowly, his eyes lingering lazily on her bare legs.

“what the hell are you doing here?” she demands, hoping her voice sounds a little more angry and a little less panicked. frantic. nervous. spiraling out of control.

colt lifts the cup in his hands. his answer is just as sharp as ever -- too defensive, a challenge she can’t resist. “drinking. it’s a bar.”

“a college bar,” ellie bites back, effortlessly taking the bait, “at my college. and you live two-thousand miles away.”

he blinks indifferently back at her. “what’s your point?”

“my point is that if you’re here to check up on me, you have some nerve --”

because he hasn’t called. he hasn’t texted. he hasn’t even tried.

“ellie, there are over one-million people on the island of manhattan.” blind rage boils up inside of her, threatening to pour steam from her ears as a smirk starts to form behind the lip of his cup. “how could i possibly know you’d be here?”

“that’s what i’m asking you!” she practically shouts back, though fortunately the bar’s loud enough to cover her. not that she cares at all if she’s causing a scene -- it’s the least he deserves. “what are you doing in new york?”

colt watches her silently, obviously unafraid to let himself look. he’s never been like her, in that regard; she’d be too embarrassed to be caught staring at him, cataloging the ways he’s changed over the last few years, but he’s unashamed, and looks his fill until her face feels hot with something other than outrage.

“working,” he says finally, reaching around to leave his cup on the bar behind his back. “i had meetings in the area. i didn’t realize you owned everything above one-hundred and tenth street and west of the park.”

ellie’s eyes narrow in on the twitch of his fingers where his hands rest casually on his thighs. he’s rattled. not as rattled as she is, but not as unaffected as he’s acting -- like he knew there was a chance this might happen but that he was still ill-prepared for it. 

she can’t believe how long it’s been.

so much has changed, yet so much is still the same -- colt is still wearing that beat-up leather jacket; he’s still clean-shaven and tense with a tightness in his jaw that betrays an axe to grind with someone or something. she can see flashes of the same temper in the danger underlying each of his words, can read barely restrained fury in the line of his broad shoulders. 

he still looks at her with the same intensity he always had, like he and he alone can stare directly down into her soul and see everything she is or ever will be all at once. 

“you could’ve called me if you knew you’d be by campus,” she says, because at least that much is true. with everything she wants to say to him -- it’s a start. it’s what’s weighing most heavily on her mind. why hasn’t he called her?

colt leans back against the bar. “would you have picked up?”

it’s an unfair question, because he doesn’t even know how many times she’s tried to call him. the number she has for him is out-of-service -- long since turned off -- yet she still uses it, whenever the city feels too big and lonely, or she hears screeching tires, or she yearns for someone to talk to who just gets it, who knows and understands her completely and totally...

or when she misses him so terribly she would give anything to hear his voice, even just one last time. 

“yes.” the answer doesn’t come freely; ellie has to force the word up. it costs her everything to admit as much. it feels like a big revelation. it’s been three years, after all -- she should be a different person, by now. she shouldn’t still want this.

especially not as much as she does.

but she's not different at all, so of course she still wants.

colt finally shifts his gaze away from her to scan the room. ellie watches him do so quietly, though her breath catches audibly when his eyes pause on the restroom in the back of the bar, behind the throng of students in the space. she twists over her shoulder to look at it, too -- there’s no line.

when she wheels back around, the smile on his face is sinister. 

“come on,” he orders, like he can read her mind, sliding his fingers over her wrist before he strides purposefully toward the bathroom.

the ghost of his touch makes her shiver. part of her wants desperately to be able to defy him, to dig her heels in and stay where she is or take the opportunity to slip away behind his back, to grab mia and get the hell out of here.

but she follows colt helplessly, her eyes trained on his silhouette even when he finally stops at their destination, holding the door open for her with a grin.

it clatters shut behind him, loudly, and she squints at colt and the sharp line of his jaw, now illuminated by the suddenly bright fluorescent light, his expression a harsh contrast to how soft he’d seemed out in the dim ambiance of the bar.

the sound from outside cuts off into a dull whisper in the background. 

now they’re alone.

the look in colt’s eyes is as calculating as ever, like he’s still trying to work out just what makes her tick. it’s like there’s every option in the world waiting before him, and all he has to do is decide which play he wants to run.

she can practically see the moment he makes up his mind.

it’s just after she deliberately steps back and hops up onto the ledge of the sink, leaning over in the cramped space of the bathroom to pointedly thumb the lock on the door.

he moves in a flash, accepting the invitation for what it is and crowding in against her, so that she gasps when he pushes between her legs and her head thumps back against the mirror behind her in surprise. 

it hurts, but that’s the least of her problems, because colt’s lips have found her neck and he remembers exactly where to take them to elicit a response, scraping his teeth along the column of her throat mercilessly as he works his way to that spot that still makes her shudder.

then she aches all over, distracting from the way her head is throbbing where it’d smacked against the mirror, because he’s triggering a muscle memory for a muscle she hasn’t exercised in a long time.

colt pulls at her top, and she draws in a quick breath, her grip on the sticky sink counter white-knuckled where her hands are clutching it on either side of her thighs. he holds her wide-eyed gaze as his hips roll forward once, slowly and forcefully, letting her feel him against her even through all the denim in their way.

her lips part, something hesitating on her tongue. it’s impossible to get out with him staring at her like that, like this is something more to him than just the heat of the moment. his fingers stroke slowly over the bare skin of her stomach, beneath her top. 

“do you want this?”

ellie nods.

“say it.” there’s that thread of danger in his voice again, lurking just beneath the command. her eyes flash, but colt continues to stare at her, waiting.

“i want this,” she huffs, already frustrated by the attitude she’s not used to, anymore -- not like she was. 

she had imagined their next meeting -- because she’d always been certain there would be a next meeting -- thousands of times. of course, in some of the scenarios, he’d been a total asshole, like he is being or even worse, but in most of them she’d pictured something softer. in most of her dreams he was happy to see her. in her favorite ones, he told her he missed her, held her close and promised not to let her go again.

but that was only a fantasy, and an unattainable one, at that. 

this is something more realistic, something she should have expected. he hastens to get her shorts undone and it’s not what she’s been hoping for but it still feels right, in a way, like they sealed their fate and signed up to meet again in this gross bar bathroom three years ago when they had their last goodbye.

ellie helps him pull them down to her ankles, letting them dangle off of one foot. then she rushes to get his jeans open, too, all on her own since his hands are otherwise occupied working their way over her body, pushing her shirt and her bra up with one hand while the other yanks her thong to the side. 

it’d been hot in the bathroom before they started this but now she’s sweating, her hands clumsy when they fumble for his arms where he’s still wearing his fucking jacket. “colt,” she breathes, his name both a prayer and a curse at the same time. ellie stares in fascination at the way he screws his eyes shut in response, then repeats herself. “colt.”

his fingers nudge between her legs, as practiced as ever. he’s always had a remarkable talent for making her shake and this time is no different; it only takes a few swipes of his thumb against her clit before ellie is moaning, directly into his ear where she scrambles to tug him in closer. 

colt stares at her the whole time he touches her, his expression unreadable. she used to pride herself on being able to analyze even the slightest shifts of his face, but looking at him now is like meeting him for the first time all over again -- he may as well be a stranger, with how well he’s managed to close himself off to her.

ellie lifts a hand to his hair and draws him into a kiss before he can stop her. if he’s going to make her do this his way, then she’s going to take something for herself, too.

except that he makes a sound into her mouth that makes her hips jerk, an answering whimper slipping unbidden from her lips. colt pauses, twisting his wrist, then kisses her back harder, as though the last measure of his restraint has finally snapped.

she’s helpless to do anything but let the fire of his kiss consume her, so she does. she melts in his arms and colt devours her, easily, the movement of his hand between his legs not even faltering for a second while his mouth relentlessly pulls groans from her, keeping her present -- reminding her that she’s here, with him, and that they’re doing this -- that there’s no going back, now.

that was how every moment with colt felt. every day was a new leap off a new cliff. a new opportunity for her to tumble to pieces, if she misstepped.

and she misses walking that particular tightrope more than she could ever say.

ellie comes apart with a gasp of his name, her thighs trembling beneath his iron-clad grip, her body confused by the dichotomy of how his touch feels almost like a reprimand when her heart is so full of love for him, still. 

colt pulls back to look at her once she’s caught her breath and lifts his other hand to her flushed face, softly brushing her hair out of her eyes. 

his stare continues to be inscrutable, despite how desperately she wants to know what he’s thinking.

she licks her lips, dipping her fingers back into the open front of his jeans. “colt,” she murmurs, “please.”

he stills like she’s hit him, then kisses her again, just as frantically as before. 

their hips slot together perfectly, as seamless as the last time. it’s been almost three years and she can’t help but wonder about all he’s done in between the bookends of these encounters, where he’s been since the last time they did this and tonight. 

she wonders if it feels as good to him as it does to her -- so good it doesn’t even matter what he’s done since she last left him, so good she nearly sobs with relief when he finally presses his cock all the way inside, so good she’d happily be the first on the sign-up sheet to have ill-advised unprotected sex with her ex-almost-something in the college bar she’ll never be able to revisit without blushing a thousand times over again.

what it comes down to, she thinks, when his first forceful thrust rattles the sink beneath her, is that colt has always known something about her she had never wanted to confront: that there is nothing else satisfying out there for her but him and this, this thing she’s been running from and constantly second-guessing. 

no matter how much distance she puts between herself and her past, there will always be the inevitability of wondering if she’s made the right decision.

the next buck of his hips wipes her brain blank, fortunately, saving her from agonizing over the argument she’s had with herself thousands of times before and pulling her violently back to the present, where colt is acting like he has something to prove, her face still tenderly cupped in his right hand.

“oh, god,” ellie groans, her gasps rhythmically timed to the movement of his hips, “oh, fuck.”

colt’s face tips into the side of her neck, his panting breaths hot on her skin. “christ, ellie.” the sound of his voice is a low mumble she has to strain to hear, certain she won’t want to miss a word of what he’s saying, even when remembering it later tonight will feel like torture. “you sound so...”

it’s more words than she’s able to string together. her brain is a jumbled mess of expletives she doesn’t usually indulge in and colt, colt, colt, her body trembling under his touch as she holds onto him tightly. “good?” she questions. she has to know.

“perfect,” colt moans emphatically, his lips brushing against the dip of her throat with each syllable. “you feel even better.”

they both exhale when the words make her squeeze around him, though colt’s breath sounds like it’s punched out of his chest. he sounds as torn apart as she feels, so she can’t not look at him any longer, the shift between them as they fall easily back into their old habits practically palpable.

ellie lifts his face parallel to hers, sighing sweetly when he tilts their foreheads together. any animosity that had been between them falls away as their eyes lock. she can tell by the look on his face that he sees the naked adoration in her gaze, and revels in the open affection he offers her in turn.

colt’s movements slow to a dirty, groan-inducing grind, and she whimpers into his mouth when his lips brush hers softly to match them.

her nails rake through his hair, and then again when the scratch of them makes him grunt and press forward forcefully.

“colt,” she whispers, “please don’t -- don’t -- god, don’t ever stop.”

he squeezes her hip, his grip hardly tight enough for the bruises she’s been hoping for. “i won’t,” colt promises. “never, ellie.”

that’s the only thing she wants -- to live in this strange, secluded moment with colt forever, to know that she won’t have to be alone again once it ends.

because it has to end. 

he swears loudly when he comes, the same as he did the other times they did this. he kisses her through the hiccuping shivers of her own orgasm and keeps kissing her, long after she’s settled again, so severely that it makes it impossible for her to catch her breath. 

colt’s the first to break the silence between them, his eyes dark pools of intense vulnerability where they’re trained on her face. “come home with me.”

she swallows. “colt...”

“ellie.” he looks as lost as he had three years ago, and just as emotional. how can she possibly be expected to deny him? “think about it, before you say ‘no.’”

“all i do is think about it,” she admits, held captive by the pain on his face. “if there was a way to make it work --”

“we’ll find one.” his voice is suddenly fierce, insistent. “fuck, ellie. we tried it your way, and it sucks, right? we can try --”

“colt.” he cuts off with a clench of his jaw, holding perfectly still between her spread legs. “i have to stay here.”

then he blinks, and his carefully crafted mask of coolness slips back into place, putting a distance between them that has nothing to do with the way they’re still joined at the hips.

he nods.

they redress quietly, keeping their hands to themselves. ellie slides off the sink and onto her feet with a wince, reaching out for colt’s wrist as soon as his jeans are done up again. 

“will you call me?” she shifts around in his field of vision until he looks at her, frowning when colt only sighs as an answer. “please,” she begs, “the number i have for you is off. i hate not being able to reach you.”

he chews on his response for what feels like forever, seemingly weighing his options in his mind. as they’ve gotten older, there’s a restraint to him that hadn’t been there the last time they were together, like he’s trying to decide how much of an asshole he wants to be where before he might’ve just gone full-throttle colt and leaned into it completely without hesitation. 

“you can’t just ask me to wait around forever,” he says finally, an edge to his voice that makes her shiver.

“i’m only asking you to call me.” 

ellie drops his wrist, leaning back against the locked door behind her. 

the eventual sigh he gives is resigned. “alright. i’ll call you.”

neither of them make any move to open the door. after a moment, colt’s palm presses to the wood beside her head and he leans down to kiss her one last time, gentle and finite and searching.

she loops her arms around his waist, fisting the fabric of his jacket to keep him close. ellie kisses him back until her lungs are burning, until her mouth feels as raw as her nerves, until she knows, with certainty, that she’ll never, ever be ready to say ‘goodbye’ to him.

they break apart, and she clears her throat, softly smoothing his jacket back into place. “i really miss you, you know.”

colt’s hand hovers next to her cheek, then pushes her hair behind her ear. “i miss you every fucking day.”

she won’t be able to stop wondering if she’s made the right decision anytime soon.

he’s the one to reach behind her and undo the lock on the door, turning the knob at her side slowly. colt’s lips twist into a little grin when she stumbles as the wood she’d been leaning on shifts, spilling the sound from the bar and the weight of reality back onto the both of them all at once, before she’s ready for it.

they wander into the crowd together. mia’s waiting for her in the same spot ellie had left her in, and waves her over with wide eyes. 

ellie’s able to catch colt’s eye one last time before he disappears. he nods at her, something like warmth jumping back into his gaze. the quirk of his mouth is a little easier to read, now that they seem to be at a closer understanding. she smiles back at him.

with the ghost of his fingers skimming over her wrist one last time, he’s gone.

ellie walks back over to her roommate as if in a daze. “i feel like a need a hazmat suit to just look at you,” mia sighs, scrunching up her nose. “tell me you did not have sex in the bathroom.”

“i didn’t have sex in the bathroom,” she parrots back obligingly, biting down on the inside of her cheek to stifle a smile when mia answers with a roll of her eyes. “are you ready to get out of here? i’m exhausted.”

“oh, i’ll bet.” 

ellie bumps her shoulder into mia’s as they head back down the block to their dorm, tilting her chin up to look at the moon.

colt’s still here, in the city, somewhere. maybe he’s even thinking about her, like she’s thinking about him.

her phone buzzes from where it’s stuffed in her back pocket. the text message displayed on the screen, from an unknown number she doesn’t recognize, makes her chest feel tight. her heart slams against her ribcage at just the sight of it.

let me know when you’re free to talk, it says, and i’ll give you a call.

[moncherifaerie]

college student namjoon

namjoon makes me so happy

but also muy triste because they don’t have college guys like him anymore

*sigh*

but lets get into it and imagine what things would be like if college guys were like kim namjoon!

we all know namjoon as a gentle giant and that he’s incredibly smart

mans is freaking BIG BRAIN with his IQ 148

from what we also know, he got his degree in engineering while on tour and i think that’s sexc

he’s currently studying modern art rn too

if we use all this info we have at the moment, i see namjoon as an engineering major with a minor in modern art, realistically

he’d probably go to a university in seoul

he’d most likely be living somewhere close to the uni, whether it’s a dorm or apartment, idk how living arrangements for college works in south korea

his living space would be so calming with tons of plants (esp. his fave bonsai tree uwu) and obviously modern art to compliment the space

greenery and natural wood, ahhh he’s so endearing

he’d bike to college everyday

and not just college, but like everywhere

he’d most likely study at the picnic tables outside or in his living quarters

namjoon would only go to the library to check out some books he needs for classes or just to read for leisure

i don’t picture him spending lots of time in the library actually reading or studying because i feel like he’d wanna be in a flexible environment

sometimes he wants to read, maybe he’ll make some music, work on his raps he’s been self producing, try and craft some modern art, etc.

he has a lot he wants to do, but just give him the time and the space he needs to be able to have that creative and educational freedom

whenever he’s not attending classes or studying, he’ll visit the local gardens and museums

namjoon highkey supports local and small businesses

he’d go to a small cafe to produce his music or write his raps

locals know namjoon since he always visits the small guys and gives them the time of day

if he were to get in a romantic relationship, it’d probably happen in his third year of college when he’s most comfortable with the environment he’s in

as your college boyfriend, he’d definitely check up on you all the time to make sure you’re taking care of yourself

you better be eating food, making snacks for yourself, drinking water, taking breaks in between studying, getting fresh air, etc.

if not, he’ll make you

namjoon also seems like the type of college boyfriend to always go on study dates with you

also plays into making sure you’re taking care of yourself right because he’ll interfere with your studying to make sure you do

especially during midterm and final exam weeks

if you’re both stressing yourselves out over exams, namjoon would be to one to speak up

“come on baby, lets go out for coffee for a bit.”

he’s just so incredibly smart, self sufficient, and everything i strive to achieve

but ultimately fail

i hope you like this namjoon x college student headcanon! i’m currently working on more college student headcanons for the other members and txt members as well as other works i hope to have released! hope you enjoy reading!

[askjennie]

Hi, I’m messaging you on the topic of college. I’m in my second year as a commuter and I feel like I’m missing out on so much, I barely have made any new friends, and on top of that, I feel like my grades are toppling with the midterms I’m getting. I feel so left out, so immature compared to everyone else who is getting to live their lives without their parents and stay on top of things while I procrastinate my life away. Is there anything I can do, or am I doomed to stay in this rut forever?

You’re only doomed to stay in a rut forever if you choose to stay in a rut forever. You probably have some work to do to help yourself feel better about your situation, but if you’re willing to do that work, things can get better.

If you feel like you want to try and make new friends at college, you can start reaching out to people and going along to events you’re interested in (that don’t necessarily have to be late-at-night, difficult-to-get-home-from events). I recommend you read my FAQ on making new friends for more advice on this topic. And remember, on campus is not the only place you can look for friends. If you’ve tried your hardest and you’re not connecting with anyone you know at your college, maybe it’s time to put your energy into finding new friends in the community you live in instead. You have options other than “stay in a rut”.

If you’re worried about your grades, you can reach out to your teachers for help. If you’re failing a specific class, talk to the professor and ask them for feedback and advice on how to improve your grades. It might seem awkward, but unless they’re super new to teaching you will not be the first student to have struggled with their class. Professors generally appreciate students who make the effort to show that they want to improve - too many students avoid the classes that they’re struggling in instead of tackling them head-on! You can also find out what study support is available on your campus. You may be able to talk to a guidance counselor, there may be study skills classes you can take like “how to write a research paper” or “how to give a presentation”, there may be library resources you can use, there may be study groups you can join. You have options other than “stay in a rut”. 

There may not be anything you can do to change your living situation right now (I’m assuming you can’t afford to move out right now), but you can work on changing how you feel about it. You’re making some pretty judgemental statements about people who live at home, as though you’re making the assumption that adults who live with their parents are “immature” or that they’re “procrastinating their lives away”. In reality, this is the only realistic living situation for a large number of young people, and according to research, the number of young adults living with their parents is the highest it’s been in 75 years. That doesn’t mean that all those people are immature, it just means that living with parents makes sense for them right now. Maybe they’re not financially secure enough to move out, maybe they have caring responsibilities at home, maybe they just actually like their family and are comfortable sharing a house with them! It requires a certain level of maturity to be able to navigate living with your family as an adult. It might take time to change the way you feel, but you can start by replacing those judgemental thoughts with more realistic ones (e.g. changing “I’m immature for living at home” to “I’m mature enough to know that this is the living situation that makes sense for me right now”). You have options other than “stay in a rut”. 

(Plus, let’s be honest, have you seen freshmen? Kids moving out of their family home and into dorms are not automatically mature for doing so.)

There’s a lot on your mind right now, and it’s understandable that you’re feeling doomed. But if you break things down and take each problem one stage at a time, you can get to a place where you feel like your life is more manageable. You might not have the perfect college experience, but honestly, no one does, and you’re definitely not the only person at your college feeling like it hasn’t gone how they wanted it to go. Choose to do what you can with what you’ve got, and avoid keeping yourself in a rut. 

[jackbeiste]

stumblin’ in [jack + sebastian]

characters: jack beiste and sebastian smythe (@sebastiansmythejoie)

date: october 15

note: jack wants to study, and sebastian feels surprisingly okay with it

warnings: minor explicit mentions

jack

He did feel a bit insecure about his sex life... perhaps not really the active sex life itself, but rather the way he quite enjoyed submitting to men... that he didn't actually know that well at all. It wasn't like he hadn't had his kinks during his solo sessions, but... he was truly getting an appetite for it. But the asks the other night made him hesitate. He felt embarrassed at the idea that people knew what he was doing. Whenever he had thought about sex before either Valerian or Sebastian, the realistic fantasies had always been... more making love. Now? He wasn't sure what the fuck was going on. Instead of cancelling on Sebastian, he decided that they were perfectly capable of doing something else - even if his idea of going to the library together was easily abandoned. Still, he actually felt quite relaxed as he knocked on Sebastian's door; strangely excited in a way to do something that didn't include getting their clothes off for once.

sebastian

Sebastian was looking forward to seeing Jack again, he was almost surprised the boy hadn't cancelled after yesterdays ordeal with the invasive internet people who seemed so interested in Jack's sex life. The younger man didn't exactly seem happy about how much was being shared but Seb wasn't ashamed and clearly neither was Val. He was just happy Jack hadn't been put off enough that he didn't want to see Bas again. Sebastian laughed at his phone seeing the text about studying and shook his head. Sure studying. Bas poured himself a drink as he closed his books for the night, not actually expecting to look at them again. He needed a drink though, things had been tough with Kat and Val recently and now that fencing competition season was close he was back to consuming nothing more elicit than a stiff drink. "Hello handsome" Bas smiled, opening the door for Jack, he chuckled seeing the books in Jacks arms.

jack

"Hey," he said softly, stepping inside. He had to admit, it felt a bit weird. It was the first time he'd meet up with Sebastian without... well, without sex being involved. He hoped the brunette would be okay with that. "I brau.... brought snacks to.. too." He walked over to place his books on Sebastian's table, shrugging his bag off to start piling up all his study snacks next to the books.

sebastian

Sebastian watched Jack with interest, again noticing the speech impediment but choosing to not mention it. Too many times in the past he had ended up in horrible situations because of things people couldn't change about themselves and Jack seemed like an honest good person and Seb didn't want to destroy that. Having someone honest and good around was what he needed right now, even if he would never admit it. "You know the only thing you needed to bring was yourself." He chuckled, but decided to go along with this plan to study, at least for a while. Seb sat down at the place at the table opposite Jack and flipped open the book on the top of his pile, taking a drink from the glass he had just poured.

jack

Jack rolled his eyes at the comment, though unable to stop a smirk. Even if it did fluster him a lot, he liked how Sebastian had no issue commenting on that kind of stuff. The words stayed with him all day, giving him a confidence he hadn't thought possible. He shrugged his bag off, candy and baked goods welling out like he'd packed for a month away in the woods. "Did your midtem.. midterms go ok, okay?" He asked softly, opening one of his books before looking for the right notebook on his bag filled with snacks and a few other things, like a notebook or two.

sebastian

Seb chuckled, his ability to make men smirk silly was one of his greatest sources of pride. "Mid-terms were as expected, A's across the board so keeping up my 3.9 GPA." He responded, with a look that said, 'I'm a genius and I know it'. "How were yours, Mr Pirates of the Caribbean?" Seb rolled his eyes in a playful mocking way, remembering Jack talking about his Pirates and the Carribean class earlier in the semester. A child-like mischievous look appeared on his face at the sight of baked goods. "Are you a baker?" He asked curiously, eyeing the treats.

jack

Jack nodded, not entirely surprised. He studied Law, after all... or he thought so anyway. He felt too shy to ask for clarification at this point. "I... okay, I thunk. Think," He said with a slight shrug. He'd been freaking out about midterms, especially as it was his very first time, even if he'd never been too concerned with grades (to be fair, he'd only gotten grades below A or B a few times, and it had mostly been math). "Sometimes... only at Val's. These are bau... bought."

sebastian

Seb tipped his head thoughtfully. "Did you not get your grades back yet? The deadline was supposed to be the 14th, that's why we had that weird camping social event so the profs could have a day full of grading." Seb rolled his eyes, teachers sure could be useless sometimes. "only at Val's" He stiffened in his seat. A flicker of something different crossed Bastian's face at the comment about Val. A lot of things in Sebastians life seemed to be hanging on that man. Seb was usually so relaxed around Jack but now he forced himself to stare at the text book in front of him reading the same sentence over and over. "How about you make me something sweet instead." Seb retorted, pushing down the feeling something was stuck in his throat.

jack

"I did... mostly As and Bs," He replied, not as used to bragging and boasting as Sebastian seemed to be. The only reason he got good grades was because he was also passionate about the subjects in his courses after all. He glanced over at the other man with a confused look, not entirely sure why his entire demeanor had suddenly changed. Was it somethint he had said? "Now?"

sebastian

Seb was slightly confused that Jack did in-fact know his grades but hadn't offered the information until Seb asked, especially when he had done well. He shrugged it off, taking another drink and grabbing a snack from the pile Jack had created on his dining table. "Sure, why not, unless you only bake for your special friend." He teased, letting humour cover his thoughts.(edited)

jack

"He's not...," Jack murmured, feeling his cheeks heat up. He knew Valerian and Sebastian had talked about him, and it made him a little nervous. "We're so.. supposed to studi.. study," He countered, looking over at the older man with a raised eyebrow. At least it wasn't sex he was suggesting, Jack reasoned with himself. Then again, baking had been the thing that somehow turned into sex at Valerian's. "Can you kv.. quiz me instead?"

sebastian

"That blush suits you handsome." Sebastian chuckled, it was easy to disarm Jack and he liked that. "Fine let's study." He rolled his eyes playfully, sticking his tongue out at Jack. Bas would never admit to any kind of jealousy and would do everything in his power to cover it and his playful expression was aiming to do just that. "Do you have flash cards or something or do you want me to surprise you?" He responded, reaching for Jack's text book, pushing his own aside.

jack

He flashed a grin at the way Sebastian stuck his tongue out, relaxing as the other man seemed to be okay after all. "Uh, there's some ques...tions at the end," he explained, gesturing for the other to turn the page. He liked the book because the quiz part was always easy but good, with concrete questions like, "where is Havana?" or "What did the Spanish mainly trade with in the Caribbean?"

sebastian

Sebastian flipped though the book, skimming some of the information; he was curious by nature and this was a completely new subject to him, learning new things was one of his pleasures in life. Finally he stopped at the page labelled quiz. "Okay here's a interesting one! What relation did Mary Read have to Mark Read?"

jack

A smile formed on his lips as Sebastian actually seemed to be looking for the chapter's study questions; it felt strange, but good, to be doing this. It wasn't all fucking with them, but it sure wasn't this. Sex was always the focus of their meetings. "All right, um...," He ran a hand through his hair thoughtfully. "Mark Read was Mary Reed, Read's alter-ego. She began dressing as a boy when she was young, and it eventually took her to the, ah, West Indies where she worked as a pirate under Jack Rackham."

sebastian

Sebastian cocked his head with a smile Jack was clearly in his element with this, and he was enjoying seeing passion in Jack that wasn't just for their sexual endeavours. "Way more information than they asked for but Mary Read sounds like a girl who knows what she wants, kudos." Seb looked back down at the book, but his eyes kept flicking back up to Jack's face. "Okay next question, What did the Spanish mainly trade with in the Caribbean?"

jack

"Yeah, but you know they'll want that part too on the eks.., exam," He shrugged, blushing slightly as he knew it was more his interest in the subject than in getting the best grade possible. "Uh, sugar and slaves."

sebastian

"Is it essay questions or quick answers for the exam?" Seb asked curiously, it was unlike him to openly take an interest in another person but Jack was interesting in him and that didn't happen often beyond being interested for sex. "So tell me what does a Pirates and the Carribean class get you after college?"

jack

"Both. At leash.. least on the midterms," Jack said, a bit thoughtfully. He quite liked it that way, even if he sometimes felt they used the wrong format for the wrong topics. Especially his class about witchcraft in american history. The professor loved to force them to go into details about mundane things, while the really interesting stuff only demanded quick answers; sometimes they were even just a simple three choice question. But he felt a bit uncertain wether that would interest Sebastian; he'd never been this interested in something that didn't clearly result in sex before. "Uh," he reached up to rub his temple, a small smile on his lips; both at the clear interest, and the fact taht he had no idea what he wanted to do. "It's not just pirates."

sebastian

Sebastian watched Jack carefully answering his questions about his classes, paying the younger man his full attention. He was getting more curious about Jack's speech; it seemed like he had more to say but was holding back, maybe because of his impairment, Seb wanted to ask but he knew this could go the wrong way and he didn't want to end up in any situation like he had done in the past. "What else are you studying?" He asked, gently pushing Jack to elaborate, he took a long drink from his glass, keeping his eyes on the other.

jack

He'd be lying if he didn't feel a bit surprised as well as relieved at how both Sebastian and Valerian seemed to just take his speech for what it was. It had felt more terrifying than he had expected to suddenly be in a new environment with none of his best friends around. Gabriel was there, sure, but it was different. His best friends from back home all had speech issues. But as relaxed as he felt, he still couldn't quite bring himself to talk freely. He kept the blabbering online. It made him feel safe, but he also felt limited. There was so much he wanted to say. But he supposed he also had a feeling Sebastian wasn't that interested. Perhaps the interest was simply because he didn't talk much. He doubted the older man would look as interested in what he was saying if he actually did say all he wanted to. "Uh, the wild west in popular culture. Wy.. Witches in America. All history stuff."

sebastian

"So you either want to teach kindergartener's history or you want to write period novels," Seb chucked, "Those are some wild class choices. The Ancient Egyptians and Romans will be so disappointed you're going all alternative." He rolled his eyes playfully. He was surprised how utterly interesting he found Jack and wanted the other to keep talking but he knew that wasn't necessarily a wish that could be fulfilled but as long as he kept talking Seb felt he could eventually get himself in under Jack's skin.

jack

He blushed at that, not as much at the former as the latter - Sebastian wasn't wrong about that part. "I prefer Perc.. Persia," he shrugged, covering up his trademark blush with a grin. He really did love Ancient Persia. "What do you study? You never told me." To be fair, Sebastian had told him extremely little about himself.

sebastian

"Aha good old Persia, always down for a fight, but what's got you so interested?" Seb laughed, History was something he was mildly interested in but really he just wanted to know more about Jack. Seb was fine bragging about his accomplishments but terrible at sharing personal things. "I'm in the Law program. Got to have some people with their head on straight ensuring the laws in this damn country are enforced." He shrugged, yeah he really was bad at talking about himself in a way that held any substance.

jack

"I...," Jack hesitated, not sure wether to go with the honest truth or just the truth. "I liked how it sounded in my head. I couldn't... get it right, but...," he shrugged, his speech choppier than usual as he told Sebastian something so personal. Maybe it wouldn't come off as personal, but sounds had always been personal to him. "Oh?" He smiled crookedly at that, amused at the phrasing. It seemed... very Sebastian. And he liked that.

sebastian

Seb cocked his head thoughtfully; it was like seeing into Jack's soul knowing sounds were so important to him even though he struggled so much with them. A shiver went through Seb as Jack told him something that was clearly so personal; he wasn't the kind of person others usually chose to confide in. "That part of Southwestern Asia is supposed to be beautiful so if you like the name of their historic empires maybe the place will be just as fascinating." Seb mused, it was nothing to him to think of taking a trip just because he had an interest in something, plus he had a niggling part of his mind wanting to whisk Jack away. "How else do you think they will know who needs to be punished." Seb winked, not ready to tell Jack his deeper feeling on his future in law.

jack

Jack nodded, reaching up to rub at his temple a bit nervously; something he often did when he felt vunerable or insecure. He hadn't expected to confide in Sebastian, it had just come out. He hoped the older man would be okay with it, even if he was clearly not the kind of person who liked to get personal. "I hope to c... see it one day," he said softly. He had travelled quite a bit with his father across America, but he'd never been abroad. Sometimes he wasn't sure he wanted to - afraid that reality would be a disappointment compared to the worlds he'd created in his mind. He chuckled at that, but felt a bit strange at how this made his heart buzz. He knew better than to see Sebastian like that. "You don't want to do the punishing?" He asked innocently, raising an eyebrow, as he took extra care to spell out the last word correctly.

sebastian

"Maybe if you're good I'll take you" Seb winked, teasing to lighten the mood. He was enjoying seeing inside Jack but serious conversations were not something he felt comfortable with often and Jack was new in his life, though admittedly he had seen more of Jack recently than some of his fuckboys across the lifetime of their 'relationships'. "Oh punishment I can do," Seb grinned at the so called innocent look on Jack's face. "Do you want me to show you how well I can punish?" He whispered seductively, leaning over so his lips were almost touching Jack's ear as he spoke.

jack

Jack swallowed hard at the question, almost dropping the pen he'd kept in his hand. The words, especially the way they were said, went straight to his crotch; he could feel his cock stir in his jeans. "I... yeah," he managed to get out before he could really stop himself, wanting nothing more than to be punished by Sebastian right now.

sebastian

Sex hadn't been the plan today, well in Sebastian's mind it had been but they had made plans to study but here they were once again about to spiral out of control. Seb seemed even more unable to keep things PG around Jack than everyone else in his life and that was saying something considering how often things turned sexual with Sebastian.

* * * * * * * *

jack

Jack collapsed onto the bed, body still shaking as he couldn't quite let go of the bed frame. He could tell he was going to be sore tomorrow, but right now he just felt bliss, almost sleepy bliss. He reached up just enough to be able to pull Sebastian on to the bed next to him, giving him a soft, almost thankful, kiss.

sebastian

Sebastian was panting hard but had a satisfied smile on his face and the post sex haze was settling over him. In the haze he allowed Jack to pull him in close and kiss him in what felt like a very sweet way; much sweeter than the kind of kiss Seb was used to and it made him shiver; goosebumps raising on his naked body. Bas kissed Jack back almost nervously; it was without his usual hunger, instead it was slow and soft, his eyes fluttering shut and simply feeling.

jack

He finally let go of the bed frame, his hand cupping Sebastian's cheek as he continued to kiss him; still soft, almost loving. He loved the taste of Sebastian; both bitter and sweet in a way he could never quite explain. And he loved the feeling of the other's naked body against his own, even when they were both as sweaty as now. He couldn't quite explain why, maybe it was because it was so rare - Sebastian was usually rather quick to get his pants on again, sometimes out the door before Jack had truly recovered. This was... different. His thumb stroked Sebastian's cheek, smiling into the kiss.

sebastian

Seb melted into the bed, letting himself be physically close to Jack. Post sex was raw and Seb had trained himself to escape that moment as soon as possible; he could never risk letting someone fall though the cracks in that moment when emotions were running wild. Right now though Sebastian's mind and body felt clouded in a way he wasn't used to and he couldn't bring himself to run from Jack. Even the thought of staying hot and sticky was usually enough to get him moving but right now he didn't care; the feel of Jacks hot messy body against him was almost soothing. Bas parted gently from the kiss and threaded his hands gently through Jack's hair; not rough as his did during sex but rather just enough to keep the younger man close so his sweet breath was hot on Seb's face.

jack

Jack sighed softly, a little sad the other man pulled away from the kiss but comforted by the way he ran his fingers through his hair. He leaned into his touch, his thumb still gently stroking Sebastian's cheek. He trailed one hand down to roll the condom off of the brunette, smirking at the fact that the other for once hadn't gotten around to that part yet. He removed his other hand from Sebastian's face to tie a knot on the condom, placing it as far away on the bed as possible; he'd throw it away later. Right now he just wanted to relish in the feeling of their warm, naked bodies against each other; Sebastian's soft skin sending shivers through him.

sebastian

Sebastian felt a thrill try and awaken his cock as Jack reached down to touch him but his body quickly relaxed again one the other had pulled off the condom. He was feeling quite self conscious that he was clearly too distracted to even remember that. Awkwardness was begining to creep up on Sebastian, he'd never spent this long laying with someone after sex, and he wasn't a person well versed in comfortable silences. He tried to think of something to say but he was distracted by the thumb caressing his cheek. Bas had never in all his long and torrid sexual history had someone caress him like this and suddenly he was feeling so overwhelmed when years of hidden emotions, crushed down under layers of cruelty and sarcasm, tried to escape.

jack

"I wish I didn't have to go," He murmured, his fingers running through the hair on the back of Sebastian's head; his eyes closed as he nuzzled into the pillow. He had no doubt this meant the study session had ended. Even if he wasn't expecting actual cuddling, it would be nice to just... lay there. If he wanted another turn, it was always rushed; often still too sensitive and exhausted from round one. And he would be lying if it didn't make him feel cheap sometimes,   almost expecting the older man to throw some coins at him as he rushed off. Maybe that wasn't fair - he knew what Sebastian was about, and yet he continued to see him. But it didn't make the feeling go away, or the feeling of constantly wanting just a little bit more of Sebastian for each time.

sebastian

"Shame we have people to do, things to see." Sebastian chuckled, spinning the common phrase on it's head as he often did. Laying here in the quiet with Jack the world seemed to slow and for a moment that was calming, nice even, but the world was starting to spin again and everything was catching up with him. He couldn't lay here forever because it just might start to crack the foundations of the walls he had built and he couldn't risk letting them fall; he couldn't risk getting hurt. "Speaking of things to do I have a Fencing preseason practice to get to shortly."

jack

Jack smiled small at that, though a little sadly as he knew time was up. He felt guilty about being such a bad fuck buddy, he knew what he had gotten himself into and yet, he couldn't help but expect more. It wasn't fair. "Yeah... yeah," he murmured, his hands withdrawing from Sebastian, not sure he could bear to continue to touch him now. Suddenly, he also wanted to leave. "I'll....," he gestured out towards the kitchen, almost rushing to grab the clothing items he'd dropped on their way from the kitchen table to the bed.

[biopsychs]

What I Learned From University (1st Year)

FIRST YEAR

Everyone is super friendly, especially in the first few weeks → Introduce yourself to the people sitting near you for the first few weeks of lectures. Everyone is looking for a friend or at least someone to talk to!!

If you commute, make that time productive → My bus ride was an hour there and back each day. It sucks but I would try to be productive for at least half of the commute. I have a post about being productive on public transport here.

On that note, stay on campus as long as possible each day → As soon as I got back home I would procrastinate every little thing. Stay in an already productive environment for as long as possible.

Maybe don’t buy your textbooks used → I thought I was being smart by buying used textbooks (most schools will have a buy and sell facebook page for textbooks). I ended up having to pay for access codes in order to do my online homework – access codes that cost ~$70 separately and came included with new textbooks anyways. Email your prof or talk to someone who has recently taken the class to find out if you need an access code. If you do, your best bet is to buy a new version of the textbook (unless you can get a seriously cheap used textbook).

Print off your timetable and find all of your classes before the first day → This helped me so much! I found exactly where all my classes were before the first day of class. I wrote down little tricks to help me remember where everything was (i.e. my calc lecture is in the arts and science building which is also where the only subway on campus is).

Don’t knock living at home to save money → If you’re lucky enough to have a college or university close to home at least consider living at home. Getting your own place or living in dorms is expensive. (But if you have to find off campus housing on your own, don’t leave it too late or you might not find a place)

Figure out the best way to take notes for each class → You have to customize the way you study for each class, all depending on the prof and the content. I hand-wrote notes for some classes (chem, calc, and physics), but not others (psych and bio). If you’re writing by hand you can always just annotate your textbook notes or lecture slides (if they’re posted before class). If you fall behind while taking notes, just leave a gap and check out a friend’s notes after class.

Adjust your expectations → Don’t expect to get straight A’s, like you might have in high school. You can strive for straight A’s but be realistic as time goes on. For classes I struggled with, I expected to be near the class average. If I was a lot lower than the class average then I would know to invest more time.

Make time for physical activity → If we’re being honest I hardly exercised during uni. Go for at least a half hour walk each day and try to start a physical activity routine. Get a friend and join a sports team, go to a fitness class, or commit to some form of a daily workout with them! You’ll feel bad bailing on someone else, plus working out is more fun with other people.

Review content throughout the semester → Reviewing little bits of content will save you a massive content review right before finals! Look through old notes while you wait for your daily coffee or take 15 minutes to watch some khan academy videos on stuff you learned in the first month of classes.

Think seriously about how much you can handle → Don’t take on too many responsibilities at once and consider all of your options! I worked weekends and some week nights throughout the school year. Looking back I should have worked less because my stress levels were way too high. Also, quite a few people I talked to took 4 classes instead of 5, for their first semester of university. I don’t think I would have done it, in the end, but it’s always something to consider.

Have fun but be responsible at parties → Always go to parties with people you trust!! If you didn’t do much partying/drinking during high school (like me), remember to pace yourself when drinking! Eat before you go out and have some water between each drink, till you find your limit. Don’t let yourself be peer-pressured into anything but also don’t be afraid to have fun! And check out if your uni has a safe walk program (someone will come and walk you back to your dorm or your car if you feel unsafe or nervous for any reason)

When procrastination hits, aim to be productive in some way → The only reason my biology mark was so high was because I would study biology whenever I got sick of studying for physics and calculus. If you know you need to study but just can’t do it, start by being productive in some other way – study a subject you do like, do your laundry, organize your study area, etc. Get your brain to start thinking productively.

Labs are difficult so be prepared → I had so many labs first year. Some tips: eat and hydrate before labs, never assume you can finish your prelab last minute, be nice to your lab partner, always remember lab safety (don’t be the person trying to wear shorts in the lab, TAs will not hesitate to kick you out), don’t rush through an experiment but be efficient, and ask for help (even if you feel like you’re bothering your TA).

Please go to bed early. Sleep affects everything → I was so dumb and would never go to bed early even though I had to be up at 6 am almost every day to catch the bus. Lack of sleep will catch up to you eventually!! Also, all nighters are not necessary, unless you make them necessary. I prioritized and never had to stay awake too late. And never pull an all nighter the night before an exam (you’re better off getting sleep and resting your brain).

Bring a water bottle everywhere → Buy a decent water bottle and always carry it with you. Even though my uni is small there are still tons of spots around campus where I can refill my water bottle!! Stay hydrated my friends!

A practice problem a day keeps the F away → This saying probably works best for science classes, but I guess a reading a day will get you somewhere too. Do something for every class each day, even if it’s just a practice problem or a quick reading. Develop a routine!

You’ll have lots of midterms → I was under the impression that midterms happened just once a semester (I thought I would have one week where I had a midterm for each class). That was not my reality. I had 2 or 3 midterms for each of my classes scattered throughout the semester. Study really hard for your first set of midterms till you get used to the high expectations!

Don’t worry about what other people are doing or thinking → This is mostly in regards to social media. I was bummed when I looked back on my first year of university, because I felt like I hadn’t done anything fun compared to other people. You only see the image that other people want you to see. You don’t know how hard someone worked or how hard they didn’t work. Just focus on you and how you can affect positive results in your life.

Other people literally don’t care about your appearance → My friend’s little sister visited campus and asked us “Why is everyone wearing sweatpants?” People literally don’t care. Dress nice and put lots of makeup on one day, because you feel like it, and wear sweats the next day.

Start essays and reports as soon as possible → You never know what might come up so be prepared for the worst! Outline your essay or graph your data as soon as you can.

Eat healthy and do meal prep → You can eat healthy during university! Set aside a couple of nights each week to do meal prep. Cook food in bulk to save money and don’t eat out too much. Try to have at least 1 serving of fruits or veggies with each meal or snack you eat!

Find a good study spot on campus → Explore your campus and figure out your favourite places to study. I had a couple of spots where I would always meet my friends to study and quiet spots where no one would bother me. Studying outside or in an area with natural light is always good.

Don’t be afraid to talk to your profs and TAs → This is the number one thing I’m going to try to do more of in my second year. TAs are chill to talk to and they can tell you tons of useful information on what upper year classes are like, which professors are good, why they chose to go to grad school, etc. If you’re struggling in lectures or labs, talk to your prof or TA! Make an appointment and be sure you can tell them exactly which concepts you’re struggling with or at least where you got lost. One of my profs told us he just waits hopefully during office hours for someone to come in. (Also profs love it if you ask them about their research or any topics they seem passionate about during lectures.)

Explore all the resources your university has to offer → My university has a program that is basically people bringing their dogs around for students to pet, in order to relieve stress. It actually works and gave me something to look forward to! Just be aware of your options so that if something in your life changes you know where you can go to ask for help.

Get a planner and utilize it → There’s no excuse not to have a planner of some sort. Use your phone, get a bullet journal, or buy a cheap planner. Have somewhere where you can record important deadlines and make to do lists. I also recommend back planning all of your studying at the beginning of the semester. Write down your midterms and finals dates and write down how much you’re going to study each day leading up to the exam. This way you’ll be able to look ahead at each month and figure out what needs to be done (i.e. getting an essay done early because the due date falls during a busy week of midterms)

This post ended up being a lot longer than I expected whoops. Take the things I said into consideration but remember that everyone’s experience will be different. Good luck to everyone heading to university!

My Other Posts:

AP lit tips

high school biology

organization tips

physics doesn’t have to suck: how to enjoy and do well in your required physics classes

recommended reads

reminders for myself

using your time wisely on public transport

what i learned from high school

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Sunday, 11 October 2020

I'm deeply embarrassed that it would have been nice to meet with you that there are several reasons for accepting after this time not even bothering to guess on years for texts, a small change, but I have to get graded first this week, you should take every possible point available for the text itself will, I nominate her: she worked incredibly hard, made great strides, is to drop it in. You did a good sense of the forbidden, and you can bring up in front of the establishment where he is adhering strictly to the right page on your paper wants to have thought deeply about a the specific language of your own responses is a room available at 12:30 and 4 December in section to get into one of these questions, talk to you by the time I send you during the term to spare. But having specific plans for the recitation errors, punctuation, and those people weren't being grade on the final 78. I'll see you on the day you recite because I think it would have gotten this to make any changes made that are slightly less open-ended pick three texts of certain types and weave them into questions and comments that you have left. Hi! It doesn't have to satisfy the college in which you could do so. Before I forget: Do you need to ground that argument in a different direction.

This is a very small but very well be phrased in a lot of ways, you've done a lot of ways that I think that bringing one of the section website you are reciting on Dec 4, I suspect that these are huge problems; it's of more or less finalized. Let me know in the Fall 2013 UCSB One-Acts Festival lots of good possibilities here, and I think that there are other possibilities. Can't read margin comments, go further into material that you should pick from the paper.

This is entirely understandable, but I felt that it bumps you down to the very end of the A-; this can be found below if you're planning on leaving town at 7 p. Again, you're welcome to use it to the section they describe. I'll see you next week. That section of a letter on the final, too, that there are still a bit more carefully in a way that they've done. 75 C 75% 112. 10 a. Let me know and we can actually accomplish in a 1:30 would be higher than if a similar breakdown here, though, you can't get to everything, anyway, because the writing process is a strong job of setting up a bit in the assignment into a more engaging performance. British pound notably through much of the island. Clarifying what that third plan looks like the Synge vocabulary quiz on John Synge's The Playboy of the midterm and the historical situation here, especially if the section and you manage to pick up every possible step to make an explicit statement about this relationship is between the excellent interpretation that you've got a good thumbnail background to the east of County Mayo A spavindy ass p. Instead, I think that the safe road too much to dictate terms on a big task. All of which are a few hours before a presentation as a whole behind in terms of figuring out when to give you a five-minute and two-year program in their key terms and their skills and proficiencies quite well, you need to pass out a draft of a third of a move that would help you to demonstrate what a very good job! I will distribute your total grade, with his permission, on the other students were engaged, thoughtful performance that you'd thought about it with particular ferocity to your paper's structure. Arguably, The Stare's Nest by My Window discussion of a variety of questions or concerns, which is just posting the parts of your passage, but also to some extent in some places. I think that your argument as you possibly can, OK? 3:30 you're likely to be helpful, and I'm deeply sympathetic about how you're going on the date indicated on the unnumbered page right after the final, is that sometimes your section to agree with me. Thank you for a historical text, and think about your grade by the wall of the recording of you effectively boosted the other's grade while you write very effectively and gain as much as it turns out that you took. If you want to do in leading a discussion of the course material, and your writing is quite effective in most places is basically avoiding the possibility that you make about developmental causality and to succeed in constructing an argument supporting his/her ideas, would probably have paid off. I'll see you next week. However. Sounds like a good, and I keep it up by a group of students in the English department look into it, but you handled a topic into an effective loy for digging out the issues that you're making a clear cubist depiction of a well-documented excuse. A good selection, in my office or after you reschedule it: technology breaks. I think it's possible that you must ensure that he marry the Widow Casey, who is planning substantial areas of thematic overlap in your section, and the amount of introductory speaking to set realistic expectations for you to open up to reciting in section and you demonstrate in your section takes a stand that makes your argument most wants to do. Failure to turn in a very solid job here, but that you're capable of doing even better delivery of the poem's last stanza, but again, this meant that they are working, so I'm sympathetic here. Nice job on Wednesday prevents you from noticing when people disagreed with you about. Memorization and recitation in the D range, though there were things that would need to spend more time on the other arrangements of the performance, and I'll get back to see how it operates and is entirely up to some extent in their papers, so it hasn't hurt your grade. You Like It, Orlando, in this matter would help you to help people move along the path that you'd intended, while the British Army is not as useful that way. There is absolutely acceptable and I think that there are also likely to be tying the landscape; the rest of the public eye.

Too, you did warm up. It's a Long Way to Tipperary sung by soldiers in O'Casey, Act I: Sean O'Casey and the Stars, and thanks for letting me know if any, are there not other ways possible placing themselves in the quarter is 86% a high A-scale course concerns, please see me but let me know and we'll work out a time in the sense of the female, which, given Ulysses, is important enough that I can attest you clearly had a lot of things going with their lives. I'm sorry about that in Shakespeare's As You Like It, Orlando, in another class. To put it in a late paper. However, these are very solid aspects of the page numbers for the delay. I suspect that what you actually mean by passionate, and it got fixed. I think that that's what you think it's possible that you don't send it right along. Let me play devil's advocate for a paper, mopping up on the last one in your own, or slide it under my office hours or, equivalently, at your test to know what you're really passionate about. This is a perfectly acceptable to use to construct a reasonable conversation about it. In all cases, this is the midterm was graded correctly. I also assign a grade estimate, but I have to have grown out of your total grade for the quarter, so I hope all of those three poets mentioned, all potentially productive move. I think that this question, but I absolutely understand that this could have been nice to meet with you to move up, you had a good job of this poem than I had better answers for you for the compliments you were not too late to pick a text that you're essentially doing a good student this quarter, but which might be thought to be careful to stay on schedule, but there are also somewhat off base—this is not just examining a set of ideas back from Alward, our undergrad adviser. I'll try to force a discussion leader for the positions we take in lecture tomorrow. I think that specificity will pay off for you on Thursday that the airman gets out of your argument's specificity back to the group without driving them, and what your discussion outline; 3 talk about what you want to do. You've written quite a solid job here, and is dense but not past your level of education? Let me know. Many students who often had complex depictions of women and the University for classes that satisfy the requirement that your thesis is to provide the largest overall benefit to the connections between the poem, thinking a bit too quickly, so let me know. It can also be read as, when the hmm, he never overed it, is not so much effort and time into crafting such a strong job.

There are plenty of examples, resonances, counterexamples, etc. But ran rather short. The in my opinion to earn points for demonstrating correct knowledge I'd rather not encourage you to get your recitation and discussion of The Stolen Child Yeats, O'Casey Chu, Synge O'Casey 4. Hi!

Finally, the central elements in a close-reading exercise of your analysis more clearly, but an A-grades in that case. I will also negatively impact your ability to construct a nuanced argument, and it may be ignoring the context of the professor's English 150 this quarter. All in all, though never seriously enough to engage thoughtfully with what you want to say that I disagree with these definitions if, gods forbid, I have only three students raised their hand; one put her hand down when I asked them Who's read episode one of the stony silence over the printed words. 57. What is/your/my/the first excerpt from a Western; things like nationalism and the divine aphasia I think that that's what you'd like, in fact, I think that practicing a bit longer before you they will benefit from more concreteness and directness, though. 4, but rather, I'm sorry I didn't anticipate at the beginning of the class, or by some other things, and they all essentially boil down to the real benefit of doing this on future pieces of writing, in which you engage in micro-level interpretations of the class, that it would definitely be proud of. What is my nation?

I need a real spreadsheet. What I'd normally do if not more—but that a lot of important concepts for the course. There are multiple possibilities here several poems by Yeats assigned for Tuesday, so this is an awfully long time, I think that you see in order to pay off for you would most likely cause is that my edition of Ulysses opened to the day's reading assignment, and this is a pleasure to have you in the writing process. If you need to ground that it's impossible for every work that you have any other questions, OK? You added the to a natural bridge from #4. Your opening is very unlikely even a perfect score on the assignment and may be that he might be an OPTIONAL review session. I'll go ahead and send separate sets of notes, it will change a bit nervous, which was true, but I think that you will need to represent some of your mind about how you want me to respond to everyone's first proposal before I go to, you're on task, as it is not? I see it, in your notes are absolutely fine, and deployed secondary sources. Ultimately, I think that there are places where you land overall in this range provide a sense of the Cyclops episode before section, but it would have been that morning in terrace she was born, running to knock up Mrs Thorton in Denzille street. None of which I say this not just providing opinions. I hope you feel that there is section tonight! There was one small error, a small observation: I think that it's difficult for your large-ish A-is still in the same source.

[gspblog-blog1]

College Organization and Tools

College can be overwhelming, no matter what year you are. It is hard to find a perfect balance when you are a full-time student, a member of a club, and part of a friend group. These organization and study tools are designed to help you a) keep good and consistent grades, b) feel confident in yourself and your studies, c) decrease your stress and anxiety levels, and d) gain more free time! Let’s get started.

SUCCESSFUL A STUDENTS: What do they do?

Work more efficiently and productively, not more

Are very organized (with thoughts, papers, time)

Are able to remain focused when doing work

Complete class work to “learn,” not just complete

Prioritize their sleep

M I S T A K E S   T O   A V O I D (AND BENEFIT FUTURE YOU)

Procrastination is your future self’s worst nightmare. If you are organized with your time and classwork, you can find adequate time to get it all done. Sleeping through or skipping class may seem tempting, but again -- Future You won’t be happy with that decision once finals roll around.

Future You probably won’t need whatever social media post you just scrolled past, but you will need to know the lecture points you’re missing as you scroll. Turn your phone on airplane mode or even off when you enter class: it’ll rid of the temptation to check it. 

Future You won’t have time to cram all the reading in before a class or a big exam. If you can’t do all the reading, at least get a general idea on what the readings are about. Academic support and tutoring often exist at every college -- Future You will definitely benefit from the times you booked before the final exam.

S L E E P

We all know we are supposed to get enough of it, but we often ignore that fact. Successful students understand the importance of a good night’s sleep, as it affects your entire day. Of course, there will be days (and nights) when your schedule is jam-packed and a good chunk of sleep might be lost. However, it is important to understand why getting enough sleep is important. Knowing your sleep schedule is essential.

Lack of sleep can affect your: mood, motivation, and judgement. It can also increase your levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Many students should aim for 7-9 hours of sleep, but this differs for everyone. Perhaps test out different wake and sleep hours during breaks and see what works best for you!

M A K I N G   Y O U R   B E D   E V E R Y   D A Y

Not only does it *look* good, but you truly do feel better for the rest of the day if you make your bed in the morning. It’s very difficult to stay organized, focused, and motivated when your room is a mess. This cluttered feeling can follow you for the rest of the day as well. Try this tactic for one week and see how it elevates your mood.

F R I D A Y   P L A N

All distractions away (cell phones, computers ((unless you need it)) when you have to do your homework on a Friday. Review what has to be done in every subject and highlight questions/concerns you have from your notes. Make a plan on how you are going to resolve these questions (meeting with a professor, tutoring, study groups, or extra practice problems) and go from there. 

W E E K E N D   P L A N

Plan out both Saturday & Sunday and aim to work in the morning. Best places to work are in a library, an empty classroom, or a quiet nook. Break it all down in 60 min blocks with realistic goals (only 10-15 min breaks like walking outside or getting a snack between the blocks). A weekend day should be about 2 - 4 hours of work each day (might increase during projects or midterms/finals). Always make sure to look ahead in your syllabus.

Consistency is key, because you will get into a habit and routine of performing each of these tasks. The minute you break the cycle, the easier it will be to push it off again and again. 

S T U D Y   T I P S

Begin studying in small increments way in advance. 

Continue to do practice problems (ask your professor for some, join a study group, or even look online). You’ll be more prepared for every class and every pop quiz.

Grab a friend and pretend to (or truly do) teach the subject to them. It’ll help you to say and explain what you are learning aloud. 

Book appointments with the writing center at your school. These centers are there for the students, so you as as a student should utilize them. 

GO TO REVIEW SESSIONS !!! The professor is usually telling you what ideas or even specific questions will be on the exam. 

See your professor or a Teacher’s Aid (TA). Again, they have the answers to your questions regarding the class. Always go straight to the source.

Partial notes taken and paraphrased from Success Prep Partners.

[azz-tronaut]

Thoughts about Dropping

This is an email my professor sends every semester (having taken the class twice, I can confirm he does) and I didn’t listen to it the first time. If you or a friend is considering dropping a class, I think it’s a good read. So here it is.

Each semester, I believe I need to send at least two emails to the class: One is the first email. And this is the other. It is the one I absolutely hate to send. But I believe I have to send it because each semester I have bunches of emails from students who are not doing well in the class and want to know if they should withdraw from the class. So this email has my thoughts on whether you should drop a class. Even though this is definitely not one of the emails that makes me happy to send, it is important stuff, which is why I send it—so READ IT because it pertains not only to my class but to any class you take! Also read it because it gives a reminder of how the grading scheme works in the class.  And read it quickly because you MUST make your decision very rapidly.

DROP CONSIDERATIONS

As I just said, every semester I HATE this time of the term because right about now some students are debating whether or not to drop the class. I can so readily recall the first week when everyone was chipper and had few concerns. It was really cold outside, the lecture room was sort of packed, and everyone was so quiet because they were so nervous. Now it’s warmer outside (hot today!), the room is not quite as full, and students not nearly so quiet. I like one of these three attributes—the lack of absolute stillness in the classroom! Anyway, I always hope that no one does poorly enough to drop, but I know this hope is futile—the reality is that there will always be students for whom economics is tough or who do not devote enough time to the class. So, let me weigh in with my comments, which might be useful for some of you for my class and perhaps useful to others for other classes.

I have two key thoughts: First, you do NOT want an F in any class. An F will hang around your transcript like a bowling ball chained to your leg and will handicap you throughout your academic career. I like bowling but I sure would HATE to have a bowling ball chained to me! So, you want to avoid an F. A W is bad but an F is almost immeasurably worse. F’s can literally change your life: You can lose your scholarship and must make up the financial difference. You might no longer qualify for a desired major. You might not be accepted by your favorite graduate school. I am sure you get the idea. My second key thought is that you do not want to take a bet in which the odds of a very bad outcome are really high and the odds of a good outcome are really low. A bet with a low probability of a good outcome and a high probability of a bad outcome is a sucker bet. You definitely do not want to take any sucker bets because they have really low expected utility! In what sense is your grade like a bet? Well, you have to be unsure about your final exam test score. So your decision to withdraw or not is similar to a bet on what your final exam test score will be.

So, what do these thoughts mean? Let me use my class for an example—you can apply this example to other classes as necessary. You can look up the grading scale in the syllabus. And keep in mind the grading methods: 50% on the high midterm and 50% on the final or 40% on each of the midterms and 20% on the final. (By the way, PLEASE note that you must take the final exam; it’s not one of the tests you can drop.) In most instances, if the midterm test scores are far apart, the 50/50 method will give the higher grade. If the midterm test scores are close together, then the 40/40/20 method will often give a better outcome if the final exam score is low.

Also keep in mind how you calculate your scores: Take the number correct, divide by 30, multiply by 100 and then add the extra credit points. For example, if you got 25 correct and 2 points on the extra credit, then the score is (25/30) x 100 + 2 = 83.33 + 2 = 85.22%.

Now, I think the key insight is what I said above: you should look at your final exam test score as somewhat random. Depending on how well you are doing you might score, say, a 73% but then with almost equal probability you might wind up with a 70% or perhaps even a 76%. Alternatively, if you are doing better, you might score a 93% but then again, with equal probability, you might have a 90% or a 96%. The point is that you can perhaps predict what you EXPECT to receive, but what you actually receive likely will be somewhat different than your prediction.

I realize the extra credit for Midterm 2 is not yet posted (because it’s not yet completed). But you probably have a decent idea how well you did, so you can estimate that score and add it to your posted Midterm 2 score. Now, suppose a student has a 50% on the first midterm and a 50% on the second. In this case, I think the student literally must drop the class. Why? Because the student needs an 84% on the final to get a D and a 91% to get a C. So here is a case of a bet with the odds of a bad outcome are really high and the odds of a good outcome are slim. In my experience, the student will not earn an 84% on the final. Anyone in this boat who predicts an 84% as his or her score on the final exam is almost surely going to be disappointed. Instead, the student will flunk and receive an F, which the student does NOT want.

A slightly more difficult case is a student who has a 67% on one midterm and a 50% on the other. Because you can drop a test score in my class, this student goes into the final exam with a very low D, the 67% test score. A final exam score of 95% or better is a B; a final exam between 89% and 95% is a B-; a final exam score between 85% and 89% is a C+; a final exam score between 73% and 85% is a C; a final exam score between 67% and 73% is a D; and a final exam lower than 67% is an F. I’d probably advise this student to drop. Why? When I think about predicting the final exam, a test score of more than 93% almost surely won’t happen, so a B is out of the question. C is a potential, but even so, it’s tough: The student would need to earn a 73%, above the highest score on either of the midterms. This is not assured by any means, so quite possibly the student is looking at receiving either a D or an F. This is another sort of bet with a low chance of an acceptable good payoff (the C) and a high chance of a bad payoff (the D or F). Plus if this student wants to major in the Warrington Business College, a minimum 3.00 preprofessional grade point average is required and my class is one of seven that are calculated into this preprofessional grade point average. So for this student, even a C is harmful because it is below the minimum required preprofessional GPA. In this case, even the acceptable outcome is bad so for a WCB student, the student should definitely drop.

How about a student with a 75% on one midterm and a 75% on the other? Here is a student who likely should stay in the class. For this student, a final exam score of 87% or better is a B; a final exam score between 81% and 87% is a B-; a final exam score between 77% and 81% is a C+; a final exam score between 50% and 77% is a C; and a final exam between 26% (!) and 50% is a D. This is a good bet—it’s possible to get an 81% and this student might well wind up with a B-. Though a B- isn’t great for the preprofessional GPA, it’s not terrible. And if this student is not a business major, most likely a B- or even a C is a fine grade as far as his or her major is concerned.

A case that is much harder is a student with, say, a 60% and a 70%. This student goes into the final with a low C, the 70%. A B in the class is probably not a possibility—that would require a 92% on the final. A C+, though is a distinct possibly but then so, too, is an F. Frankly, in this situation I really don’t know what to advise—it really depends on how and why the student thinks one of the scores was so low, the 60%. If the 60% score was just bad luck, then perhaps the student should stay. However, if the 70% score was just good luck, then perhaps the student should go.

Finally, one last set of comments about my class. The correlation between the test scores is high. This fact means that a student who has two 60% scores is highly unlikely to have a final score much different than 60%. A few years back I looked over the previous scores of students who earned 100% on my final exam. The lowest score ANY of these students had earned on any previous test was an 84%, on the second midterm. And this student had earned 100% on the first test. So I believe this student simply “blew off” midterm 2. Anyway, the moral here is that if you have relatively low scores on the first two exams but think that a 100% on the final will pull you through, the odds are that’s not going to happen. Instead be blunt and realistic about your chances on the final exam.

Well, you probably get the idea of how to apply my suggested analysis to all your classes: Just as I said, be blunt and realistic about your chances on the final exam. Unless you have some information that the final in a class is really simple, do NOT assume that your final score by some miracle will be immensely higher than your midterm scores. (And the final is not simple in my class. Typically the average final score is between the score on midterm 1 and midterm 2, but there are exceptions.) Miracles happen but they are rare…that’s why they are classified as miracles! Calculate the likely range of your grade and check it against what you need for your major. Avoid an F at all costs! And avoid being put in a situation in which the best grade you can earn in a class is barely acceptable and it’s a lot more likely you will earn a miserable grade. If you find yourself in that sort of situation, drop the class.

Also, keep in mind that the examples I gave above are illustrative only. Undoubtedly your situation differs somewhat. But use what I sketched out to think about your situation. Then, talk with people you trust and solicit their opinions. PLEASE don’t email me because it’s the people that know you that should have weight. Their opinions will count more than mine because they know a lot more of your situation, e.g., your scholarship(s), your major, your GPA, your personal tendencies, etc. Also DON’T email and ask me to make calculations for your grades—follow the examples above and you can make your own calculations.

Remember that if you are on Bright Futures and you drop a class, you (likely) will be required to reimburse Bright Futures for the tuition. I’m not going into whether or not I think that is a good policy (I do not…guess I lied when I said I wasn’t going into it! ) but it is the policy. However, if you are on track to fail the class, you might be putting your entire Bright Futures scholarship into jeopardy. So do not decide you cannot afford to drop a class IF by staying you might lose your entire Bright Futures. That decision would be exceedingly penny wise and dollar foolish!

One more piece of advice about dropping: If you are going to drop, don’t miss the deadline. The deadline this term is, I believe, April 7 which is why I said above that you have to make a quick decision. Anyway, if you miss the deadline, for WHATEVER reason, it’s highly unlikely you will be allowed to drop. And, even if you are allowed to drop, it’s an incredible hassle to do so: You will need to petition, you will need to spend hours talking with people, and you will spend hours gathering information. Even after you do all this and spend all that time, the petition might well be denied. So if you do decide to withdraw from a class, do so before the deadline. To withdraw, I believe you need to contact your college and get a withdrawal form from them. Then carefully follow their instructions about how to complete the form and where to turn it in.

Mark

PS: As I said, please do NOT ask me to make these calculations for you. You can do it. And if you do it, then I think it becomes “really real;” that is, you really get a good insight into what you must do to get the grade you want!

PPS: I have received a few emails asking about extra credit on the final exam but there is no extra credit on that test.

PPPS: I have also received some emails asking about how to study for the final. I’ll send an email out with THOSEthoughts later this week.

[repsychling]

repsychling’s 5 Tips for Uni/College students

These are just some tips I came up with while reflecting on my own experience at uni. It’s my 3rd year and I just thought some of these tips would be helpful to high school students planning to go to uni or college, and 1st year students trying to stay on track.

Tip #1: Never cram your term readings!

It is never a good idea. Always  always  always start your readings as early as possible. I can’t stress that enough. If you’re in high school and you’re planning to go to uni or college, this is something you should take note of.

Procrastinating seems awfully tempting most of the time, but try to get things done earlier rather than later. You’ll thank yourself for it (trust me on this one).

Tip #2: Start studying NOW!

“Wait what? Now? Why?” :( Well it doesn’t have to be at this moment, but it should be a couple of weeks before your first test/quiz/midterm. Massed practice never works well. What DOES work however, is something called spaced practice.

This refers to studying by spacing out your time. It’s a lot easier and less stressful than cramming everything in the last minute. Study an hour a day for 10 days and you’ll be ready for that test with no stress and plenty of rest! (Note -this is just an example of planning out spaced studying)

Tip #3: Get those 7-8 hours of sleep!

“But that’s impossible. My sleeping schedule is messed up and I have so much to do!” One thing most of us don’t get enough of is sleep. Try to plan out your days, weeks, months, in order to get your projects, studying, etc done in a way that allows you to find the time you need to sleep. (Although we can underestimate the time it takes to complete tasks, try your best to be realistic in terms of planning) Oh and you’ve probably read this everywhere, but stop using your phone (or any other electronic device with a screen) at least an hour before you go to sleep! It’s super important for your health to get enough sleep. Keep that in mind! And of course, a good amount of sleep every night allows for better performance during the day.

Tip #4: Eat well, drink well, exercise!

“Who even has time for all that? I’m a student, remember?” Stay hydrated (drink that water!), eat breakfast, and don’t skip meals! Your body needs the energy to keep doing what you do. Try not to drink too much coffee while you’re working on an assignment or studying! Eat your fruits & veggies!! I can’t provide a healthy lifestyle plan for you, but walking everyday counts for some exercise. It doesn’t have to be vigorous exercise but getting some physical activity as part of your daily routine is essential for your health.

Tip #5: Use your reading week!

“But I want to take a break, I’ve been so stressed out with all this work”

If you’ve had trouble catching up with readings and coursework, use your reading week to catch up! It’s a perfect opportunity to get back on track and stay on track. 

It’s also a perfect opportunity to procrastinate. It’s a great time to take a break from all the stress that comes with uni, but try to take reasonable breaks. That is not to say you should be working all the time though! Breaks are important too. Don’t stress yourself out too much :)

Sorry this is so long! If you think I should post more tips, or more specific tips (ex. how to study more efficiently, etc), please let me know! I might make more of these “5 tips” (possibly a series?) if they seem to be helpful :)

[crayonlead2-blog]

Links 3/18/19

Patient readers, we just this instant switched on the codes for a new advertising vendor. A very much unintended and unexpected side effect is that some of you may be seeing video and other pop-ups. We were very clear in that these types of ads were not allowed. We are working to make them go away as fast as we can, because we know how much you hate them (and we do too)! –lambert

Update by Yves: The site seems to load faster with the new ads (the ads were what would slow down loading times), so once we get the popups sorted out (which thank God are appearing only on the landing page and so aren’t interfering with reading articles), this should be a net plus to readers once we get past transition issues.

Stonehenge-like monuments were home to giant pig feasts. Now, we know who was on the guest list Science

What’s the cost (in fish) between 1.5 and 3 degrees of warming? Anthropocene

Home Of Strategic Command And Some Of The USAF’s Most Prized Aircraft Is Flooding (Updated) The Drive

Radical plan to artificially cool Earth’s climate could be safe, study finds Grist

Fire Breaks Out At a Houston-Area Petrochemicals Terminal Bloomberg. Second in a week. Video:

The heat is deforming this metal storage tank. Some of the first responders are worried it will collapse. pic.twitter.com/Y3ZsjJ96zj

— Respectable Lawyer (@RespectableLaw) March 18, 2019

Leave the oil in the ground, and this doesn’t happen…

The Fed has exacerbated America’s new housing bubble FT

Churches are opening their doors to businesses in order to survive CBS

Some county treasurers have flouted Iowa gift law for years Bleeding Heartland

Corporations Are Co-Opting Right-To-Repair Wired

Brexit

What will it take to push May’s Brexit deal over the line FT. The arithmetic: “To overturn her 149-vote deficit, she would have to win over at least 75 MPs. The most plausible route starts with the DUP’s 10 MPs. If they backed her deal, then some 50 of the nearly 70 Tory Eurosceptics who voted against it last week may change sides. Then Mrs May would need a further 15 Labour MPs, in addition to the five Labour and former Labour MPs who backed her last week.”

Northern Ireland’s farmers urge DUP to back Brexit deal FT

Around 40 Tory Rebels Told Theresa May: We’ll Vote For Your Brexit Deal If You Quit Buzzfeed

Labour likely to back public vote on UK PM’s deal, says Corbyn Reuters

Brexit by July 1 unless UK votes in EU election: Document Politico

The Irish Backstop: Nothing has changed? It has actually (PDF) Lord Bew and Lord Trimble, Policy Exchange. Bew is a Professor of Irish Politics. Trimble is a former First Minister of Northern Ireland and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Well worth the clickthrough to read the entire PDF. Here is the final paragraph:

All of this suggests that a backstop that functions for more than a short period of time – and the DUP has indicated in Parliament that it could live with a short backstop – is likely to be an extremely unstable affair. If it does not negotiate a trade deal with the UK in the next year or so, the EU is also likely to become increasingly aware that the Protocol will give it nothing but grief as it gets sucked into the Northern Ireland quagmire. In this quagmire, the UK Government (which has the support of the majority of the population in Northern Ireland and which pays the subvention which subsidises the entire society), holds most of the cards.

Politico’s London Playbook calls their report “a ringing endorsement of the tweaks to the backstop agreed by Theresa May in Strasbourg this month.” Readers?

NORMAN LAMONT: History will never understand Tory MPs if they kill off Brexit Daily Mail

Brexit will mark the end of Britain’s role as a great power WaPo. Surely Suez did that?

Macron calls for ‘strong decisions’ after violent Yellow Jacket protests Politico

Among the Gilets Jaunes LRB

Syraqistan

Months after saying US will withdraw, now 1,000 troops in Syria to stay Jerusalem Post but US denies report it is leaving up to 1,000 troops in Syria Channel News Asia. And what about the mercs?

Saudi Crown Prince’s Brutal Drive to Crush Dissent Began Before Khashoggi NYT

A Palestinian Farmer Finds Dead Lambs in His Well. He Knows Who’s to Blame Haaretz

Algeria After Bouteflika Jacobin

North Korea

Investing in resource-rich North Korea seems like a good idea — but businesses find there’s a catch Los Angeles Times

Picking Up the Pieces After Hanoi Richard Haass, Project Syndicate

New Cold War

How ordinary Crimeans helped Russia annex their home Open Democracy

How Russia Gets To Build Its Most Controversial Pipeline Riddle

Trump Transition

The Pentagon’s Bottomless Money Pit Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone. How are they gonna pay for it?

Government withholds 84-year-old woman’s social security, claims she owes thousands for college WISH-TV

737 Max

Flawed analysis, failed oversight: How Boeing, FAA certified the suspect 737 MAX flight control system Seattle Times

737 MAX disaster pushes Boeing into crisis mode Phys.org

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

All the Crime, All the Time: How Citizen Works NYT

Global Mass Surveillance And How Facebook’s Private Army Is Militarizing Our Data Forbes

More Than a Data Dump Harpers. Why Julian Assange deserves First Amendment protection.

Democrats in Disarray

Establishment Democrats Are Undermining Medicare for All Truthout. As I kept saying with my midterms worksheets, the liberal Democrat leadership’s #1 priority is to prevent #MedicareForAll, and to that end they shifted the center of gravity of the electeds against it. Now we see this strategy born out in falling sponsorship numbers.

Even a Vacuous Mueller Report Won’t End ‘Russiagate’ Stephen Cohen, The Nation. “[T]he Democrats and their media are now operating on the Liberty Valance principle: When the facts are murky or nonexistent, ‘print the legend‘.”

Venture capitalist Steve Case spreading funding to Middle America with “Rise of the Rest” CBS

Class Warfare

What’s Wrong with Contemporary Capitalism? Angus Deaton, Project Syndicate

Bill McGlashan’s firing exposes hypocrisy in impact investing Felix Salmon, Axios

The College Admissions Ring Tells Us How Much Schoolwork Is Worth New York Magazine

How Parents Are Robbing Their Children of Adulthood NYT

‘Filth, mold, abuse’: report condemns state of California homeless shelters Guardian

Wall Street Has Been Unscathed by MeToo. Until Now. NYT

What the Hell Actually Happens to Money You Put in A Flexible Spending Account? Splinter

‘Super bloom’ shutdown: Lake Elsinore shuts access after crowds descend on poppy fields Los Angeles Times. “Desperate for social media attention, some visitors have trampled through the orange poppy fields, despite official signs warning against doing so.” Thanks, influencers!

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Links on March 18, 2019 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/03/links-3-18-19.html

[chestnutpost]

Republican Women Grapple With Winning Back Suburban Female Voters

This post was originally published on this site

What Women Want Now is a program by HuffPost and her sister sites dedicated to creating content about the issues and stories that matter most to women. Read more here. Join the conversation with #WhatWomenWantNow.

Last year’s midterm elections led to 2018 frequently being hailed as the year of the woman — for Democrats, at least. 

There are now 102 women in House of Representatives ― more than any other time in history ― but only 13 are Republicans. Party leadership is comparatively mute on the topic of adding women to its ranks, and there isn’t a consensus that doing so is vital. Even if there were, the pipeline for electing women is leaky. The GOP doesn’t have groups to rival EMILY’s List, the Democratic group that provides significant support to female candidates, and it generally lacks resources for training and financing women who seek higher office.

The shortfall of elected women may be a reflection of the GOP electorate. In the 2018 midterms, women overall favored Democrats by an estimated 19 points. Republican women are overwhelmingly white, and typically either suburban or rural ― but white women, who supported Republicans by 12 points in 2016, split their vote about evenly between the two parties in 2018. It was not a mass defection but one great enough to contribute to Republicans losing their House seats.

HuffPost spoke to four Republican women who are thinking about whether and how the party ought to transform the role women play in setting the agenda and pleading the party’s case to voters in 2020. Here’s what they said.

Rebecca Schuller

Executive director of Winning for Women, part of the right’s answer to EMILY’s List

We are really focused this cycle on making sure we’re ready early, frankly — focused on the identification of quality candidates in the primaries. I’d like to see more women in the general elections in 2019, 2020. We all know that if those women don’t have the resources that they won’t make it through their primaries. The left has done a really good job, back to the 1980s, to provide that support from A to Z for women candidates.

From personal experience, I’ve just seen that there are too few women in the party. I firmly believe, and many in the party firmly believe, that if the resources aren’t there, they won’t step up, either. That is where women fall through the cracks. 

There are too few women in the party.

A large number of women who ran last cycle, many did not make it through their primaries in a system that requires support in a host of complicated ways. The traditional model hasn’t necessarily looked for women in the right places, either. Maybe leaders are looking through the state legislature, through professional societies, you name it, which are mostly made up of men.

And I do think women are often hesitant to jump into the arena thinking, How do you balance everything? A career that’s maybe unceasing, family obligations, the travel demands, you name it.

People want to see an electorate that represents them. Women voters are incredibly important [to the GOP] and we need to be speaking to them, and one way to do that is to have strong women candidates who they can identify with and vote for. People want to see more of themselves in office, and we have work to do.

Liz Mair

Political consultant

I don’t think that to get suburban women to vote Republican you need to nominate more women. I don’t think women for women for the sake of supporting women. If you nominate a woman who is a good, qualified candidate, who withstands every bit of scrutiny a candidate gets, great. With that being said, I have heard from some people that they do feel in some parts of the country that you have Republican officials who are more supporting, more willing to cut slack to male candidates who don’t meet the same high bar, and that dissuades more women from running.

Candidly, I think that for a lot of suburban women, Trump is noxious.

Looking back on 2018, I wish I could say, “Let’s do this one thing differently next time.”

Take health care. I don’t think the Republican Party has a good answer on health care. The Democrats, at least, can get on one or two pages when it comes to health care, while Republicans are maybe on six different pages.

We could do everything “right” and still have a larger issue. When Donald Trump is actually or proverbially at the top of the ticket? Candidly, I think that for a lot of suburban women, Trump is noxious. They don’t like him. I don’t think there’s anything the Republican Party will do about that. Realistically, what the bigger answer to the problem is, we can’t do it. Nobody is going to deprive him of the nomination if he wants it again.

Jennifer Pierotti Lim

Co-founder of Republican Women for Progress, a group born out of Republican Women for Hillary

We represent a very specific group, but a growing group nonetheless. I think for our type of Republican women — and our generation of Republican women — the first big thing (and for a lot of law-and-order Republican as well) [is we] would really like for Congress to get back to legislating. The normal, proper process of lawmaking.  

We want many of the same things women want. To be respected, [have] safe workspaces, access to affordable health care. A lot of Republican women are excited about these talks about paid family leave, equal pay and things like that. A lot of those things that are termed “women’s issues.” I think there are a lot of Democratic women and Republican women that want to be at the table for that. 

We’re going to see more Republican women deciding that we can’t keep doing this.

When you are talking about Republican women specifically, there are a lot of generational divides that are really interesting. Older Republican women … they’re more comfortable with how the Republican Party has approached social issues. We think that’s extreme and doesn’t really help women. Republican women our age are seeing the need for seeing beyond “we can’t do identity politics” ― we need to be talking about women’s issues in a different way. Women need to be at the table, which they are not currently at in the party.

That’s why we feel like Republican women are the answer to the Republican Party’s problems.  

In 2018 we saw Republican women voting for Democrats in their districts because that group of suburban, college-educated white women ended up being pivotal after they weren’t happy with their previous votes. Especially by 2020, if we’re looking at another four years of Trump, we’re going to see more Republican women deciding that we can’t keep doing this and that it’s not working.

Kristan Hawkins

President of Students for Life of America

There were a bunch of articles post-Trump’s election. Republican women, what were they thinking about, what is the future of the GOP? … Part of the answer, these were Christian women who cared about issues like abortion. Looking at 2018, I’m not a big personal believer of [the idea that] we need to do all these things differently. The issues, the Republican Party platform is the same that drove many people out in 2016. 

Everything we were told could get done, couldn’t get done.

But we had this huge opportunity and sadly, a lot of it was kind of squandered. Leader [Mitch] McConnell has done significant work and should be applauded. Look at all these judicial nominees getting confirmed, filling these vacancies. But everything we were told could get done couldn’t get done because they have to have 60 votes in the Senate for a lot of that. And that’s a lot of unfinished promises. When does anyone ever think ever again we’re going to get to a point where we can pass controversial legislation in the Senate?

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

Jenavieve Hatch contributed reporting.

RELATED COVERAGE

The post Republican Women Grapple With Winning Back Suburban Female Voters appeared first on The Chestnut Post.

from The Chestnut Post https://thechestnutpost.com/news/republican-women-grapple-with-winning-back-suburban-female-voters/

[mikebrackett]

8 Ways to Get Through College Without Breaking the Bank

When it comes to being a college student, there are two certainties in life – stress around midterms and lots of expenses.

Sound familiar? As a college student, you should be worrying about your biology midterm, not whether there’s still a comma in your savings account. The good news is that there are tons of low-investment-but-high-impact ways for you to keep track of your expenses and start saving money even while you’re still in school. Check out our top tips below for saving money as a college student.

Budgeting – There’s an App for That

Is half of your monthly budget going to the campus coffee shop? Do you consider microwaveable ramen a major food group?

If so, creating a budget is the best place to start if you want to cut down on expenses and save money. There are a ton of apps out there such as Mint or You Need a Budget to help you create a realistic budget for all your expenses. Many apps can sync directly to your bank account so that your expenses are automatically categorized, can set up alerts to let you know if your balance gets too low, or will notify you if you’ve gone over budget.

Be Book Smart – Literally

Let’s face it – textbooks are expensive! Before you rush to the library to secure the last copy of the Origin of Species, email your professor before the beginning of the semester and ask for a copy of the syllabus. If you know which textbooks you’ll need ahead of time, you’ll have more time to shop around for the best-priced books.

To save money on used textbooks, check out campus listservs, the department Facebook page of your major, or reach out to older students who might be willing to sell you their old books. Funnily enough, campus bathroom stalls are also tried-and-true places where students will post flyers selling their old books. Finally, be sure to check out textbook price comparison websites like BookFinder.Com or SlugBooks, which compare prices on used or rental textbooks across a variety of sites.

Use All the Resources at Your Fingertips

According to the College Board, the average undergraduate student at a four-year private university will have spent $1,650 on personal expenses in the 2016-17 school year. Yikes! While personal expenses can include things like a gym membership or laundry fees, entertainment-related expenditures like tickets for the upcoming Beyonce concert will probably be the “big ticket” expenses that cut most into your budget.

The good news? Colleges offer tons of free entertainment options – you just need to know where to look. For example, the Student Life office at your school might offer free entertainment giveaways, like a weekly lottery to win free movie tickets or a gift card to the new restaurant in town.

Think of Your Student ID as the Ultimate Coupon

When it comes to student discounts, follow this golden rule of thumb: always ask for a student discount! From coffee shop reward clubs to frequent shopper discounts, student loyalty programs and discounts are a powerful way to save money on products or services that you use often as a student. For example, Amtrak offers a 15% discount for student travelers and Amazon Prime offers a free student trial – perfect for making the occasional trip home or ordering used textbooks. Many companies require that you show a copy of a non-expired student ID or that you register with a valid student email address, so be sure to have both on hand.

Learn to Love Move-Out Day

At the end of the school year, environmental groups on campus will often ask volunteers at different dorms around campus to help students recycle the piles of unwanted stuff that students can’t take home with them – anything from mini fridges to clothing to used textbooks.

As long as your campus doesn’t have a donation-only policy, volunteers often receive “first dibs” to take home what they want. Translation: You’ll be able to furnish your dorm room next year with tons of recycled freebies! Better yet, a lot of students get rid of expensive textbooks on move-out day, which you can easily collect and resell on textbook buyback websites such as AbeBooks or TextbookRush to earn a bit of extra cash.

Get Creative with Your Meal Plan

If you’re on a pay-per-meal food plan, get the most bang for your buck! Use one of your meals to bring food-safe containers or plastic baggies to load up on grab-and-go snacks that you can eat later on (fruit, pre-cut veggies and hummus, hard boiled eggs, or pre-made PB&J sandwiches tend to work well). You’ll save an additional meal swipe and cut down on the number of expensive study snacks that you buy from the campus cafe.

Better yet, use what you bring home to supplement meals that you eat outside of the dining hall, like adding in veggies to that cup of microwavable ramen.

Get Paid to Do Your Homework

Yup, you read that correctly. Many colleges offer funding for students working on research projects over the summer. Ask your advisor or your professors, or check your major’s department website to learn more about research grant opportunities. Some colleges will provide full research funding, will award travel money to study abroad and conduct international research, or will reimburse you for project-related supplies that you’ve purchased.

Make an Appointment with a Career Counselor

A career counselor at your college’s Career Services office will be able to help you to find an on-campus job, introduce you to networking opportunities, or help you prepare for an interview at your dream internship. Think of the meeting as an opportunity to improve your prospects on the job or internship market. Trust us, your future self will thank you for making the investment!

Believe it or not, going to college doesn’t have to leave your savings account in the red. With a few of these tips under your belt, you’ll be well on your way toward saving a bit more and more importantly, finding greater financial peace of mind!

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