Remembrance: Packing Up

The day that I’m writing this, May 1st, marks the last go-home weekend of the year, meaning that I don’t have much time left to move out of my dorm room here at MSA. I hate packing. Like hate, hate it. For multiple reasons, I think. I’ve only had to pack up and move 4 times in my life before coming to MSA. Mostly, I hate it because it lifts up dust, which in turn aggravates my allergies, but also, I hate packing because it symbolizes things ending. Some people think of it as peaceful, a methodical collecting of things and appreciating them, but I don’t and I’m not sure I ever will. For me it’s always a hectic and depressing game of Tetris, which items will fit where and how many can I shove in boxes without breaking anything, while also thinking about leaving the space. It’s sad for me because I have to wash a space that has been mine for so long of me. I have to put everything away, wipe off all the dust, and turn out the lights at the end, which scares me a little, I’ll be honest. It also comes from a fear of change. If nothing changes then nothing can ever end. But one piece of advice that actually helped, although it almost made me cry, came from one of my seniors, Cooper Brumfield. He came in my room trying to trade food, even though I didn’t have anything. I had almost cried twice packing up my stuff a few moments earlier, and I told him that, but he asked if he could give me a piece of advice. I said sure, and to my surprise, Cooper quite literally closed the door. For a second, I’d thought he left, but he opened the door again and said “I’ll never see that exact version of you again. That’s the beauty of being alive is we’re always changing.” Spoken like a true literary, right? I’m not going to pretend that I’m not what people would call a crybaby, because I am, but I also have a problem with that term. Why should those who feel their emotions readily and in the fullest be shamed for it? So I guess I’m happy to be a crybaby, and boy did that make me cry a little. I know I’m most likely coming back next year, but I can’t help but mourn how it is now, and I know it’ll never be the same. The seniors that I’ve lived with and that have come to matter so much to me are leaving. But this isn’t all bad. They’re going off to do great things, and by this time next year I hope I will be too. I know it’s always going to end, but it never makes it any less sad. The fact that I feel like I’ve finally found a place I belong definitely makes this harder, because that place is changing and won’t ever be the same. Of course it’ll still look the same, but the energy is changing. Anyways, enough of my pouting. If any seniors are reading this, thank you for being here, and I’m going to miss you.

Much love,
Jude ♡♡♡

Starting a Small Business

This week, I’ve been starting a small business called Blue Moon Magnolia Crochet. This involves so much more preparation than I could’ve thought would go into it. I am a, hopefully, talented crocheter, and I spend so much time doing it that if I don’t sell my creations, I feel like I’m wasting my time. Now, I know that the danger in monetizing your hobbies is going through burnout, but I’m really hoping that won’t happen. Prepping for starting up my small business, I’ve run into a few roadblocks that I can’t pass without parental assistance, something that I’m not particularly fond of in my hyper-independence. First, I had to think of what my products would be, and I think I’ve got a few first ideas. I feel that doilies are the easiest to make, but there is a smaller market for those. I’ve been working out a few patterns for some of my first products, though, and I think they’ll turn out great. Technically, I could just use patterns from online to make my products, but I’m absolutely not doing that. I will be using a few patterns, along with giving credit to the original makers, but I felt that if I only used online patterns, then that would be a bit fraudulent, as none of my creativity would go into it and I’d just be recycling old ideas and passing them off as my own work. This requires a mix of using both patterns and my personal ideas, because coming up with absolutely everything on my own is a bit unfeasible as a busy high school student. The next part of setting up my business is finding out where I’m going to sell. Online selling seems like the first course of action, but it’s not so easy. I’d love to just set up a shop on Etsy, but because of their hefty fees taken out of the final price of my products, it becomes a bit of a tough spot. If I were to sell on Etsy, I’d have to raise my prices to cover the fees so that I could actually make a profit, and that feels unfair to the people buying my products. I’ve been looking through different online alternatives, and I’ve found some good ones, but the problem I’ve run into is that they either require a PayPal account, which I cannot sign up for being under 18, or they require another service that requires an adult to help me sign up. Since living at MSA prevents me from having ready access to my parents, I’ve had to turn away from online selling for now. The other option is to sell in person. I could have a building to sell my products in, but that costs upwards of thousands of dollars and I’d still run into the same problem I did with online selling. The only feasible option left is selling at farmers and makers markets and finding a way to take card payments. Since I have Venmo, that takes out some of the hassle with card payments, and of course, I’ll take cash. The other downside to markets like these, though, is setting up. I’d have to factor in all the invisible costs associated with selling at a market, like paying for a spot in the market, a physical table, decorations for said table, the gas to drive to the market, and possibly the cost of labor if I were to get someone else to help me. Granted, I could probably just pay my helper with pizza or a different treat. Then, I have to work all of my products and pricing out. My stepmother has shown me how to use spreadsheets to my advantage, which has been insanely helpful (thanks so much, Lisa). Once I have everything built, I have to focus on pricing. Since I’m not super fast, factoring in the time it took me to make a product becomes a slippery slope, so I’ve had to cut that part out of the equation. Then, I have to combine all of the things that it took me to make a finished product, such as the yarn or thread, labels, bags, and wrapping paper, depending on how I package my products. Spreadsheets have helped me so much with this, as I can simply create an equation to combine all of these components, and simply input how much I used of each, and then the spreadsheet will do all of the work for me. Then, I log all of the vendors that I got my components from, their prices when I bought them, and possible alternatives if those components are unavailable or discontinued. Once it all boils down, I have to work out how much I received from sales, and how much I spent on materials, then add these two numbers together to receive how much I’ve profited. If I am making less than I’m spending, I’ll probably either change my course, or I might just call it quits, as falling in the red is never a good sign for a business. I’m currently working on setting up social media profiles for my business, but I’ve only set up on Instagram, so far. So, if you’re excited to see my products, follow me on Instagram at @bluemoonmagnolia, Facebook coming soon!

Much love,
Jude.

Deadstock and the Problem with the Textile Industry.

As we get nearer to Earth Day, I’ve been thinking about the fashion industry a lot more. One thing that I’ve been thinking about is deadstock. Deadstock is a term used for many kinds of fabric. Tulle and chiffon can be deadstock, as can leather. Deadstock fabric, by definition, is fabric from a textile mill or designer that has been either left over from a project or completely unused. Most of the time, deadstock can be thought of as the scraps left over from that pretty skirt you saw at Target the other day, but sometimes, designers leave over entire bolts of fabric that can’t be used for other projects. It can also be fabric intended for a specific project or buyer from textile mills that could have been unintentionally altered during the manufacturing process, which has now been rendered unable to be used by the buyer for said intended projects. Now, these scraps and mistake pieces of fabric would normally go to the trash, then into landfills where it would take centuries to break down if it were polyester or some other polymer-based textile, but, taking and selling them as deadstock pieces allow smaller designers to help out the environment by using these pieces to create a completely new garment, one with a completely unique vision, since no two scraps are ever the same. Using deadstock pieces, designers are able to reuse fabrics and keep larger producers from contributing to landfills.

Polymers are normally classified in the textile industry as any natural or synthetic substance made from large molecules that are combined from several smaller units called monomers. Monomers have the ability to group together and form a long chain through a process called polymerization. Natural polymers can include starches and proteins, things you’d normally find in potatoes as that starchy white residue left over on your knife when you slice them up, or in meats and poultry as proteins. Synthetic polymers are composed of petroleum oil (which you can get from the fossils of ancient marine life or zooplankton, and is also sometimes called crude oil) which is manmade and comes from engineers and scientists who have to refine it before use. Petroleum oil is then turned into things like Teflon (which contains PFAS, dangerous chemicals for the human body when consumed), epoxy, polyethylene, and polyester. The most common polymers used in the textile industry are usually composed of nylon and polyester-based polymers. Things like wool, silk, cotton, and cashmere are natural products, while things like acetate, rayon, olefin, polyester, and nylon are synthetics. We’ve been using natural hair and textiles to make clothes for millenia, but with the introduction of animal cruelty programs like PETA (which I fully support, by the by) we have had to move to synthetics. The only thing with this switch, though, is while it takes away from animals being farmed for their furs or hides, it also creates a bigger problem for the environment as a whole. Synthetic fabrics are prized for their lower price point and their durability, but this durability comes as a problem. With synthetics being so durable, nature cannot break them down as easily as natural fabrics. This means that they accumulate in landfills and in nature, creating obstacles for local wildlife when they are dumped in unsanctioned areas. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem if we could just keeps the clothes we buy, but with the emergence of fast fashion trends, humans are buying and disposing of clothes at an alarming rate, increasing the amount being sent to landfills astronomically. If we were doing this with naturals, I don’t think it would be as big of a problem (it still would be a problem, don’t get me wrong), but that makes clothes less accessible and more expensive. There are some companies that have adopted recycling other polymers, like the plastic from water bottles, to create synthetic clothing, but this still poses a problem when the garment is disposed of, as it goes to the exact same place as that plastic bottle would’ve gone. Deadstock could possibly solve this problem. If designers and big brands began using deadstock fabrics and selling whatever scraps they use, there would be much less waste taking up space in landfills. Though, using deadstock is not at all a silver bullet. It still has to be paired with more eco-conscious initiatives on the part of the companies such as making less clothes altogether, and on the part of the consumer such as buying less clothes and reusing your preloved items. I know it sounds sickeningly optimistic, but I think we can genuinely make our home a much better place if we hold ourselves and large corporations more accountable when it comes to our fashion, even though it is largely on the corporations, as most of the time, they are the ones indiscriminantly dumping things around as if they expect some maid to come clean up after them. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my ramble about fashion this week.

Much love,

Jude ★

Fashion Trends, What do they have to do with the economy?

Fashion has long had an influence on society. What people spend on beauty and fashion products can almost directly correlate to the state of the economy. These trends can sometimes be helpful indicators of economic growth and recession. I saw a video the other day talking about this same thing, and I decided to write my blog about it.

Now, speaking specifically about economic growth, there is actually a documented phenomenon that indicates this. Economist George Taylor created the Hemline Index circa 1926 that said the shorter hemlines in fashion Trends are, the more the economy is growing (think flapper dresses of the 20’s and miniskirts of the 60’s) and vice versa, longer hemlines for the recession of an economy (pants and maxi skirts in the Great Depression). Even hair can indicate a recession, a hair trend from 2009 called “recession blonde.” Recession Blonde is a term coined for the grown out blonde color that comes from not going to the salon for a touch up. This can almost directly show that a person does not have enough money to maintain a near constant bottle blonde. Because, of course, when your bank account is low, you’re not going to waste your money on a touch up, are you? Unless looking blonde is an incredibly important thing to you, then I think it’s safe to say you wouldn’t be getting regular touch ups when you’re low on funds.

Makeup especially can show a declining economy. The uptick in buying smaller things can show that not many people have the money for things other than small luxuries. The increase of lipstick purchases can also indicate a recession. During the Great Depression, women began buying more lipsticks, a product that was relatively cheap during the time. This phenomenon is aptly deemed the “Lipstick Effect.” It’s a sort of manifestation of something else called by economists the “income effect.” Basically, when a consumer’s income lowers, demand for more everyday items goes up. And since people can’t buy a trip to the Bahamas to soothe their economic distress, they go to cheaper places like the movie theater and chain fast food stores to forget about their money troubles for a bit. Just like this, people begin buying lipsticks, small luxuries that give you a feeling of beauty without a hefty price tag.

Now, as nice as this indicator is, it does come with a few problems for the economic-savvy consumer. One of these is, lipstick sales aren’t public domain, so consumers can’t have these statistics on demand. The BEA publishes a monthly statistic of “personal care items” purchased, but this often comes with a few months of lag time, so it’s difficult to get an accurate estimate for the consumer of if we’re heading to an economic recession.

I could go on talking about this for hours, but I don’t particularly have the attention span for it. I love the idea that beauty and fashion are so so intertwined with a country’s economy that they can be such a great indicator of a recession.

Much love,

Jude

This is part 4 of the Luffy series

Arlong Park Arc

Okay so in the previous arc Nami left the crew and went to Arlong who’s basically her boss even though she’s treated as a slave. The crew are now left stranded on the Baratie until they see a rowboat but since Zoro is still recovering Luffy and Sanji leave to Arlong park to find Nami and get their ship back along with their navigator. As they are sailing, they encounter a sea cow which both Luffy and Sanji fight it, and they end up making it take them to the island. when they finally get to the island Zoro and johnny and Johnny tells them that Usopp had been stabbed by Nami but what had actually happened was that she stabbed her hand instead of stabbing her and she just pushed him into the ocean. Luffy shouts at Nami to come back but she chooses not to listen. The villagers start telling the group about namis past but Zoro and Luffy does not listen. A little while later we see that Nami is trying to stop the villagers from attacking arlong to the point where she starts stabbing herself with a knife trying to carve out the arlong symbol, but Luffy stops her.

He then gives her his straw-hat hat and leaves with the group to fight Arlong

in the end Luffy wins the fight between Arlong and the fishmen Pirates and Nami finally joins the Straw-hat Pirates

Lounge Town Arc

after the Battle between Luff and the Arlong pirates the crew heads to the last town before the grand line Lounge Town this is also where Roger the king of pirates was executed. As they are traveling there, we get to see Luffy first Bounty

The crew decides to stop there for supplies. the crew splits up and Luffy goes to the place where the former king of pirates was beheaded where he is then met by Buggy the Clown and Alvida (first pirate he beat) the put him in the execution alter to behead him but lighting strikes his sword and the pirates see it as a sign but all this fighting draws the attention of smoker and the marines who try to capture Luffy. Just as Luffy is beaten by Smoker since he had a sea stone pick which deactivates Devil fruit users Abilities and makes them weak a mysterious man grabs Smoker and lets Luffy get away

the crew gets back together and escape Lounge town and head towards the grand line

One Piece Charater Analysis: StrawHats, Luffy Part 2

Syrup Town Arc

Ok so we start this arc off with the trio trying to find a ship they can use to actually go out into the sea, and they end up at Syrup town where they are met by Usopp the troublemaker/ liar of the village where he threatens the trio so they can try and get them to leave. His scheme didn’t work but as he talked to them it is revealed that Luffy knows his father because Usopps father is Yasopp shanks sniper on Shanks crew. Skip forward the person in charge of the island is about to be assassinated so the crew steps in and stops them. Luffy takes out everyone except the 2nd mate of their crew since Zoro always handle them and Luffy takes out the captain. They ended up saving the girl and the girl gives them a ship and the trio along with their new member/ sniper leave the island.

Baratie Arc

ok so the crew are starting to get aquainted with their ne ship and have decided to draw a jolly roger flag (crew enblem) Luffy ask Usopp to demonstrate his sniping skills with one of the ships cannons. Usopps aim proved well as it destroyed a small island which is important to remember that but anyway the crew is impressed with Usopp but they are missing someone fatal, a cook and they just so happen to wander by a restaurant ship called the baratie when they enter they are met by Sanji who has already fallen for Nami’s beauty so he starts treating her like a V.I.P but the men however are broke so they are about to get kicked out but before they are kicked out an injured man comes through the front door looking for food and he starts threating people that if he doesn’t get any food he’s going to hurt them that is until Sanji stops him and gives him food this act Makes Luffy want to recruit him so in typical Luffy fashion he starts to bother him until the baratie was attacked by Don Kriege so Luffy goes out to fight him and protect everyone this act makes Sanji wants to join him and you may be wondering why I’m skipping so much stuff that happened there it’s because it’s not crucial to Luffy’s story but more its crucial to Zoro and Sanji’s stories and developments. when I do their parts I will include it then. but never mind that after the fight is over Nami betrays them and steals the ship and the treasure so the boys go out and try and find her.

the next blog will be the arlong arc and the winter arc and can I just say One piece has way too many arcs and I’m only talking about pre time skip I bet if you look at whole cake island arc I’m pretty sure there’s about 6-character arcs in there by itself

One Piece Character Analysis: Straw Hats: Luffy [Post time Skip]

Hello since I couldn’t think of anything else to write about, I decide to do crew summaries all the way back from the first chapter to the latest chapter. Hope you enjoy! I’ll be going in order of when they actually joined the crew, and I will be expressing my opinions so feel free to leave.

1. Monkey D. Luffy {Captain}

Age: 7 {first chapter} 17 {2nd chapter} 19 {after time skip}

birthday: May 5th

Hometown: Foosha Village

Monkey D. Luffy is the son of Dragon and Grandson of Garp. His first appearance was chapter 1 where we get a small tidbit of information about his childhood and where we see how he got his scar on his cheek and where he got his straw hat from. Then a big time skip later we see him on a boat in the middle of nowhere until he encounters our first deuteragonist and help him defeat Alvida who was holding Cobey {deuteragonist} captive. when Luffy saved him this inspired Cobey to follow his dreams and become a Marine.

Luffy’s dream is to become the pirate king and to be a great pirate and we see him become a great pirate as we follow his adventures with his crew as the follow the same path Roger the previous Pirate King. Luffy embodies freedom and the ability to do whatever he wants and to eat lots of meat.

East Blue Saga

1. Romance Dawn

Okay so the first arc we get introduced to Luffy and Colby and after they defeat Alvida they are on a boat just wandering around when they start talking about their dreams and when Luffy says something about needing powerful members Colby mentions Roanoa Zoro and Luffy as impulsive as he is sails their boat to where Zoro is, also Zoro at this time is called pirate hunter Zoro so yeah I don’t know where Luffy got the idea to recruit him for a pirate crew but hey it worked out in the end for him.

Luffy goes to rescue him after hearing that he is being held prisoner without food, but Zoro declines his help but Luffy being Luffy still stays with him trying to convince him. Sometime later the person holding Zoro prisoner tries to kill him, but Luffy stops him and gaining Zoro’s trust he becomes the first member of Luffy crews.

Orange town arc

we start this arc off with Luffy and Zoro starving on a ship this is right after the romance dawn arc (the previous one) Luffy being Luffy tries to catch a seagull so they can eat it but the bird drags Luffy away from Zoro and his ship then a ship of pirates try to rob Zoro and takes his little ship but when they see that its THE Zoro they apologize. you see Zoro is infamous at killing Pirates so by all rights they are terrified for their lives and start telling Zoro what happened to them. They talk about how some Orange haired girl robbed them and stole all their stuff along with their ship. The lady that we are talking about is the best girl in One Piece Give it up for Nami (soon to be part of the crew).

While this is happening Luffy ended up in Orange Town where a pirate spots him and tells his leader Buggy the Clown where then Buggy promptly say to the pirate to fire a cannon ball at Luffy, and the pirate does it unsurprisingly, but it doesn’t affect Luffy since he is a rubber man but it still kind of makes him angry. While he’s shaking the debris off of him Nami comes over to him making him take the fall for the bad things he did and gets him attacked by the guys chasing him but since he’s the protagonist he beast the thugs easily. Nami sees that she can partner up with him but when he reveals that he’s a pirate Nami ties him up and offers him up to Buggy. while buggy puts Luffy in a cage Nami steals Buggys gold and to ensure that she was loyal to him he told her to kill Luffy. Nami unable to do so sided with Luffy and in a stroke of luck Zoro comes in and slices Buggy in pieces but since buggy is a devil fruit user and ate the dice dice fruit, he puts himself back together and him and Luffy fight. At the end of the day Luffy defeated buggy and the buggy pirates and saved Orange Town from Buggy’s Tyranny

I’ll be doing a part 2 of pre time skip Luffy going all the way until Maineford.

Excerpt from “dear, applicant”

The following blog post is an excerpt from my short story “dear, applicant.” I wrote this story for an assignment back in September and the excerpt is of a dream sequence. I was hurting for ideas while writing this, so I took something that is rife, here in high school. Anxiety about college. I’m a little afraid for college. I have no idea where I’m going to go, but at least I have some ideas of what I want to do. For the assignment, we had to write a short story with elements from a mentor text. The following is the excerpt.

The numbers swam, red LEDs skipped through the windows of the train. They smiled at her, waving as more got on. A crimson conductor pulled little people onto the train, seating them as they handed over tickets. The light got brighter, the small people growing and pushing at the train, screeching sounds of expanding metal filled the air as the train grew. She wanted to get on, but she didn’t have a ticket. How could she get one? The train started inching away, accelerating until it was steadily chugging away. She chased after it, her legs trying to go at a speed faster than her body could ever hope to achieve. She looked down at her watch. Hands of minutes and hours spun as if time was speeding up. Her eyes trailed back up to the train, wheels pushed against tracks, speeding down rails. As her sight traveled down the tracks, she witnessed a tornado spinning up from the dust. The tornado grew, heading straight down the rails to meet the train steadily gaining speed.

She tried to scream for the train to stop, veer off, something to save the red people in the compartments, but her voice grew hoarse and scratchy. She started running towards the train, but the tornado met metal sooner. The train was lifted into the air, twisted around and torn apart. People and iron screamed together in an unholy chorus of pain. The impact sent the twister off towards her. She turned and dashed away, trying to outrun what she knew she couldn’t. Her feet pounded against the ground, trying to push away at it, get ahead of Mother Nature and her penchant for destruction. She heard the ground crumbling and felt the torrent of wind at her back. One step on a rock sent her falling. She fell for what felt like forever, surrounded by the sound of screams and rushing air.

With a scream and a gasp, she stood, yet her desk, laptop, and papers sat in front of her. The train clock sat there, the artificial whistle sounding off repeatedly. 6:30am.

Disconnection: A Journal Entry

So. We’re here. I broke my phone. It was bound to happen. Made out of simple glass, plastic, and lots of computer parts, it wasn’t the strongest thing on earth. I’m reasonably upset about it, I feel. It’s a big part of my life. It’s how I connect with the world, my friends, how I speak to my family, and how I keep myself in check. I use it for reminders, alarms, emails and the like. It’s an incredibly important part of my daily life. I use alarms to wake up and to keep track of time. I use my calendar to plan for things and to make sure I don’t have anything going on when I’m trying to schedule things. Music is an insanely big part of my life, so that’s another thing that I use my phone for. I text and call my parents and family with it. I scroll through social media, which admittedly, isn’t the best use of my time. I jot down notes in it, which now really sucks because I had a lot of writing ideas in my notes that I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to get back. I’m sure this is how it felt when the Library of Alexandria burned down but on a much larger and more dramatic scale. I wonder why I’m so attached to my phone and then I realize, it’s my everything. My parents had the luxury of growing up without all these devices but I’m sure they had something similar. I’m sure their parents thought they had something they were unreasonably attached to. It’s interesting to see how many people tell me, “You have an opportunity to disconnect, now!” I don’t enjoy disconnecting. It highlights how easily bored I get, and how much I don’t like people. It’s also a little difficult to watch everyone be on their phones and not be looking around, even though I know the minute I get a replacement phone, I’ll be exactly the same.

I’m not good at journal entries, so I took to this as more of a conversation, or just me rambling and talking at someone.

-Jude

My Own Time Capsule (Steph’s Spotify Account)

I’ve had my Spotify Account since 2019. I celebrated its 5th birthday this past April, while I also celebrated my 10-year anniversary of living in America. It’s so strange to look through my Spotify app because I haven’t deleted anything. There’s 5 years worth of data just sitting there, completely untouched. That’s probably why I don’t have any storage on my phone, but I’m a very sentimental person so I have to keep those awful playlists.

My “Liked Songs” playlist is a literal time capsule. I can scroll through all 1,337 songs and remember the exact time when I added each to the playlist. In a few months from now, I’ll scroll through and remember all the Fiona Apple songs I’ve added recently. Or I’ll find all of the Chappell Roan and flowerovlove that I added over the summer. 2020-2022 is definitely a dark period so I just close my eyes while I scroll through that section. Those songs don’t get mentioned. Ever.

Recently, I’ve gotten to a point where I organize my playlists extremely specifically. I’ve already touched on that (and my Pinterest boards!) in a past blog so I won’t dwell. I make playlists for almost every scenario imaginable. When I was moving into MSA, I made 3 separate playlists for packing, driving, and unpacking. I haven’t bothered to listen to those since then, but I know when I do, I’ll feel like I’m moving in all over again.

“Steph’s Current Tunes” is my number one playlist and also the oldest playlist that I still listen to. The only reason that’s possible is because it’s constantly changing. It’s always alternating to whatever my favorite songs are at the time. The songs don’t even have to fit in together at all, I just need a place where I can find whatever song I want to listen to as fast as possible. Right now, it’s about 3 hours long because I haven’t taken out any songs since summer, but usually it’s around 1 hour.

My most recent playlist is titled “Up In Steph’s Room” just like my RISE article. It’s just supposed to capture my experience of being a teenage girl, just like many of my other playlists. This one is a little more refined than the others and it’s still a work in progress. My top 3 songs from this playlist are “Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By” by Cass Elliot, “Teenage Girl” by Cherry Glazerr (of course), and “Real Love Baby” by Father John Misty.

The playlist that sits closest to my heart is titled “your new life will cost you your old one.” That’s also one of my favorite quotes and it’s by Brianna Weist. I found it towards the beginning of the year and it still resonates with me so deeply. I made that playlist near the end of my sophomore year at my old school when I knew I would be leaving for MSA. My number one song from that playlist is “Don’t Delete the Kisses” by Wolf Alice.

As I’m making my 216th playlist, I feel proud that I have so much on my Spotify account. Even if all of my downloaded songs are taking up most of my storage, I’m glad that I haven’t deleted the account or anything. I think I’ll try to keep it up for years to come.