#routinely updated

[alchemy-fic]

Bibliography:

Alchemy and the Occult:

Western:

Alchemy Unveiled, Johannes Helmond (Translated into English and Edited by

Gerard Hanswille and Deborah Brumlich); (1963)

Practical Alchemy, A Guide To The Great Work; Brian Cotnoir (2006)

The Black Arts (50th Anniversary Edition); Richard Cavendish (1968)

Alchemy & Mysticism: The Hermetic Cabinet; Alexander Roob (2009)

The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy (2nd Edition); Mircea Eliade (1962, 1978)

History of Alchemy; M. M. Pattison (1902)

Alchemy (Revised Edition); E. J. Holmyard (1990)

Dictionary of Symbolism, Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them; Hans Biedermann, Translated by James Hulbert (1994)

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca; Rosemary Ellen Guiley (1989)

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits; Rosemary Ellen Guiley (1992)

Levantine:

The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book; Raphael Patai (1994)

Ancient Magic and Divination, A Microhistorical Study of the Neo-Assyrian Healer Kiṣir-Aššur; Troels Pank Arbøll (2017)

Fuck Your "Magic" Antisemitism: A Lesser Key To The Appropriation Of Jewish Magic & Mysticism; Ezra Rose (2022)

“His wind is released” - The Emergence of the Ghost Ritual of passage in Mesopotamia; Dina Katz, Leiden (2014)

Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts; Anne Marie Kitz (2014)

Egyptian Magic; E.A. Wallis Budge (1901)

Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology (Cuneiform Monographs); David Brown (2000)

Astrology in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Science of Omens and the Knowledge of the Heavens; Michael Baigent (July 20, 2015)

Ancient Jewish Magic: A History; Gideon Bohak (2008)

PERFORMING DEATH: SOCIAL ANALYSES OF FUNERARY TRADITIONS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND MEDITERRANEAN; Nicola Laneri, Ellen F. Morris, Glenn M. Schwartz, Robert Chapman, Massimo Cultraro, Meredith S. Chesson, Alessandro Naso, Adam T. Smith, Dina Katz, Seth Richardson, Susan Pollock, Ian Rutherford, John Pollini, John Robb, and James A. Brown (2007)

Mesopotamian Conceptions of Dreams and Dream Rituals; Sally A. L. Butler (1998)

Forerunners to Udug-Hul: Sumerian exorcistic incantations; Markham J. Geller (1985)

Šurpu. A Collection of Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations; Erica Reiner (1958)

Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts; F. A. M. Wiggermann (1992)

The Alchemist's Handbook- Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy; Frater Albertus (1960)

Licit Magic: The Life and Letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (d. 385/995); Maurice A. Pomerantz (09 Nov 2017)

Further Studies on Mesopotamian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature; Tzvi Abusch (2002)

The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture; Francesca Rochberg (2004)

Greco-Roman:

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook; Daniel Ogden (2002)

Far East Asia:

I Ching; Fu Xi (~1000 BCE)

Myths, Legends, Religious Texts And Folktales

Levantine:

The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion; Thorkild Jacobsen (1976)

Persian Myths; Jake Jackson (2022)

Myths of Babylon; Jake Jackson (2018)

The Epic Of Gilgamesh (2nd Edition); Anonymous, Andrew George (????, 2000)

The First Ghost Stories; Dr. Irving Finkel (2021)

On Jewish Folklore; Raphael Patai (1983)

Sumerian Mythology, a Deep Guide Into Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths; Joshua Brown (2021)

Sumerian Mythology, a Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Revised Edition); Samuel Noah Kramer (1961)

Sumerian Liturgies; Anonymous, Stephen Langdon (1919)

Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart, Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna; Enheduanna, Betty De Shong Meador (1989)

Ninurta's Journey to Eridu; Daniel Reisman (1971)

A Sumerian Proverb Tablet in Geneva With Some Thoughts on Sumerian Proverb (2006)

Enki's Journey to Nippur: The Journeys of the Gods; Al-Fouadi, Abdul-Hadi A. (1969)

The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature by Rachel Bromwich (1991)

Encyclopedia of American Folklore; Linda S. Watts (2006)

Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; Joshua Trachtenberg (1939)

Amulets and Talismans; E.A. Wallis Budge (The copy I have was published in 1992 but he died in 1934. Not sure when the original work was created.)

Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews; Deatra Cohen, Adam Siegel (2021)

Encyclopedia of Catholicism; Frank K. Flinn (2007)

As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam; Annemarie Schimmel (1982)

You Will Have Other Goddesses in Addition to Me: Polytheism Among Ancient Israelite Women; Liora Finke (2022)

Gods That Travel: On The Ritual Aspects of Divine Journeys And Processions; Klaus Wagensonner (2014)

NINURTA AND ENKI; A new divine journey of the warrior god to Eridu; Klaus Wagensonner (2013)

Jewish Music in Its Historical Development; Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1929)

The God Enki in Sumerian Royal Ideology and Mythology; Peeter Espak (2010)

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic & Mysticism: Second Edition; Geoffrey W. Dennis (2007)

Book of Jewish Knowledge: An Encyclopedia of Judaism and the Jewish People, Covering All Elements of Jewish Life from Biblical Times to the Present (03 May 1948); Nathan Ausubel

Encyclopedia of Judaism (Encyclopedia of World Religions); Sara E. Karesh & Mitchell M. Hurvitz (2006)

Aboriginal Australia: 

Gadi Mirrabooka: Australian Aboriginal Tales from the Dreaming; Pauline E. McLeod, Francis Firebrace Jones, June E. Barker, Helen F. McKay (2001)

The Two Rainbow Serpents Travelling: Mura Track Narratives from the 'Corner Country'; Jeremy Beckett, Luise Hercus (2009)

Mixed or Other:

Egyptian Myths & Tales; Japanese Myths & Tales, Aztec Myths & Tales, Scottish Folk & Fairytales, Viking Folk & Fairytales, Chinese Myths & Tales, Greek Myths & Tales, African Myths & Tales, Native American Myths & Tales, Persian Myths & Tales, Celtic Myths & Tales, Irish Fairy Tales; Anonymous, Flame Tree Publishing

Tales of King Arthur & The Knights Of The Round Table (Le Morte D’Arthur); Thomas Malory

The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore; Patricia Monaghan (2004)

Academic (Science including Psychology)

Stellar Alchemy: The Celestial Origin of Atoms, Michel Cassé, Stephen Lyle (2003)

Aboriginal Suicide Is Different: A Portrait of Life And Self Destruction; Colin Tatz (2005)

Fruit Domestication in the Near East; Shahal Abbo, Avi Gopher & Simcha Lev-Yadun (2015) 

Astronomical Cuneiform Texts: Babylonian Ephemerides of the Seleucid Period for the Motion of the Sun, the Moon, and the Planets (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, 5); Otto E. Neugebauer (1945)

Studies in the History of Science;  E. A. Speiser; Otto E. Neugebauer; Hermann Ranke; Henry E. Sigerist; Richard H. Shryock; Evarts A. Graham; Edgar A. Singer; Hermann Weyl (Compiled In 2017)

Studies in Civilization;  Alan J. B. Wace; Otto E. Neugebauer; William S. Ferguson (Compiled In 2016)

Astronomy and History: Selected Essays; Otto E. Neugebauer (Compiled In 1983)

The Encyclopedia of the Brain and Brain Disorders; Carol Turkington (2002)

The Encyclopedia of Poisons and Antidotes; Deborah R. Mitchell & Carol Turkington (2010)

The Encyclopedia of Suicide; Glen Evans, Norman L. Farberow, Ph.D. & Kennedy Associates (1988)

Academic (History)

Western:

Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes; Carl Waldman (2006)

Levantine:

Sounds from the Divine: Religious Musical Instruments in the Ancient Near East; Dahlia Shehata (2014)

Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature; Rivkah Harris (05/12/2003)

House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia; A. R. George (1993)

The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East; Michael Roaf (1990)

The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia; Shiyanthi Thavapalan (2020)

The Loss of Male Sexual Desire in Ancient Mesopotamia; Gioele Zisa (2021)

Materials and Manufacture in Ancient Mesopotamia: The evidence of Archaeology and Art. Metals and metalwork, glazed materials and glass; P. R. S. Moorey (3/1/1985)

Collections; Bendt Alster, Takayoshi Oshima (2006)

Political Agency of Royal Women; Paula Sabloff (2019)

Studies in Sumerian Civilization: Selected Writings Of Miguel Civil; Miguel Civil, edited by Lluís Felu (2017)

A study on the natural heritage and its importance in the Sumerian civilization in southern Iraq; Al-Hussein Nabeel Al-Karkhi, Isam Hussain T. Al-Karkhi (2021)

A Sumerian Riddle Collection; Bendt Alster (1976)

SUMERIAN “CHILD”; Vitali Bartash (2018)

The civilizing of Ea-Enkidu an unusual tablet of the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic; Andrew R George (2007)

Celibacy in the Ancient World: Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece; Dale Launderville OSB (07/01/2010)

House and Household Economies in 3rd Millennium B.C.E. Syro-Mesopotamia; Federico Buccellati ,Tobias Helms & Alexander Tamm (2014)

The Harps That Once… Sumerian Poetry In Translation; Thorkild Jacobsen (1987)

The Divine Origin Of The Craft Of The Herbalist; Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1928)

Disease in Babylonia; Edited by Irving Finkel and Markham (Mark) Geller (2007)

Royal Statuary of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia; Gianni Marchesi and Nicolo Marchetti (2011)

Myths of Enki, The Crafty God; Samuel Noah Kramer, John Maier (1989)

Household and State in Upper Mesopotamia; Patricia Wattenmaker (July 17, 1998)

Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium; Albert Kirk Grayson (1987)

Gudea's Temple Building: The Representation of an Early Mesopotamian Ruler in Text and Image (Cuneiform Monographs); Claudia E. Suter (January 1, 2000)

Reading Sumerian Poetry (Athlone Publications in Egyptology & Ancient Near Eastern Studies); Jeremy Black (2001)

Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia; Stephen Bertman (2002)

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East; Amanda H. Podany (2022)

History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History; Samuel Noah Kramer (1981)

A History of the Animal World in the Ancient Near East; Edited by Billie Jean Collins (2002)

The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character; Samuel Noah Kramer (1963)

The Ancient Near East in Transregional Perspective: Material Culture and Exchange Between Mesopotamia, the Levant and Lower Egypt from 5800 to 5200 ... Sudan and the Levant; Katharina Streit (11/10/2020)

Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine; Laura Robson (September 1, 2011)

Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East The Reflexes of Celestial Science in Ancient Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite Narrative; Jeffrey L. Cooley (2013)

Hasidism, Haskalah, Zionism: Chapters in Literary Politics (Jewish Culture and Contexts); Hannan Hever (October 17, 2023)

Mourning in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible; Xuan Huong Thi Pham (1999)

Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Egypt; Joachim J.M.S. Yeshaya (2011)

The Land that I Will Show You: Essays on the History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honor of J. Maxwell Miller; J. Andrew Dearman & M. Patrick Graham (January 9, 2002)

Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition; Thomas L. Thompson (2003)

Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia, Confinement and Control until the First Fall of Babylon; Dr. J. Nicholas Reid (2022)

Prophets Male and Female: Gender and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Ancient Near East; Jonathan Stökl & Corrine L. Carvalho (2013)

The Calm before the Storm- Selected writings of Itamar Singer on the late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant; Itamar Singer (2012)

"Holiness" and "purity" in Mesopotamia;  E. Jan Wilson (1994)

The Material Culture of the Northern Sea Peoples in Israel; Ephraim Stern (2013)

Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant; Rainer Albertz and Rüdiger Schmitt (2012)

Scribal Education in Ancient Israel: The Old Hebrew Epigraphic Evidence; Christopher A. Rollston (11/2006)

Neanderthals in the Levant- Behavioural Organization and the Beginnings of Human Modernity; Donald O. Henry (10/2003)

Suddenly, the Sight of War- Violence and Nationalism in Hebrew Poetry in the 1940s; Hannan Hever (2016)

Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East; Victor H. Matthews, Victor H. Matthews, Bernard M. Levinson, Tikva Frymer-Kensky (1998)

The concept of fate in ancient Mesopotamia of the 1st millennium: Toward an understanding of 'simtu'; Jack N. Lawson (1992)

The Myth of the Jewish Race; Raphael Patai, Jennifer Patai Wing (01/01/1975)

The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492; Peter Cole (01/22/2007)

Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions; Raphael Patai (2013)

Hebrew Myths; Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (2005) 

Vast as the Sea - Hebrew Poetry and the Human Condition; Samuel Hildebrandt (12/05/2023)

Sex & Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature; Gwendolyn Leick (1994)

Far East Asian:

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations; Charles Higham (2004)

Aboriginal Australia:

Aboriginal Peoples: Fact and Fiction; Pierre Lepage, Maryse Alcindor, Jan Jordon (2009)

Visions from the Past: The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal Art; M.J. Morwood, Douglas Hobbs, D.R. Hobbs (2002)

Mixed or Other:

Early Civilizations of the Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt, The Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China; Charles Keith Maisels (May 20, 2001)

20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment; Francois Boucher (1967)

Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam; Chouki El Hamel (2012)

The Birth of Science: Ancient Times to 1699; Ray Spangenburg & Diane Kit Moser (2004)

The Architecture of Castles: A Visual Guide; Reginald Allen Brown (1984)

Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide; Leslie Alan Horvitz and Christopher Catherwood (2006)

Linguistic

Cuneiform; Irving Finkel, Jonathan Taylor (2015)

An Introduction to the Grammar of Sumerian; Gábor Zólyomi (2017)

Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners; Joshua Aaron Bowen, Megan Lewis (2020) Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners, Volume 2; Joshua Aaron Bowen, Megan Lewis (2023)

The Sur₉-Priest, the Instrument giš Al-gar-sur₉, and the Forms and Uses of a Rare Sign; Niek C. (1997/1998)

Sumerian Grammar (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section One, the Near [And] Mi) (English and Sumerian Edition); Dietz Otto Edzard (2003)

A Late Old Babylonian Proto-Kagal / Nigga Text and the Nature of the Acrographic Lexical Series; Niek VELDHUIS -Groningen (1998)

Learning To Pray In A Dead Language, Education And Invocation in Ancient Sumerian; Joshua Bowen (2020)

Aboriginal Sign Languages of The Americas and Australia: Volume 1; North America Classic Comparative Perspectives; Garrick Mallery (auth.), D. Jean Umiker-Sebeok, Thomas A. Sebeok (eds.) (1978)

 The Literature of Ancient Sumer; Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, Gabor Zolyomi (2004)

Sumerian Lexicon: A Dictionary Guide to the Ancient Sumerian Language; John Alan Halloran (2006)

A Sumerian Chrestomathy; Konrad Volk (1911)

Online Articles, Dictionaries And Other Resources:

https://nationalclothing.org/middle-east/305-traditional-clothing-of-mesopotamia-what-did-it-look-like.html 

https://www.getty.edu/news/meet-the-mesopotamian-demons/ 

https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/ 

https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/marriage-ancient-mesopotamia-and-babylonia 

https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr561.htm 

http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/nepsd-frame.html 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/Trade 

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2185/festivals-in-ancient-mesopotamia/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/well/family/cutting-out-the-bris.html 

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nannasuen/ 

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-idea-imprisonment-prisoners-earliest-texts.html 

http://www.mathematicsmagazine.com/Articles/TheSumerianMathematicalSystem.php 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ooHEYR30oNCdI4Xxop9qBjKQGnqTPwLHQzT8cvv5oxA/edit Sumerian Grammar Made Easy! (2022 Edition)

Historians, linguists, etc:

https://sumerianlanguage.tumblr.com/ aka http://www.jamesbarrettmorison.com/sumerian.html

https://sumerianshakespeare.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/DigitalHammurabi aka https://www.digitalhammurabi.com/

https://twitter.com/digi_hammurabi and https://twitter.com/DJHammurabi1 

Podcasts and online-exclusive documentaries, video essays, etc

8. The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities (2020)

13. The Assyrians - Empire of Iron (2021)

The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC) (2021)

The Royal Death Pits of Ur (2022)

Gilgamesh and the Flood (2021)

The Birth of Civilisation - Rise of Uruk (6500 BC to 3200 BC) (2021)

The Earliest Creation Myths - Mythillogical (2022)

Enuma Elish | The Babylonian Epic of Creation | Complete Audiobook | With Commentary (2020)

 Eridu Genesis | The Sumerian Epic of Creation (2021)

 Irving Finkel | The Ark Before Noah: A Great Adventure (2016)

Cracking Ancient Codes: Cuneiform Writing - with Irving Finkel (2019)

Ancient Demons with Irving Finkel I Curator's Corner S3 Ep7 #CuratorsCorner (2018)

 How to perform necromancy with Irving Finkel (2017)

 Mesopotamian ghostbusting with Irving Finkel I Curator's Corner + #CuratorsCorner (2018)

Video Games

Sonic The Hedgehog Encyclospeedia; Ian Flynn (2021)

Direct Inspiration

The Golden Compass (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997); The Amber Spyglass (2000); Philip Pullman

The Last Unicorn; Peter S. Beagle (1968)

The 13 and ½ Lives Of Captain Bluebear: A Novel; Walter Moers (1999)

Allerleirauh; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812)

The Epic of Beowulf; Anonymous (c. 700–1000 AD)

The Writing In The Stone; Irving Finkel (October 10, 2017)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Learning to celebrate the little wins!

[cardboardmoon]

Burger Saga part 17: Uncertainty

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[theorahsart]

Incorruptible Chap 4 pt 1

Please check out #incorruptiblecomic for previous chapters~ And, poor Robespierre's nice quiet routine interrupted so rudely by some escaping monarchs u_u

[todayin221bbakerstreet]

Today, Greg showed up at 221B with a case file and a bacon sandwich, only to find Mycroft already seated in Sherlock’s chair, sipping tea like he owned the place. “Oh, brilliant,” Greg muttered, dropping into the other chair. What followed was forty-five minutes of thinly veiled insults, bureaucratic eye-rolls, and Greg trying (and failing) to explain a crime scene while Mycroft corrected his grammar. By the end, Sherlock still hadn’t shown up, and Greg had eaten both halves of the sandwich out of sheer stress.

[utahlive]

[wildmoonatic]

DAWG WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THE NEW UPDATE IT GORES HARD ,YES YES?

The screm i scumpted when i saw otis oml 😭

10/10 would stress again

[dissociative-nightmare]

I HATE Tumblr's new layout and on behalf of every other autistic person whose sense of normalcy and routine has been disrupted by this nonsense I hope the person(s) who came up with this idea get a rock in both shoes and wet socks for the rest of their week.

[armedwooper]

@ageekywriter

okay so no pressure at all. but I just spent the past two days binge-reading the entire summer fic with Jeanne, Ritsuka, and the rest of them. I have no idea what your creative process is like, yet I must ask purely because if I don't, I WILL chew my way through a wooden table set. When is the next chapter. You CANNOT leave me hanging like that you fucking bastard.

but yeah, do let me know the rough time the next chapter is gonna be released per your best estimate.

[gabryellastudies]

6/13/25! 2:41 am

idk, there's something comforting about studying at a desk full of your efforts

- gabryella <3

p.s. studytok

[o0corruptedghoul0o]

small update

so much for being more active lol

okay, but it's clear that I most likely am autistic, so I go through a lot atm. It's a bigass journey and it will take a while to get a proper diagnosis, because apparently I'm a masking pro too, so yay (plus finding the right therapists, clinics and all that shit)

but I have a good therapist who takes me very serious and is supportive, same with my husband and my best friend. So I'm not doing this alone

altogether it's a bigass emotional rollercoaster, but I can't tell you how fucking relieved and happy I am. Suddenly my being makes sense and I feel like a complete person for the first time in my fucking life

sooo yeah, that's it for now

[lanthart]

Galactic☆Routine Update!! (my webcomic) 5+ episodes Up!! https://tapas.io/episode/3441993

Also you can start reading here. And the Spanish version here.

[studylovella]

"The most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later." - Randy Komisar

19.03.25

Biology - Proteins & linear electron flow from photosynthesis Essay Writting ☑️

Biology - Kingdom of Fungi Diagrams ☑️

Chemistry - Inorganic P Block Group 13 Reactions ☑️

Milk Coffee + Poetry of Slow Life ☕🤎

[angelpuns]

POV doing that thing where I'm so mad I'm talking to myself so I don't cry frustration tears ( I'm also very tired which is also why the talking to myself haha)

[acerunaway]

@klapollo-week day 1: confession

I love the idea that Apollo confesses by calling Klavier's bluff (which never was a bluff in the first place) bc Klavier is all bark, and Apollo is all bite.

[studentbyday]

{ 19.12.24 } · { 50 days of routine } · { day 50 }

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since I did a proper challenge update! I don't really see the use of doing a to-done list when I already have a to-do list I cross things off of. But my finals are now over and I can finally rest! I know I haven't been very consistent about posting, but thank you all for the support during my worst moments this semester, especially @academicfever and @lazar-codes for your encouraging comments and @zzzzzestforlife for knocking sense into me when I'm going insane 😅🥺💗

And, um, I also kind of have a big-ish life update...

I've decided to not transfer to health sciences anymore (which means i get to return to a lighter course load and catch up on the rest of my life woohoo), and I also won't jump straight into grad school after life sciences. There's a bunch of reasons for it. Most of them are just practical, from finances to "I just don't feel like I understand enough about how the real world (outside of formal education) works" and since the only way to learn is to live (that's another quote from the midnight library hehe), I've decided to do just that. And so if I ever do grad school (which I, right now, still hope is in future me's cards...if I can by that point actually, finally exercise the agency to do it and my surrounding life circumstances and my mental/emotional state make more sense), I will be doing it as a mature/non-traditional student a couple years down the line. The idea that you should have done xyz by certain ages is just...not very useful at some point. In a way, it's useful for planning ahead, but ultimately, it's completely arbitrary. It's something I've been slowly coming to terms with this year and will no doubt have to come to terms with again and again throughout my life.

In the meantime, I'll still be moving forward, just not in the way I expected, and it doesn't mean I'm falling behind while my peers go on to complete various higher degrees straight out of undergrad. It's going to be okay. I will make the most out of every opportunity I have so that I still end up with the fulfilling life I seek.

Anyways, I'm signing off for the year now. Wishing you the happiest of holidays! 🎄💗

See you some time in 2025! 🙂

-studentbyday 🧸