#Class of 2022

[dandrew-stuff]

“You must be new leaders, leading a new Africa, in a new way, into a new world.”

Our talented and inspiring woman Danai Gurira keynote address to the graduating class of 2022 at ALAcademy.

[taylorswiftrares]

[layla-loves-violence]

"i want to give you wings, but babe, you've got to grow them"

At my first Game Design 101 lesson, my professor told us that many of us would probably end up switching majors before we graduate. "Making games and playing them are two different things."

I wasn't deterred. I had aspirations of narrative design and character concepts, and although level design and programming bored me to death I was determined to stick it out. I wanted so desperately to give back to the media that I loved so much, that got me through my hardest times: video games. I had dreams of directing my own RPGs, of making characters that everyone would fall in love with.

I lasted one year.

It wasn't out of a lack of love of games. It was a lack of support. It was a lack of language. It was a lack of desire to live.

Freshman year is guaranteed to bring drama. You throw a bunch of 17-to-18-year-old kids into close proximity and call them independent without any of the skills and things are bound to get a little messy. Especially if you're an autistic narcissist like I was at seventeen. I won't deny my own fault in the situation, in fact, I'll be the first to gut myself over it. I was a tiny control freak with an anxious streak a mile wide. It doesn't take much pressure to break me open.

I was too dumb to realize that inviting a guy back to my dorm to "play video games" meant I was propositioning him. I was too shy to tell a guy to fuck off when his comments made me uncomfortable. I was too self-absorbed to realize I wasn't the main character of this social group, that these people I'd barely known for two months wouldn't rally behind me like I was some usurped king seeking to reclaim my throne. There was no throne. I was seventeen and stupid.

But it doesn't change the fact that, intentionally or not, someone was taking advantage of me. Whether it was the boy who pressured me into cuddling when I wasn't open to having sex, or the boy who promised to stand up against sexual harassment and balked when I actually brought up pursuing Title IX. I was "too much drama" he said, after he'd already convinced me everyone else was against me.

It's been six years since then. People change. People wash their hands of you. People will watch you drown, and say that if they tried to save you, you'll pull them down and we'd die together. And you're not sure if they're wrong.

My first semester I made the Dean's List. The second semester, I was on academic probation, because I was too terrified to be in the same room with people I assumed hated me, or worse, found me annoying. I deleted the Discord servers, kept my distance. While my classmates learned about character design, I was conducting a self study on how isolation leads to madness.

I contact a suicide hotline, keep my answers vague so I don't end up in the hospital again, like I did at 12. I tell my mother I can't take the train, because I worry that when I see it, I'll feel compelled to throw myself in front. The minute I step out of my dorm, I stop being able to breathe. I have a panic attack so loud in the bathroom before an exam that the front desk has to conduct a wellness check.

I drop out that summer.

(Someone contacts me in the fall, asks if I wanted to attend an event with him. I tell him I no longer go to that school and to never contact me again. Surprisingly, perhaps gladly, he does. His contact in still in my phone.)

I spend the next six years digging myself out of a hole. I end up in three separate outpatient programs. I cut my hair, grow it out again. I drop 20 pounds and gain it back, drop another ten, gain back five. I learn to drive. I get a part time job, get laid off, get another job, and get bullied by my managers. I move from my dad's house to my mother's. My grandmother dies. My dog dies. My sister, a once-despised rival, becomes tolerable, and then a friend. I begin losing my closest friend. I start drawing. I start writing. I listen to Mother Mother again. I play a Night in the Woods.

The game design program I chose, I chose for its capstone. At the end of four years, you get to build a real, playable game with other students. We got to pitch our games as our final for the first semester. All of us "failed," pitching things far too complex to make in a single semester. "Not every idea gets made."

There were several projects made in the 2022 Game Design capstone. I read the names of the students involved, and I can picture them in my head, and I feel lightheaded. For a moment, I can see an alternate world in which people didn't scare me. I can see a world where I connected with others on an even keel. Some of them have websites, and my mouse hovers over a "contact" button. The boy who said I was too much for him is a man with a beard now. He says his favorite game is Persona 5.

I wonder if they think about me, or how their memories erode my image in time. I picture a villain lurking in their single-room lair, pacing and stewing in between lofi hip-hop streams and rewatches of John Oliver and Polygon's Unraveled, cloaked in pilling hoodies and unwashed pajama pants, yellow-green plaid, school colors. No one is coming for them.

[wutbju]

Stop whatever you're doing this morning, and listen to this podcast: Surviving BJU: A Christian Cult.

While Shelly Hamilton is pretending to be a victim of truth-telling, we have some BJU truth-telling extraordinaire!

BJU Class of 2022 Andrew Pledger has brought together BJU alumni across generations to highlight what life is like before, during, and after our tenures at Bob Jones University.

Pledger describes the series as:

a thought-provoking podcast that explores the fundamentalist Christian college Bob Jones University, which is located in Greenville, SC. The series covers the history of BJU, the psychology of fundamentalism, the criteria for cults, and survivors experiences. The series features diverse interviews with survivors, including queer individuals, BIPOC, women, and men, sharing their unique perspectives on the institution. The podcast also features cult experts who offer their opinions on the university. Listeners gain insights into the strict rules, culture, and leadership of Bob Jones University and how its fundamentalist beliefs have contributed to a toxic environment that prioritizes indoctrination and conformity.The podcast showcases stories of resilience, healing, and growth from survivors who have overcome trauma and abuse at the Christian college. It offers an eye-opening exploration of cults’ harmful impact on vulnerable individuals and communities

Pledger has worked hard to quilt together experiences of many survivors. He frames each step in his argument back to his over-arching thesis: Bob Jones University is a cult.

If you are a BJU loyalist, you will not like what you hear. In fact, if you find yourself raging at Pledger's documentation, it's likely that some part of you is still defending an institution that will do nothing to defend you.

Seriously, this podcast could be a test to see who is really a BJU loyalist -- +++Positive+++ or not -- and who is ready to come to terms with what we survived.

[spaceymcspacer]

Originally uploaded June 24, 2022

Yesterday I graduated from High School and I am officially done with school for now. To celebrate I made this drawing to commemorate the moment.

Class of 2022, hell yeah!

[emo-batboy]

Things Battinson Totally Did During His First Year of University

Using Unhinged or Odd Things I Also Did as a College Freshman :D

Note: for this list, let’s believe Bruce was living in an (admittedly expensive and swanky) dorm because it is required for first-years, especially those entering at a young age, and Alfred told him he needed to make friends. Also yes I did every single thing on this list. I never claimed to be a role model

Bruce, to his TA: I’m so sorry I’m late to class. I gave blood a few hours ago and almost fainted on the way here, but it won’t happen again.

Signs up for a class called “Age of Dinosaurs” despite it not being required whatsoever and proceeds to work his entire schedule around it

Bruce: Your mental health is super important. If you think you should see the on-campus therapist, go see them. Friend: Fine. I’ll sign up for therapy if you sign up for therapy too. Bruce: Hold on-

Finds a loophole in his housing contract that allows him to get a pet frog, calls him kermit :)

Gets a second frog because Kermit was lonely, names it Constantine after Muppets Most Wanted, then realizes that they’re gay for each other. Wonders if the rainbow-colored rocks he got them triggered anything

Swings dramatically between calling Alfred every single day and ghosting him for weeks, cries when he realizes what he did

“Accidentally” joins the student body council, doesn’t know what he’s doing, gets re-elected anyway

Molds a dragon out of Laffy Taffy instead of doing his work

Bruce: *joins Honors, gets all A’s, takes the max amount of classes, has several minors, overachieves* Also Bruce: I’m a failure.

Breaks into a building after hours to study because NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO SHUT THE FUCK UP AT THE LIBRARY

Bruce: I will not get seasonal depression this year. Bruce: *gets real and seasonal depression that year*

Meticulously schedules his day with a color-coded planner because if he sits down for too long, the thoughts will consume him

Gives a presentation to his rhetoric class on how much he likes Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (it is 20 minutes long)

Successfully allocates funding from the student body council to pay for free feminine products in the dorms OUT OF SPITE because someone said it couldn't be done. fuck you, Andrew

Bruce: It is not an all-nighter if I go to sleep before my first class. Friend: It is 7:30am, the sun is in the sky, and your first class is at 12:30. Bruce: But I am getting sleep.

Refuses to go anywhere without his backpack because what if he needs three notebooks at once

Loses over 20 pounds because ✨stress✨ and scares the shit out of Alfred when he comes home for Thanksgiving

Argues with his TA over the one (1) question he got wrong on his Dinosaur exam

Bruce, calling Alfred: Hello father figure. How do I do taxes? Do I have to do them myself? Also, I think I’m having a panic attack.

Joins in on a charity arts-and-crafts project that gives kids books with matching activities made by volunteers, proceeds to commandeer the project because “it’s not color-blind friendly” and rewrites the instructions for everyone

Makes a murder wall

Goes to one (1) sports game and proceeds to leave in the first ten minutes because it’s way too loud wtf is wrong with people

Professor, addressing the lecture hall: I dare you to write an essay about these two sentences. Bruce: *writes an essay about six words, gets a 100, never even read the book*

Crawls into the ceiling for some alone time

Ghosts someone after a date because he’s too scared to tell them he didn’t know it was a date in the first place and now he feels bad

Classmate: How tf does he walk across campus that fast? I go in the same direction he does on my bike, and he’s always ahead of me. Bruce: *is gay sprinting to Dinosaur class*

Refuses to let others use his Favorite Pen TM

Constantly gets mistaken for a Grad Student because he is “so wise and mature” (bestie, that’s the autism)

Alfred: *casually mentions he got into a car accident through text* Bruce: *replies with a meme while hyperventilating because he doesn’t know what to do with that information??!*

Wears a suit to one of his finals

Regularly eats non-organic food for the first time in his life, proceeds to learn about several allergies Alfred forgot to mention he has

Writes “What is a Hot Pocket?” in calligraphy and proceeds to laugh his ass off alone in his dorm because he is so exhausted he’s reached the point of delusion

Locks himself out of his dorm right before class, frantically asks the floor group chat if someone can help, proceeds to tell the nice gay man on the floor who saved him “I love you” because his social skills have hit rock bottom

Makes a little music album display next to his desk for his favorite band (Nirvana) His friends call it a shrine, and they are technically correct

Has a blacklist of people he refuses to interact with because Reasons

Counselor: What do you want to do when you graduate? Bruce: *gestures vaguely*

Refuses to take the bus because there are people in there and he doesn’t like those

Loses one of his frogs, how tf did he do that, they’re fully aquatic, oh fuck, this is probably why they got rid of that loophole a year later because unbeknownst to Bruce, he accidentally started a frog revolution in the dorms, btw he SWEARS he did not mean to do that

Has two trash cans in his room: one for the Good Garbage, and one for the Bad Garbage. Only Bruce knows which is which

Bruce: *writes a creative piece about a ship’s final thoughts as it sinks, bringing its passengers down with it* TA: Absolutely lovely, Bruce, but are you okay?

Goes on Night Walks, keeps himself safe by maintaining a level 12 resting bitch face at all times

Earns the nickname “8th floor cryptid” after pacing the halls at 3am when it’s too cold for Night Walks (honestly tho how tf didn’t he get the nickname earlier?)

Bruce: Do you think a depressed person could do this? Bruce: *has a manic episode*

Okay that's all love you BYE

[mylittledelulucorner]

History professor Grant

He doesn’t just teach, he recreates, painting vivid scenes of the past with his words. When he speaks of Ancient Egypt, his eyes light up, hands gesturing animatedly as if he himself had walked the banks of the Nile. He’s passionate, dedicated, and engaging, with an infectious enthusiasm that makes even the most reluctant students lean in.

[gvnchyno2]

Andrei | Amadeo | Armand

[marblerose-rue]

figpaw and scallopstar

(figpaw/star is owned by @nothin-purrsonal and scallopstar is mine!)

[tiktowafel]

see tsuburaba, her design perfectly conveys her personality and role in the story but you're too uncultured to get it

(aka i think manga having a crush on kenranzaki is a delightful little piece of canon information. thanks ultra analysis)

[rubiisun]

An old Kuki drawing from 2 years ago… I’m still active, I promise! 😂

[k9spine]

Riddler that i drew on my phone

[anxious-runez]

some stressed out edwards because i’m STRESSED

[jaspoo]

do u know that trend with the song see you again by Tyler, the creator?

u know what I honestly love so much?

the fact that Sieun is such a okayokay personality but a lalala just for Suho and the fact that Suho is maybe a lalala personality but he is definitely a okayokay personality for Sieun <3

[hoomanbeaning]

elias: i just want to be with you.

young hearts (2024)

[serikatz]

don’t ever leave me in a room with this man i need to get him pregnant 😔😔😔 look how cute he looks holding up the straw in the last photo :(((