There’s still a month left of summer (only a month?!?) and I wanted to do one last entry in my Summer Book Series. There’s not much of a theme for this summer list, but I did try to not feature books that I’ve previously posted about on here before. Honestly, most of my favorites are in my first summer book post highlighting Sarah Dessen, Emery Lord, and Morgan Matson, but here are a few of my other favorites.
“How much pain for how long is OK before it’s acceptable to just give up?”
Ever since finding the website the Mighty, I’ve had so many more instances of acceptance when it comes to my chronic pain. When you’re diagnosed so young—20-years old is pretty young for a life-long condition in my book—it’s easy to feel so alone. Unknowingly, you start to isolate yourself from friends and family and start to feel like no one else could ever understand how you feel.
The other day I came across an article on the Mighty titled: “18 Taboo Topics About Chronic Illness You’re Not the Only One Having.” It felt as if the dark and gloomy sky had opened up and the sun starting shining down on me. I was finally being heard. Here are some of my favorite topics that come directly from the Mighty community:
“I actually look forward to procedures that require anesthesia because I get to go right to sleep. That’s so sad to me.”
“[I worry] nobody will love me because I’m sick.”
“I think about how much I dread going to the doctor. I hope I have enough symptoms to have them believe me and take me seriously. But I don’t want enough symptoms and hurt going on to warrant a crash. It’s complicated.”
“I think pretty regularly that I’m a burden to everyone around me, and that if only I wasn’t sick. I have been known to think I would be better not being here, not that I want to die, just that my life isn’t exactly worth it because I don’t really do anything. I’m ‘failing.’”
“My taboo thoughts have always been that I hope my tests come back showing something. More clues as to what is going on or why it is happening. Most of my test results come back normal or just ever so slightly off. Nothing is ever off the charts or crazy enough to get the attention I feel I need.
“Any drug that makes me sleepy or slightly ‘stoned’ I love.”
“I feel frustrated every single day. Because the person I am now can’t even do 10 percent of the things I could do before I was sick. I’m constantly irritated and grouchy due to frustration.”
I no longer felt so alone. I’ve had some version of these thoughts ever since I’ve been sick. These aren’t things I can talk about with other people, especially people who have no idea what you’re going through. And to the outside world, I have a wonderful middle-class life filled with a supportive family, successful friends, and financial stability. But if you take the time to look closer, you would see that those successful friends don’t have time for you and that financial stability comes from your parents because you’re unable to work and provide for yourself. We try to put up a front, but on the inside our thoughts are dark and lonely. Knowing there are people out there that share your thoughts—share your pain—the world doesn’t feel so alone anymore.
Here is the original article if you would want to check it out~
Hello! Pop culture and entertainment rule my life. I decided that it would be fun to do a little recap of all the media I consumed each month:
On Sunday, July 29th, I was lucky enough to go to the launch party for the pop-up exhibit titled That’s From Disneyland! This is a free event and auction of one of the world’s largest private Disneyland memorabilia collections. Taking over the space of an old Sport’s Authority in Sherman Oaks, owner of the collection Richard Kraft is using this month-long event as a sort of goodbye to his precious collection that he accumulated over the last 25 years.
Powell’s Books is the largest independent bookstore in the world. There is a total of five locations, spread out the city of Portland, Oregon. The main location is the size of an entire city block with nine color-coded rooms and over 3,500 different sections. It’s also my favorite place in the world, next to Disneyland.
I LOVE travel YA books: road trips, trips abroad, even just the short little escape a few hours away from home. I live vicariously through these characters because I’ve never had the luxury to go on these kind of trips. Most of these type of books are set during the summer because what time is more alluring than the three months that make up a summer vacation. The sun stays out longer, the heat burning your skin as you travel through unknown territory—it just screams adventure and possibility. So! Here are a few of my favorite YA Summer Travel Recommendations:
Bo Burnham is one of my all-time favorite comedians. A friend of mine in college played me some of his songs and I was instantly hooked. I couldn’t believe someone just under a year older than me could make such smart and relatable comedy. He completely rock my world.
