Preparing for summer means preparing yourself to enjoy the activities of a slower, much warmer version of life. It means adding to your gelato lists, expanding your cocktail knowledge and climbing up the vacation ladder (NOT to confuse with corporate which is an autumn/winter exclusive). As far as I’m concerned, the only career moves we should be concerned with this summer is adding to our sommelier and air hostess experience.

Hibernation is presented as the only period of the year one prepares for the upcoming season, but I would wager that it is almost as important to prepare for the upcoming season as it is for any. There’s a particular freshness with spring, a certain sharp wind that jolts us back into considering the bigger pictures.

With the nights getting shorter, we are no longer going home in the dark, eager to get the day over with. It seems we now have time, additional hours of the day we scatter to use. So, if you are in need of ideas for how to use your time wisely in preparation for summer, I hope you will enjoy my list.

Now it goes without saying that nothing of this list is mandatory, some ideas may resonate and some may not. Use what you find pertinent and ignore the rest.

2026 pre-summer bucket list:

• Make your own bookmark

• Learn the recipe to your favourite summer cocktail/ drink

• Make your own bouquet by walking in nature and collecting as you go

• Have an after-work drink at home and outside: on your garden, your terrace, your balcony, your side of the window, whatever it is

• Support a new local coffee shop

• Buy your fruits and veggies somewhere else than a supermarket chain

• Find a new dream to work towards

• Find a new third space

• Attend a festival or an outdoor concert

• Try a new ice cream flavour

• Watch a nostalgic movie

• Make pancakes/ crepes one morning

• Spot a lady bug, a butterfly and a beetle

• Make a new playlist

• Visit the botanical gardens

• Make a photo collage

• Go bare feet in the grass

• Make summer jewellery

• Help a stranger

• Make your own dips (hummus, tzatziki…)

• Sunbathe in short amounts to avoid suburbs before summer

• Donate some old clothes/ books

• Open the windows and put on some music

• Add a pop of colour to your bedroom

• Try a new nail polish shade

• Print out some pictures

• Host a board game night

• Do some research on the places you’ll be this summer

• Read a new book

• Clean your computer and phone

• Volunteer

• Plant herbs on your windowsill

• Treat yourself to something small but meaningful

• Write yourself a letter about everything that happened this winter (keep it or burn it)

Let me know in the comments if there’s anything I missed!

Love,

Anastasia

If you liked this article, please consider subscribing for more honest and personal essays. paid subscribers help support the time and love I pour into every sentence I write 💌

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So, as words best written come from experience, I decided to challenge myself to do something creative every day for a week. If creativity is like a muscle, then I must admit that recently I have had neither the sneakers nor the sweat to show for it.

There seems to be a particular pressure we all put on ourselves to be creative in the right way. As if consistency or talent have anything to do with being creative. Maybe on social media it does, but what of ourselves? Does being creative in a messy, unpolished, confused way not feed us just as much as anything?

So, armed with old supplies and a creative eye, I began my journey of finding creative outlets beyond writing. First an hour of doodling things I found of Pinterest, then of making a bracelet with leftover materials I had from a Christmas present I’d made from my brother. No grand scale planning, no new supplies - just myself and a real desire to create.

Some of my creative tasks I’d start in the bus, continue at the office in between meetings. Some took time and planning - such as the free Vino cut workshop I attended at Copenhagen’s queer bookstore The Pond. Some made me happy, others left me indifferent. Regardless of any of it, I persisted.

What I noticed wasn’t necessarily a growth in talent, but rather a change in perspective. By giving myself no other alternative but to be creative, I did much more than I possibly could’ve imagined. I saved plenty of videos and tutorials of hobbies I knew nothing of, I made a list of resources and courses in my city, I actually signed up for a free workshop and got accepted. I finally allowed myself to spend money I have on an expensive camera I’ve been eyeing for over a year. Having no other choice gave me the choice. To be brave, to step outside my comfort zone. To fail, to succeed, to stagnate.

I started with no rules, then saw a possibility of engaging in a different art form every day and took it. I didn’t do it every day, allowed myself days off and started up again without feeling shame. I started posting my art boards on TikTok - something I’d felt too shy to do before. I discovered a new bookstore, followed new artists. I nurtured and fed my creativity.

I gave myself five days to be creative every day. Engaged fully in one thing one day and turned to something else the next. It may not be feasible every week, but there’s no harm in trying every month, or every other month.

So for everyone wanting to be more creative this spring and summer, please try this out and let me know how you find it!

Details on what I did every day:

day 1. drawing

day 2. making a bracelet

day 3. decorating/ threading my earphones

day 4. trying Linocut

day 5. making a video for an art board

Hidden under a paywall:

• links and resources I found and used for each day

• photos and scans of the process and result

• bonus day

Read more

The promise we make to ourselves as the season renews seems important. Will we bloom alongside it all?

Of course, each and every one of us may have a singular and differing definition of what we would consider a bloom. We are each carried by different pursuits, different elements of survival and play. Some of us may find spring a time to soak up the sun leisurely, while others find it a time to accumulate a tier of tasks. And some of us may have no clue on where to get started.

Perhaps this list will go right over your head, or perhaps it will speak directly to your heart. Nevertheless, here is my attempt at creating a few notes of some of the pursuits I will be following and some I will be recommending.

1. A singular creative act every day

Inspired by Izabella Raczkowski’s series in January where she pained a single post card every day of the month, I will be picking a time this spring to begin a thirty-day challenge of my own. Sometimes, it is not about quality or quantity. Sometimes, it is a silly line each day rather than a well-thought out page. Sometimes it is one small doodle on a post-it note each day rather than a drawing. A small, singular creative act every day simply for the joy of being creative.

2. Create a space for film/book reviews

Lately I have had to acept that I am not meant to have an app to recount the books I read over time. However, I do need a space where I write down what I read, just as others need an opportunity to access to printed reading material. Whether it be creating a film review account, signing up for a library card, or something else entirely, we must find a source of engaging with art this spring.

3. Write down a step-by-step of the day you’ve enjoyed most this year, and try to implement one element from it every day

While the year has only just begun, there must already be at least one day you can look back on and consider close to perfect. I know I have mine. And I know that there is at least one element, one moment from that day I am able to replicate in all those to come. Because while we are not always able to live a close to perfect day, we are able to live a close to perfect moment each day.

4. Post something brave

Now, this is especially for those of us with a weird relationship with social media. If we are going to be living on social media (as we have been for at least a decade), we might as well start living. This means getting over ourselves and our fears related to these platforms. I know I’m in great need of getting back out there on there.

5. Renew your bag’s essentials

We all have a few items we carry in our bags that we deem essential, whether they are every day essential or in case of emergy essential. Yet, our gum packs have two left, our hand sanitizer is close to empty, our lipstick shade hasn’t been a favourite in four months… It is time we empty that bag and rummage through it all. Also, it is time I enjoy a rewatch of my favourite “what’s in my bag” tours.

Here is one of my favourites from seven years ago.

6. Go on a crawl

Could be a study crawl at cafes we’ve yet to try, or a bar crawl recommended by a friend. Whatever it is, whoever it is with, sometimes things are enjoyed in abundance.

7. Get some of your favourite pictures printed or go take pictures in a photo booth

As I took my own pictures at a photo booth only a week ago, I told myself I would be going to the same booth every year around the same time, so as to document my changes throughout adulthood. Some many of us remember being measured and pencilled in against our doorways. It is time we celebrate growth and age in other ways.

8. Go steal something

Whether a flower on the side of the pavement or a rock on the beach, we all rediscover our appreciation for nature once the weather clears. Let us ensure we do so, and keep a small memory of it indoors for when the next winter rolls around.

9. Make your dating profile extremely niche

Now this may or may not be sourced from a conversation at a bar while drinking matcha cocktails (who even knew that was a thing). The point is, if you are on dating apps, especially if you are a heterosexual woman, your dating profile is surely extremely accessible. No issue there when attempting to cast a wide net. However, the wider the net the more the filter through. So, let me live vicariously through you as someone with no apps and let me see how niche your profile can be - how you your profile can be.

10. Take an online course or an in-person class

As we are on a platform that is considered somewhat intellectual, I will end with one last tip to bloom this spring: education may exist outside the classroom, but it is intensly nurtured by it. I wish I could develop my own curriculum and spend every other evening learning a different topic. Yet, I know I thrive best when given some kind of structure. So, this spring I will most likely sign up for an online course or take a few in-person classes. Whether they be language courses or pottery classes, we should all thrive to broaden our knowledge.

Here is a collection of free resources Emmelie Arents recommends for more accessible + quick lessons.

In hopes that all these will help you bloom this spring <3

Love,

Anastasia

Thank you so much for supporting the time and effort I put into my writing. It truly means the world to have you here <3 If you’d like more day-to-day updates, feel free to follow me on instagram!

That is not to say that I have not enjoyed the articles published on Substack in 2026. On the contrary, the works I did commit my attention were incredibly insightful, meaningful pieces of writing that I am grateful made their way to my inbox or feed.

So as the year ends, I would like to wrap it up by extending my thoughts and feelings towards some of my favourite Substack essays of the year.

May we read them, may we memorise them, and may we learn from them.

1. décortiquer, by amy

A beautiful depiction on how on detail may reveal an entire new sphere of thought. Amy’s words are so carefully picked to reflect the importance of valuing time. On valuing the act of having to slow down, even if it is “just” to deseed a pomegranate.

What begins as a simple act becomes an entire manifesto on doing one thing slowly and delicately.

Making a living requires serious multi-tasking these days. Everyone’s job seems to actually be three people’s jobs. The pomegranate has not allowed this. Do one task, it says, do it slowly: do it well. And it occurs to me, while I eat the sweet seeds of my labour and let them stain my hands once more, that if you don’t have time to deseed a pomegranate, then you might as well be dead.

As we approach the new year, I believe we should all reflect on how we’ve been valuing or time - not in terms of how productive we’ve been with it, but in terms of how graceful we’ve been with ourselves.

2. plastic stool confessions, by François

Perhaps the most interesting reflection on masculinity I have read this year. François’s essay, written on Men’s Mental Health Month, is both incredibly observant and strikingly vulnerable. It is a reminder of the luck we have to have a platform where we may read each other’s deepest thoughts.

Kicking up with Anthony Bourdain, the essay reveals itself as an advocate for being open when struggling:

I think about Bourdain hunched over a plastic stool in some market, slurping noodles while the vendor watches, two strangers sharing the universal language of a meal. No common tongue needed, just the understanding that food is autobiography served hot. Tony understood something most of us spend our lives avoiding: that the most honest conversations happen when you’re vulnerable, when you’re outside your element, when you’re literally and figuratively eating humble pie. He made a career of being professionally lost, of admitting he didn’t know shit about anything except that the person across from him had something to teach.

He mentions a number of celebrities that have taken their own lives. Models of success who wrote about struggle or who acted out laughter. The article struck a cord in me as it distinguished awareness with permission. In truth, we are all aware of mental health struggles. We can all applaud ourselves for having done our reading, for having done our research.

But it does not matter to know how to respond if we have no one to respond to. Are we creating a space of safety, of comfort, and permission around us? I would like to think so, but this article was definitely an important reminder to actively create space for those around me.

3. how i became a writer, by Caroline

As Caroline knows, many on this platform might be tempted to set certain resolutions such as getting (back) into writing. With grace, she exposes her own path - its struggles, its lessons, its success - as an offering for anyone wishing to become a writer.

Both as a friend and as a teacher, her run-through on writing is perfect one of the best guides I’ve read myself. One of the best, because I believe we both agree that writing is more of a craft than it is a hobby, more of a muscle than it is an interest. Writing must be practiced, must be studied and learnt.

In my own words: writing is a privilege. To be literate, and to be educated, is a privilege. Words echoed in Caroline’s own experience:

When I finished my first novel and realised it sucked, I almost quit. But, after several weeks of furious seething and rabid journaling, I had to admit that I just didn’t have the skills or competency required to write a novel yet. The key word there is yet. I believe anyone can write a novel. But I believe very few people can do it without education, training, feedback, and community.

Perhaps the reason I enjoyed the article as much as I did is because I am often caught opting out of articles on here wanting to sell success in a quick-and-easy package. In contrasts, Caroline warns that her advice is not a shortcut - and it certainly doesn’t feel like one either.

While it is important for us to celebrate the joy we spend on this platform, I also believe it is as important for us to share that it comes with its difficulties. I adore reading about people’s successes, but I honour reading about their struggles.

4. unpacking my complicated relationship with the internet, by tum

For those of you that crave an authentic, honest confession of what it is to grow up on the internet, of questioning whether existence and performance are inherently bonded for those of us of the few two decades, tum’s essay is absolutely brilliant.

She offers an excellent run-down of her own experiences growing up on the internet and now making money from social media, and what that might mean for self-worth and self-perception.

Reading it now again, I feel particularly marked by her final sentences:

We need to stop apologising for existing, especially on the internet. Shout about the art you are proud of creating and share the photos and videos and words you want to share because you want to share them. Resist the urge to discredit and downplay yourself, prefacing statements with the words “silly” and “little” because if it means a lot to you then it is not silly, and I am sure it is far from little. It is serious and big!

And perhaps that is what I wish to remember from all that I have read on this wonderful app this year. That there is no shame in our interests - whether it be through writing and publishing our own content, or commenting and liking someone else’s content.

We see people in internet being picked apart so often that we consider a part of the experience. We consider that being in the internet gives others the right to have their say. That because we are revealing ourselves they can expose us, dissect us, discredit us. Sometimes, as tum mentions, we rush to expose, dissect and discredit our own personalities and interests first. How far have we come from what the internet truly meant to be.

Let us cater this space meant for community, for support, for guidance. Let us be authentically ourselves, whether that is through an article, a photo dump or a TikTok note. Let us wrap up 2026 on the internet in grace.

All my love,

Anastasia

PS. As we do have a few more weeks until we officially turn a new page, name me your favourite article(s) in the comments.

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A decade later, I wrote poetry every day. Most of it inspired by Maya Angelou. I got inspired by a French author to write another short story, which was part of the reason I was admitted into a half literature and half creative writing degree a year later. “A terrible story,” I might think if I were to find the pdf file I submitted.

Now, I write here. Most of it not terrible, but not all of it gets published. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve been selective when it comes to what I’ve shared on this corner of the internet, and you might agree if you were to dig deep. But perhaps it’s a good thing most of my early writing on paper was never shared, and most of my early writing online was not successful.

Had I been immediately met with an audience, I’m not sure I would’ve found the love and energy for writing I have in the last two years. I’m not even sure most writers I admire would have the talent they have if they had been meticulously scrutinised early on either.

When I consider that half the world’s writing should remain unpublished, I do not mean that half the world’s writing is unqualified. What I do mean is that quality writing improves with time, not an audience.

Some of the best writers of each generation perfected their craft in silence. Many never published themselves.

Emily Dickinson’s poems were published by her sister Lavinia, Sylvia Plath’s Ariel was published by her husband Ted Hughes, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial was published by his best friend Max Brod, despite him having been instructed to burn them after his death.

How can we be entirely sure that they would have not destroyed their own work while alive, had their work been shared amongst others? How can we be certain that the world’s best writing hasn’t been tarnished, torn or burnt from being in the wrong environment?

As a writer, allowing yourself a space to grow and nurture your voice will be the most important task you will ever have to accomplish. I might argue that it is more important than the writing itself.

The modern chase to immediate recognition can be crushing for some. It can mean the difference between relying on your opinion and relying on the opinion of others. On being satisfied before you publish and on being satisfied once you see the reaction to the publish.

The best writing I’ve read on this platform is not what has gathered the most attention. It is what gathered my attention. Just as the best writing that you’ve read is what gathered your attention. I might consider my best work to lie in one of my articles you dislike the most, or never bothered looking at, and that’s okay.

It is okay because I decide to publish when I enjoy what I have written. When I know that regardless of its reception - negative or positive - I will remain proud of my work. I have been writing for more than a decade, but I have only shared my writing the last two years. I believe that that is the case for many writers on this platform.

Many writers publish after years of writing. And while I am often curious of their earlier work, I recognise that the craft is sacred, and cannot be exposed before it is protected, nurtured.

Love,

Anastasia

If you liked this article, please consider subscribing for more honest and personal rants and stories. paid subscribers help support the time and love I pour into every sentence I write 💌

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Life with eight entire hours of personal time is a life that seems entirely too easy. But life is hard. Out of eight of those hours, how many do we allocate to cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, vacuuming, doing dishes, getting groceries, booking medical appointments, and/or commuting to work? And that’s not all.

Simply put, no one has eight hours a day to do whatever they wish.

That is not to say we have no time and should simply resolve ourselves to do nothing. But it is to say that universal and online methods very rarely cater to all of us. Others may know how to cater to their lives, but no one should know how to cater to YOUR life more than yourself.

Taking myself as an example, I myself feel most energised and motivated in the mornings. My brother is the opposite. In the evenings as we both come back from work, he goes off to meet with friends, to go to the gym, to go out for a run, and I… well I stay home. And I might feel bad for it, if I didn’t remember that 1) I rarely have much energy and motivation in the evenings, and 2) I wake up much earlier than him to read, write and spend some time on my own.

Our peaks are different, and so are our activities. Neither is better or worse, both are simply different. Yet, if we were to take advice from the internet, then he should be waking up earlier to do more things, and I should stay out later to do more things. I should do more social activities, and he should do more solo activities.

The internet wouldn’t care that I consider my weekend walks enough exercise for the week, or that he considers texting in group chats enough writing for the week. The internet wouldn’t consider that I call friends from abroad instead of meeting friends in person, or that he watches documentaries instead of reading. We should be doing it all, every moment of the day right!

“Comparison is the thief of joy” has never rung more true now that we have access to so many different people, each from their different corner of the world, with their different lifestyles, habits and privileges. Falling into every category of success, productivity and discipline promoted on the internet is impossible, especially when trends are so quick to contradict each other from one month to the next.

And our lives are hard enough without having to compare them to the lives of others. So before recognising what we lack, we must recognise what we have.

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If any of you were part of my brain (be glad you aren’t), you’d also know that this internship took over a year’s worth of keeping an eye out and planning to secure. And while that comes with an abundance of bliss and gratitude, I do have to admit that I had not expected to be so consumed by the 9 to 5 routine.

Sure, I’ve ran in circles where women have complained about becoming entirely consumed by their low-comitment boyfriends – moments in time where their social lives, athletic hobbies and extracuriculars are put on the back burner. Yet, less has been said about the toll a 9 to 5 has on… well… sort of everything?

In this past week, my book has sat in my bag unread, my Tiktok is gathering dust in a tab untouched, and my swimming hall bracelet is laying on my bedside table unused. In truth, my screen time has never been better!

And while I do adore the weekend and the opportunities it grants me – both to do absolutely nothing and absolutely everything – I would appreciate being just as intentional with my week days. Ideally, I’d want my week-day schedule to be filled with things outside the 9 to 5 timeframe.

I am not the first to have hit this passage of life, and will not be the last, but I am hoping that by marking down my own resolutions I will inspire others to prioritise something they love and miss on a regular Tuesday. Plus, it keeps me accountable if I know other people are checking in on my habits. If you work in a similar way, feel free to DM me so we keep each other accountable!

Now, before we begin, I will preface by admitting that I am very much a morning person. I know, an absolute horror. But I hate having to rush in the morning, and would rather miss out on half an hour of sleep if it means that I can have a quiet moment with a cup of tea.

So, as someone who never finishes a diary and hates the concept of morning pages, I will instead be focusing this extra time on morning reading pages. That means that each morning, in prioritising my interests, I will be reading at least three pages before I head out the door.

In being able to do that I need to nail my evening shift. I already ensure that I am showered and early in bed on the regular, but I’m hoping to make the extra step and preparing my clothes for the next day, picking things up in my bedroom and lining up my morning tasks so that I feel extremely at ease when my alarm rings.

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Yet, with all my dislike for the genre, I will admit that when it comes to villains, female characters often appear in more complex ways than any other kind of leading lady.

From comedy to romance, women on screen that are led to extremes, are usually led to extreme hysteria, extreme jealousy or extreme insecurity. Viewers are shown that women’s extremes stem from weaknesses, not strengths. Shown that women resolve to extremes when they lose power, and not when they are in power.

Women that are extreme are somewhat either pathetic or hysteric, mostly both. Our catalogue of series and movies rarely give us women acting on their wrath in what feels like an empowering, somewhat justified way. Instead, women have to bear the dreaded “oh here we go again…” as they watch their cinematic equals reduced to the male gaze of female insanity. Often a reaction to a male partner, these bursts of anger and violence appear demeaning.

And for all the wonderful changes the last decades have brought, I believe that the recent portrayals of villains and monsters, to its credit, have offered us complex female characters in power. Wonderful villains that hit the mark.

So, here are three of my favourite monsters in media in hopes that you might share yours in the comments!

1. Love Quinn, You

Love Quinn is perhaps the most interestingly complex female killer I’ve seen on screen. So much so, that I stopped watching after she was killed (sorry Joe). While some might argue that there are many moments where she falls into the category of extreme jealousy or extreme insecurity, she admits in her own words that all her actions are out of self-preservation when she tells Joe: “If I’m not enough for you, you’ll kill me.”

It is my belief that female characters that are mothers portray wrath best, because nothing is more threatening that a protective mother, something we see clearly episode three of the third season of You.

When Love is informed by her neighbour Gill that her son Henry spent days in the hospital sick with measles due to his daughters being unvaccinated and contaminated, she proceeds to hit him over the head with a bat. Hell has no fury like a mother scorned.

2. Mary, Sinners

I could perhaps write an entire thesis on Mary’s character in Sinners, particularly on how the complexity of her character lies in the confines of the one-drop rule at the time – the Jim Crow law that rendered anyone with a black great-grandparent to be deemed mixed race, and not white.

In her case, Mary was raised by her mixed mother, both in a black neighbourhood with the other black characters, and in the same house as Smoke and Stack (her old lover). Despite this, Mary passes as white in her adulthood and marries a white man, causing her to be forced to abandon her heritage and family to avoid being caught.

While some assume that Mary, when becoming a vampire, turns Stack so that they may be together romantically, her motives are in fact turn every single member of the jukebox so that she may be reconnected with her family once more.

While her life as a human limited her to white spaces, her existence as a vampire allows her to inhabit all spaces, including those from her heritage. Her villainy does not simply stem from an action of love for Stack, but rather from an action of love for her entire family, her entire heritage.

3. Rosalie, Twilight

While the movies barely give justice to the lives of the Cullens before being turned, Rosalie’s tragic death is depicted through her conversation with Bella in the third movie of the Twilight franchise. In a scene, she tells Bella that she was turned by Carlisle after being viciously attacked by her fiancé and his six friends on a night out.

Despite her justified anger and being a newly turned vampire, Rosalie is able to kill the seven men who attacked her as a human without spilling any of their blood so that she won’t have any part of them inside of her. She is able to remain both in power and in control through every act of revenge.

More importantly, her moments of being a villain are unique to herself. Known for her love of dressing up and engaging in theatrics, she chooses to show these traits off by killing her ex-fiancé Royce in a wedding gown. Never entirely redeemed, Rosalie is a perfect show of complexities that viewers can both criticise and justify, both hate and love.

Complex female characters are essential, especially when it comes to villains and monsters. It would be entirely too simple to feed into the Madonna-whore complex. To believe that women are either saints or sinners. Either good or bad. Our media must portray good characters with a flair of evil, and evil characters with a flair of good. Must portray moments of anger, of wrath, of extremes that would otherwise be shunned and shamed. Must make place for complexities and nuances. For debates and disagreements.

We as viewers must have our moments of “I support women’s rights and wrongs”. So what are yours?

Leave a comment

Love,

Anastasia

Many of us began on Substack out of a love for writing, a desire for sharing, and a hope of exchanging. Yet, time and time again, we’ve come to terms that Substack remains a social media app with one universal truth: creators don’t run the show, an algorithm does.

How could you not feel uninspired? Unmotivated when the same five topics of essays get to shine in the light that month? Urged or pressured to follow those same trends, at the expense of our own voice? How could you not feel that you mustbe tuned in, so as to not to be shut out? While Substack can make you feel a part of an amazing community of artists, it can also make you feel like you’re talking over said trends, and that they are talking over you. If you’ve ever felt that way, then you’re not alone.

As much as I love Substack, I want to warn anyone here that reading the same kinds of essays will not make you a better writer. That it will not give you a sense of fulfilment or success. This is especially true if you’re still finding your voice.

There is much to be gained from all the amazing essays and artists on here, rest assured, but to avoid feeling uninspired or drowned, you must recognise the difference between what to consume as a reader and what to consume as a writer (as those are not the same things).

There are many, much better tools available to you in order to feel fulfilled and successful in your Substack journey. Tools that took me some time to discover, but that I want to share in order to offer you alternatives to improve your experience as a writer here. I’m more than confident that everyone is equipped with the intuition necessary to write in their own voices, but it sometimes can be overridden by what they feel they must write.

That’s why I’ve created my own guide of what inspires me to be most in tune with mycreative voice, and not that of others. I made it especially for anyone feeling overwhelmed and drowned out by the numerous Substack personal essays and think pieces – those that inspire you when writing but don’t quite hit the mark once you publish.

This creative input is all about settling into your writer’s voice comfortably, boldly, so that you feel good about what you put out there in your own newsletter. I’ve packed it with as many useful resources as possible so that you don’t feel like you need to apply everything. Filter out what you find most useful, there’s something for everyone. The whole point is to give you the tools to help you recognise the difference between what to digest as a reader and what to digest as a writer through sources that will make you feel comforted, not tuned out.

Be prepared for:

• Videos on channelling and practicing creativity

• Book recommendations from insightful writers

• Personal advice from yours truly

• A zine with the most important notes from each

But first, let’s identify why your voice feels dulled in the midst of your writing. Clearly, you’re still reading because you’ve yourself noticed that you have too much inspiration, and not enough clarity. You feel like you’re being spun in different directions because you confuse what you feel inspired by and what you should replicate/ imitate.

Remember when you were younger and would go to the movies? You’d see whatever action-packed Hollywood extravaganza popular that month and would leave the movie feeling like the main character. You became a ballerina, a spy, a mercenary, or even a superhero. While it’s tempting to consider writing in a similar fashion, this will only hinder your creative voice. Enjoying an article – how it is written, how it is structured, how it is visually presented… – does not mean that you must replicate it. You may feel inspired by it, but that’s it. Curiosity does not equal imitation. So why do you think that way?

Simply put: the fear of failure. Many people feel that if they copy someone else’s work and it fails, then they can reject that failure – connect it to the failure of the formula, of the original thought – whereas if they create using themselves as a source, then they cannot disconnect from that failure.

But failure does not exist when it comes to creativity. You must detach creation (your own) from reception (others) if you ever wish to value yourself as an artist. Your role is to unleash, not to respond. Detach those. DETACH DETACH DETACH.

And the same way another’s failure cannot be yours, another’s success cannot be yours. You may think that another’s success could lead to your own, because they possess some magical insights, but no. True writers do not write from a formula, they write from themselves. Art comes from you, not at you. That should always be the intention of a writer. To be unapologetically writing from yourself.

Let me give you some concrete examples.

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As an adult entering the academic world, I felt most nervous of my own heritage being a deterrence to my progress. Not only was I speaking and writing in a language unlike my own, I was also studying texts written in a language neither connected to my mother or father.

It is around that time I discovered the “literary canon”, an exclusive benchmark for the high-culture works of art cherished most by the mostly-western, mostly-male, mostly-white world. I discovered that the hundreds of books recognised as being a part of this exclusive club are referred to as “classics”. Mostly complex, incomprehensible amalgamations of words and sentiments tied up by an author of the right stock.

It’s no wonder that many readers can find classics inaccessible. So, as someone who loves literature and has been looking for a way to share this love with the rest of you, this essay will consist of what I consider easy and accessible classics everyone should read. A fair warning, not all of these are established classics, as most of them are contemporary still. But in paying attentions to the words of many of my professors and critics who have agreed that one day they will be - I’m certain that this insider scoop will be of use to you.

This list consists of an all-women, mostly-of-colour list of authors and their works that I’ve been meditating with over the past few weeks, waiting to share with you all. I truly hope you will find a new favourite amongst these upcoming classics.

Bonjour Tristesse. Françoise Sagan, 1954. a bittersweet tale narrated by self-absorbed seventeen-year-old Cecile on the brink of adulthood, whose meddling in her father's love life leads to tragic consequences.

A Strange melancholy pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and beautiful name of sorrow. The idea of sorrow has always appealed to me but now I am almost ashamed of its complete egoism. I have known boredom, regret, and occasionally remorse, but never sorrow. Today it envelops me like a silken web, enervating and soft, and sets me apart from everybody else.

I first read Bonjour Tristesse as a teenager, when it was assigned to me in my French high school. It makes the list as it is perhaps the most impactful novel I read as a teenager. It made me first consider the influence literature can have on its readers after I spent an hour staring at a blank wall once I read the last chapter. As one of the only two more recognised classics in this list, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a short novel about complex relationships.

Girl, Woman, Other. Bernadine Evaristo, 2019. a dynamic contemporary novel following the lives and struggles of twelve mostly women, black and British characters, exposing the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

she was determined to dress Megan up for the approval of society at large, usually other females who commented on her looks from as early as she can remember
it was the defining aspect of Megan’s early childhood, she didn’t actually have to do or say anything except be cute – an end in itself

I first read Girl, Woman, Other during my bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature and Creative Writing. It makes the list as a soon-to-be classic as it breaks barriers of what a novel is meant to be, both in the form and the subjects. I would recommend it to anyone who takes the bell hooks approach to grammar.

Passing. Nella Larsen, 1929. a complex novel which explores the connection between racial loyalty and identity through the reunion of two childhood friends - Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield- both racially passing as white in 1920s New York.

And yet she hadn't the air of a woman whose life had been touched by uncertainty or suffering. Pain, fear, and grief were things that left their mark on people. Even love, that exquisite torturing emotion, left its subtle traces on the countenance. (and) She isn't stupid. She's intelligent enough in a purely feminine way. Eighteenth-century France would have been a marvellous setting for her, or the old South if she hadn't made the mistake of being born a Negro.

I first read Passing in my first master’s degree in English and American studies, and then again in my second master’s degree. Perhaps the only text from a danish writer I have ever read for academic purposes, it makes the list for being a relatively comprehensible exploration to an incredibly complex aspect of American history, rarity for most writers from the Harlem Renaissance. I would recommend it to anyone interested in femme fatales and seductress-like characters.

Persepolis. Marjane Satrapi, 2004. an emotional graphic memoir of a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

The Key to Paradise was for poor people. Thousands of young kids, promised a better life, exploded on the minefields with their keys around their necks. (and) In every religion, you find the same extremists.

I read Persepolis last year, in my auto-graphic novel course for my second master’s degree. It makes the list as one of the few auto-graphic biographies to reach the status of more conventional forms of literary texts. Not to mention the successful combination of wit and horror the author bounces to and back from. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys graphic books and/or history.

Citizen: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine, 2014. a provocative meditation on race through a series of lyrical poetry, focusing on the racial aggressions in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media.

because white men can't
police their imagination
black men are dying

Citizen: An American Lyric joins the numerous texts I’ve read more than once throughout my academic studies. Similar to Persepolis, it is cherished by professors and critics for its exploration of complex issues through an unconventional form. I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading a passage at a time.

Men We Reaped. Jesmyn Ward, 2013. a heartbreaking memoir dedicated to the five men Ward lost throughout her life, exploring the relationship of racism, economic struggle and death through drug addiction, family breakage and relationship deterioration.

I knew the boys in my first novel, which I was writing at that time, weren't as raw as they could be, weren't *real.* I knew they were failing as characters because I wasn't pushing them to assume the reality that my real-life boys, Demond among them, experienced every day. I loved them too much: as an author, I was a benevolent God. I protected them from death, from drug addiction, from needlessly harsh sentences in jail for doing stupid, juvenile things like stealing four-wheel ATVs. All of the young Black men in my life, in my community, had been prey to these things in real life, and yet in the lives I imagined for them, I avoided the truth. I couldn't figure out how to love my characters less.

I read Men We Reaped for academic purposes, and re-read it for personal purposes. The entire novel superposes Ward’s own childhood memories and that of others through death. It makes the list as one of the most raw literary works I’ve ever read. I would recommend it for anyone interested in non-fiction, but also class/race relations.

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The White Book. Han Kang, 2016. a captivating, multilayered exploration of the colour white through a narrator grappling with her family’s tragedy. a discussion around the strength and fragility of the human spirit, and of the attempts to create new from memory and fantasy.

There are certain memories that remain inviolate to the ravages of time. And to those of suffering. It is not true that everything is colored by time and suffering. It is not true that they bring everything to ruin.

I read The White Book as I lived in South Korea for a summer university programme in 2018. While at the time only one of her books was recognised internationally, she has now just recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature, making her undeniably part of the grand literary canon. It makes the list as I find her ability to make an entire book for a single colour remarkable. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the mixture between poetry and prose.

If there’s anything I’ve missed, let everyone know in the comments!

Love,

Anastasia

Adjusting to a post-grad life is much more than finding and excelling in a new workplace. It’s learning to adjust to a new concept of time, to a new work-life balance, to a new circle of friends, sometimes to a new city. It’s a lot. Your expectations will have to be reworked sometimes more than once, and that’s OK.

As someone who is currently going through this whole process, there are a few things that have helped me a lot. Things that I’m more than happy to share in hopes that it could help people about to enter this phase, or right in the middle of it.

Category 1: Emotional

1. Identify your intentions

The post-grad period is a process, and for you to feel fulfilled at “the end” of it, you must identify what your intentions are. NOT goals. INTENTIONS. Now you might be wondering, what’s the difference? Well, a goal can be marked off from a check-list. It is a task, an action to be achieved. An intention is a feeling. In order to reach the end of the process, you need to achieve a feeling. A feeling of calm for example. It can look different for everyone. I myself still wish to feel creatively challenged in my day-to-day life. I also wish to feel relaxed at the end of it. To me, feeling relaxed looks like having a routine I enjoy. Think of what the feeling looks like for you and prioritise it.

2. Take baby steps

As much as job applications are a dim reality for most of us, applying for dozens of jobs everyday will suck the life out of you, and getting rejected a dozen of times each week will be the final kill. It’s important to let yourself breathe by going at your own pace. If you’re going to keep count, don’t count the rejections, count the times you felt truly interested by something you were applying for. Celebrate small wins, such as getting an interview. Make sure to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Things can take time (especially in this economy). Be patient with yourself.

3. Listen to your gut

If something doesn’t feel right for you, listen to that. No need to move to a different country for an opportunity you think you might quickly start hating. No need to stay in the same terrible but secure part-time job if you feel another opportunity calling for you. The wonderful thing about the post-grad period is that you can take advantage of “out there” experiences before you settle into a more standard career path. See what your gut is telling you.

Category 2: Social

1. Find a routine

When life is no longer dictated by an academic calendar, time works differently. One of the most important lessons is to not associate having no classes with being on holiday, because that’s no longer the case. Find an ideal time to wake up. It doesn’t have to be early, but it has to ensure that you’re not skipping meals. Consider what routines you used to have and which ones might fit for this new chapter of your life.

2. Reach out

One of the saddest realities with graduating is that a lot of people will be moving back home or to a new city. This will leave you with less opportunities to socialise every day, especially since making friends post-grad can be hard. There is no other way to counter this than by reaching out. Try and call one of two friends every week for example. Establish facetime schedules. Take advantage of the friends of your own friends to maintain connections in your city. Meeting someone you already have something in common with ease the process, as they’ve technically been vetted already.

3. Centre yourself in your community

Try finding volunteer opportunities, book clubs and free events happening in your city. Make use of your environment and your community. Dive back into your hobbies, go visit family and spend some time at home. Friends moving away doesn’t automatically mean that you’re losing your community, it simply means you have to adapt to finding a new centre.

Category 3: Professional

1. Don’t disconnect yourself from university entirely

Just because you’ve graduated does not mean your university is a stranger. You can still take advantage of benefits your university offers. I myself found my internship by going through the Erasmus internship website (link). Even if I applied while no longer being attached to my university, I was able to find out what companies are looking for fresh faces and young candidates. There are plenty of resources at your disposal even when you graduate. Find them.

2. Open new horizons

Similar to your community, don’t limit yourself to what you know. If possible, open yourself up to a new environment. Consider travel opportunities, network with strangers… reach as far as possible. Take advantage of all the odd experiences out there. With very few people immediately getting their dream job after graduating, you’ll have opportunities to work at a part-time job or an internship that isn’t necessarily perfect, but that will help you understand what you want to pursue (or not pursue) in the future.

3. Don’t centre life around work

Don’t centre your life around work the way you centred your life around university. University made sense. It was your social environment, your academic environment, your geographical environment… it was a lot. Post-grad might be the opportunity to not overwhelm yourself by seeking different answers in the same place.

Overall, I would say that you must remain kind to yourself. This is your first time doing life. Don’t let the gloom of being useful to capitalism get to you. Treat yourself once in a while. Take care of yourself always. And know that you’re not alone in anything you’re feeling. We’re in this together.

Love,

Anastasia

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As someone who has attended five different universities and has four university degrees, I’d like to think that I possess some knowledge over the topic. Admittedly, my first few years consisted of focusing entirely on academics without seeking to make the best of everything university had to offer – a mistake I see people make (intentionally or unintentionally) so often. Therefore, this piece isn’t meant to help you get As or 100s (or whatever the best mark is where you study), but more so to feel like you’ve gotten all that university might have to offer before you graduate.

The truth is, like most things, university is what you make of it. So hopefully my ultimate guide will help you make the most of it!

1. Attend as many events as possible

Now I’m not talking about the events organised by the whole university. I’m talking about events hosted by smaller comities: professors and student associations for example. These events are often excellent ways for you to benefit from different cultural/social experiences without paying.

For example: last year a professor of mine in American studies started screening movies in our lecture hall on Thursday nights. I attended almost every event with a friend or two, and since I lived on campus, I was in charge of making popcorn at mine beforehand. We got free movie nights every other week for FREE. We got to see movies we’d never heard of before. And we got to get in the good books of our professor.

You don’t even need to attend events directly related to your field. Attend anything that might seem interested with friends. Find out if professors from your university are planning events off campus. Look out for emails. As a student in English Studies, I had the pleasure of attending events at the Literature House of my city for free and going to the British Embassy for other events. These often offer catering, so you get a free lunch/dinner from it.

I have attended more than a dozen events this way and regret not attending more. It’s an excellent way of making friends (fun) and networking (not so fun).

2. Organise 1 on 1 meetings (monthly if possible)

This tip is mostly catered to the last two semesters of your studies, if you’re still unsure of what to do after you graduate. In that case, you’ll have no better advice than from those who are in your field. I would attempt having at least one meeting a month with someone of a different profile each time.

Professors are more than happy to help, but ideally people closer to your age. I myself emailed numerous PhD candidates out of interest for what doing a PhD would look like. Candidates who had started a year or two ago. They were always eager to help; some even sent me their entire applications because I asked to see what they looked like. ALWAYS be on the nose, and not the tip of the tongue. There’s no shame with being very clear where you’re unsure, where you’d like to know more.

If you’re lucky enough to have a social professor, chances are they might still be in contact with previous students. Ask to get in touch. Go through LinkedIn (I know…) to see if any alumni is in a field you’re interested in. Ask administrators if they know of any. Get in touch and ask questions. Ask questions again.

Never assume that you should always aim up when it comes to networking. Sometimes the most helpful contacts you’ll have are people at the same stage, or just on stage above from you.

3. Make use of student discounts

Now I assume you’re not rolling in gold while prioritising your studies. None of us really are. Yet, things won’t immediately go up the second you step on that stage and get your diploma. So if you’re ever going to have the chance to get to a special event or get a nicer pair of pants (which you’ll need for interviews and the workforce), do look at the expiry date of your student card.

I myself found out that the airline I use most has a significant discount for those under 26, a discount that allowed me to go to other cities in Norway and other countries in Europe numerous times for very low prices. I just recently got Levis Jeans for 20% that I knew I’d use daily. Find out what discounts are most beneficial and make use of them before they’re gone.

Discounts for different streaming services. For different museums and cinemas. Fashion. Devices. Transport. Food and drinks. There’s specific lists online for different countries. Find yours and go through it.

4. Use the library like it’s your own

Now as much as I would love to berate the institution that is University, I have to hand it to their libraries, especially the librarians. Whether you consider yourself a big reader or not, the library is going to be one of the best resources at your disposal, if you use it right.

Having trouble finding sources for an essay you’re writing? Email them with a brief explanation of your topic and ask them to send you anything that could be of interest. In some universities, you can go so far as to have a meeting with a librarian to get more thorough help. I myself did so when I started my master’s thesis and spent an hour getting dozens of different sources that I used for my research.

Want a book you can’t buy? See if the library has an option for them to buy books you request if not already available at the library. They most likely do. They might not approve for your request to buy anything, but Suzanne Collins, Sally Rooney, Rachel Cusk would definitely make their way to you.

I would also recommend seeing what digital resources they have, as they might have access to online books and magazines. Not to mention board games, events and catering too. The library is there for you – use it.

5. Be disloyal

If you’re lucky enough to live in a bigger city with more than one university, the chances are that there are many things the other university around you offer that you could still benefit from. While your studies are to be strictly connected to your university, the rest doesn’t have to be. You social life, your activities, your associations, your study locations… anything else really.

The world is what you make it, but also where you make it. Explore as much as possible. Go above the limits of your campus.

6. Know your emotional limits

Now in case this list or your overall experience on campus has been overwhelming, one of my biggest tips is always to know your emotional limits. As someone who likes to push herself as much as possible, my biggest regret during my university years was pushing myself to a point of a breakdown. There is nothing wrong with taking some time off, whether it be a class, a day, or longer. Make sure you prioritise your sleep and overall health.

Your grades will impact your university experience and that’s it. No one will care what grade you got in your introductory class once you enter the post-grad and/or workforce. Your health will impact your entire life. Know your priorities.

Hopefully this helped anyone still at uni, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!

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Love,

Anastasia

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Now there’s nothing wrong with gathering from others. Anyone engaged in a creative practice, whether it be as a writer, a content creator, or something entirely different, will not always be in a flow state. I myself have been guilty of staring at my own computer screen without anything to write about. This becomes even more troublesome when I’ve set myself a schedule and have come up with no prompt.

That is why curating and collecting potential prompts from outside influences can be just as crucial as the creative practice itself. Whether you find yourself inspired from a conversation with friends, a recent documentary, an energy from a vlog online, or a scandal on screen, prompts can inspire you to generate your own thoughts and words on a particular topic.

Interaction and play are essential to every single person. Simply put, one must be a part of the world around them to understand it. More importantly, one must see and study the world around them to be a voice for it. Whether we speak or write with an exaggerated or an artificial tone, we possess some truth to our stories.

This can be applicable to anything once you observe with a critical lens. You find yourself thinking that the romantasy genre provides an excellent mirroring of class struggles. Most likely intentional from the author who wished to bring reality to fantasy.

Inspiration is a natural part of creativity. Exploitation is not.

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Those that value collecting from others over practicing from themselves have rendered themselves voiceless. In copying and pastinging the content of others, they have no say. Their ability to recycle another’s material reveals nothing else but their unwillingness to create their own.

And why is that? Why are some people so drawn to reformatting other people’s words and claiming them as their own? Is success truly so singular? Do they assume that by picking and nibbling at a successful post and regurgitating its sentences will bring them a similar, positive response?

I would like to think not. I would like to think that I, as a consumer of art and writing, value and reward authenticity and personality above all else, and that many others do the same. We may have once valued the art that obeyed the rules, but we now value the art that creates rules for itself.

Our internet canon is not one that obeys critics. They are not the audience. Neither is a certain high-brow society. I do not write what I write to get the approval of said critics and society. The only stamp of approval that has a say before I hit publish is my own. And I matter. My words matter. Just as those who regurgitate matter. Their own words matter. Not that of others they have collected and curated. But their own.

Every single person is a part of the world in their own way. See the world in their own way. Voice the world in their own way. And that matters. Every voice matters. To think differently, to think that you are so special as to not matter, is indicative of a corrupt mind. Of a simplified mind.

So take. Take as much from the world as you can. Take its love, its kindness, its novelty, its thrill. But make it your own. Make it your own love story, your own friendship, your own connections, your own adventures. So that one day, when looking back, you’ll recognise what you see.

Love,

Anastasia

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I believe in God but hate the concept of fate. My life does not revolve around divine intervention. And it certainty does not revolve around chance. I willed it. I did not scream into the void in hopes that some greater power would hear my prayer – I screamed so that the echo might come back to fill my chest and will me into action.

A dream year will not fall into my lap (or yours). While I understand that the world around us has shoved unforeseeable and grand events down our throat ever since we got our own phones as middle schoolers, we should fight against the narrative that the world isn’t ours for the taking. That there is little in our realm of possibility. Without that fight, life will breeze past us.

If I am to metaphorically construct each of us as boats (I can this is my article), then without wind our lives would be a stagnant lapse of time. Yet even the strongest winds can’t will us into action if we haven’t lifted our anchors or drawn our sails in the right direction.

So how can we manifest our dream year and accomplish it?

First, I want to make it known that I have no intention to dream about running three marathons and finding a nine-to-five. No dream year of mine includes hard labour. My four university degrees have provided enough sleepless nights and self-administered worker’s right violations to last me a lifetime.

Even more so with transitioning from my university life in the capital city to my post-grad life in a smaller town: I do not dream of making life harder for myself, on the contrary. Taking us to our first point: meeting myself where I am.

If I had run a marathon last year, I’d see no issue with continuing to build on the momentum by running three this year. But with two occasional treadmill appearances in the month of March, I doubt that I would be able to complete three, let alone one. In fact, I have only recently found out that I have almost no chances of being drafted due to my inability to complete three kilometres in seventeen minutes. Mental health: 1. Patriotism: 0.

My point being that if you intend to accomplish your dream year, you need to learn to focus on the term “dream” as a synonym for “goal” and not “fictional tale”. You will never accomplish your bucket list, gain your dream life or tick off your to-do list by copying someone else’s. Your dream year is not anyone else’s but yours. What applies to one does not apply to all. Start with whatever a long run looks for you.

For example: with one of my goals being that of improving my overall fitness and health, I have no intention of going swimming at the beach twice a month. I live in Denmark. I’d be more drenched making my way to the water than in it. What I can do though is make use of my parent’s much bigger kitchen now that I live with them and learn to make one or two recipes I’ve had saved on my phone since 2019. Or I can make use of how flat the country is and bike as much as possible. Both goals that allow me to meet myself exactly where I am.

When talking about health and goals, you often run the risk of trapping yourself in measurements and scales and a whole bunch of other BS. To avoid this, the second point would be to: avoid numbers at all costs. This can be applied to absolutely everything.

Your goal is to gain ten thousand subscribers on Substack? Wrong. Your goal is to solidify your community. To produce content you believe others will enjoy reading just as much as you enjoyed writing it. To reach out to your audience more. Ask questions, welcome insights.

Numbers will never amount to feelings – i.e. – you will never feel fulfilled with any number if you are not confident in the process that took you there. Especially when that process is far from being sustainable. Think of it in terms of marathons if you must.

Similar to meeting yourself where you are, you need to build with what you have. To shape what you already have into what you want. Not to add or remove. With just these small adjustments, a dream year does not seem so far out of reach. With the right direction, I dare say it could even look like smooth sailing.

A dream year for me looks like a year of intentional investments in myself. Of spending a year building on my intelligence, my curiosity, my spontaneity, my resolve. Not of seeking to improve myself in a material, concrete way – but rather of working to improve myself in an intangible way.

Pushing past your own fears and sensors can hardly be summarised in a physical way. It is an intention, a sensation. A gentle nudge you feel from yourself - not others. There is no power that is higher than you. No one knows you better than yourself. In knowing this, you must allow yourself to surrender to yourself. Listen to no other winds.

Love,

Anastasia

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Many of us look forward to our holidays, our days off, our travels. Many of us welcome an absence of structure. But as important as it is to occasionally loose track, to occasionally allow ourselves to dwell and breathe and calm as life passes by, we cannot let an entire season slip away with only pretty picture to show for it.

For me, I treat the summer in a similar fashion to how hibernating animals treat winter: a pause to prepare myself for the eventual rejuvenation that will come with the start of the next season, autumn.

Ever so the academic girl, my start of the year has always been overshadowed by the start of September. With this, summer is the time I’ve had to come up with my list of good habits and strong routines. I am not encouraging others to over-analyse their own habits and routines in the next two months - what I am suggesting is that sometimes, when life is already going so quick, productivity doesn’t take shape in what you are doing, but rather what you are figuring out.

Productivity is not a shiny diploma, or a golden star. It is not the result. Productivity is the process. It is long to-do lists, and culminations of unseen labour. One of my biggest qualms with our society is that we reward and recognise the process only once the result has been achieved. A qualm that has found its way into my writing often.

Nevertheless, I maintain that the intention is just as important as the achievement when it comes to productivity.

As I sit in my Airbnb in Vienna writing this, I am reminded that I have just bought Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard a few days back in Italy. I have no intention of reading the novel anytime soon, as I want to be fully present while travelling. I may not have any upcoming additions to my StoryGraph app, but I will soon enough. As I stare at my suitcase filled with new postcards, I am reminded of my plan to decorate my new room in Denmark when I move there this August, using each of them.

I ensure that my doomscrolling in the early afternoon, when it is too hot to go outside, is more intentional. That I save recipes I want to try once I’m back in my own kitchen. Even for now, I seek products to buy and places to try for my current or next destination.

The way I see it: to prepare, to plan, is half the execution.

So while my instagram may suggest a productivity focused on apérol spritz and pretty buildings in fascinating European cities, my authentic and actual productivity remains yet to be seen.

So let me take the time to make it more visible by listing what productivity during the summer looks to me (especially while travelling):

• buy a novel by an author who wrote in the country you’re visiting, or the country you’re living in (bonus points of it’s a classic). add it to your TBR.

• create a folder on the app you’re scrolling from. add anything that you wish to implement in your own life. recipes, hobbies, places. making your scrolling intentional again.

• connect with your friends. (is watching the new season of love island bad? not if you create a group chat with friends for you to send lists ranking each contestants at the end of an episode.) no need to pressure yourself with new connections if you already have good ones.

• focus on your GoogleMaps. make a list of where you’re currently living/ staying at. add your personal favourites and everything that’s been recommended to you by people you know or strangers online. or write everything down in your diary. either way, take some time to truly write it down so that you always have somewhere to go when you’re unsure of what to plan.

• think of your favourite activities. recognise your pattern and stick to it. I love food and culture - I’ll be spending the next month in restaurants and museums (especially those with free entrance). and I’ll be just as happy trying out new things.

• take picture of everything that inspires you so that you can implement it in your home: a nice flower? find it in a postcard. a nice colour? get a pillow case that matches.

• think of a project you’d like to start. or a hobby you’ve been meaning to pick up. don’t rush. you want to try painting? go to the store and see what supplies they have. think of the kind of painting you’d be into. watch a video on it from a small creator. let it brew in your mind until your ready.

Because thinking about it will allow you to know how the achieve it once you’re ready. Once you’re willing.

So, what has your summer been looking like so far?

Love,

Anastasia

Rather than guilting myself by making a list of things I haven’t done in a while, such as deep cleaning my bathroom, I will be focusing on non-necessities. If it doesn’t spark joy, it’s not important. (PS: I clean my apartment every three days I promise)

1. Rummage through my things. Now that we’ve done away with the necessary cleaning talk above, I would like to go through my room to stumble on old diaries I haven’t written in since forever, or colouring pens I haven’t used since I bought them. I want my intention not to be on cleaning, but rather I want my energy to mimic the early 2000 movies montages of characters rummaging through their closet and trying everything on.

2. Close my computer tabs. It seems like I’m always so focused on my phone - my screen time, my app layout, my camera roll count… and yet I neglect the anxiety that comes with having four different windows open with twelve tabs each. There is nothing more satisfying that closing all my university relevant tabs and having only Substack and Youtube open.

3. Go home. Finding my spark back is not about venturing out and trying new things: it’s about finding my way back to myself. That’s why booking a two day trip home felt like the perfect idea. And until I leave, I’ll be going to my favourite places that give me the feeling of being home.

4. Read my summer novel. Either “Really Good, Actually” by Monica Heisey or “Bonjour Tristesse” by Françoise Sagan. Again, these are books I’ve read at least three times each, and therefore I don’t need to be adding on new information, but rather enjoying old memories. Like visiting a childhood friend.

5. Put more time in my friendships. Many of them I’ve warned that I would be MIA in May as my deadline approached. All understood. And now that that’s done, I’m looking forward in spending more time with my friends, whether online or in person.

6. Lay down. Whether it be on a beach or in a park, I intend to make up for the months sat inside in front of my desk. So I will be laying down more than sitting down this month. I will be going to the lake for a picnic or a barbecue with friends and soaking up as much sun as possible.

7. Seek things out. There are plenty of lovely activities I could do. Plenty of new exhibitions I’ve missed and food markets I haven’t tasted anything from. Now that I have time to spend entire days without being on my computer, I’d like to do more with people than have two hours breaks with.

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All this to say that when you see the new “summer prep” and “summer reset” videos on your For You page and are encouraged to change everything before the end of the month - don’t. You don’t need to walk an hour every morning and cut your sugar intake to achieve your summer body. You don’t need to change everything in your wardrobe and curate a new beauty routine. There is no one on earth you should be other than yourself. Summer or not.

This last month I’ve been focused on editing my own thesis. Over and over again. In other words, I haven’t made anything; I’ve simply perfected it. And now that it’s done, I want to do the opposite. I don’t want to perfect myself, I want to exist with myself.

This summer, I want to enjoy my own company and that of others. I want to experience life with myself, as if it’s my first life, because it is. I want to connect with everything that I enjoy, especially writing, because I have more time on my hands. But I don’t want to force myself to be wise. I would rather not be wise at all. In fact, I want to be incredibly stupid. To speak and write before I think. To let everything ooze out of me without worrying about spillage. About stains.

I want to get sun burnt because I was too busy living to realise that the world around me was making its mark on me. Or that I was making my mark on the world. I want to get wrinkles on my forehead because I forgot to bring sunglasses but still wished to sit in the sun. I want to get dirt on my shoes and have to throw them out in September because I was too busy going everywhere. I want to exist with the exact flaws of someone without self-imposed restraints.

Love,

Anastasia

What will you do this summer?

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Of course, I am not in a position to be able to take three months off to attend a writing retreat in the north of Italy. But just because one cannot participate in the grandness of something, does not mean one cannot participate at all.

So, two weeks ago, when I found out that my university offered the true Norwegian cabin experience for much more affordable prices, I manage to convince my friend to join me for a weekend getaway. The plan was simply: we’d trek there as early as possible on Saturday and leave as late as possible on Sunday. Pay for one night, enjoy both days.

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Naturally, there was nothing easy about our hour long walk to the cabin, as we happened to chose the wrong path offered to us by Google maps. What should be a lovely walk once the snow melts is currently a frequently used ski slope, one I wouldn’t venture to walk down with a bag of groceries or my university bag.

Yet, as our long walked turned into two, and we had to walk up the worst hills (most covered in snow), we breathed a sight of relief as we finally saw what would be our home for the next two days. As if asking for forgiveness, the universe quickly redeemed itself from the hike by ensuring that we would be the only ones renting a room in the cabin that weekend.

Essentially, we had an entire cabin to ourselves. And what a cabin!

Armed with a dozen candles at our disposal, paired with the sun shinning onto the lovely wooden tables… Blessed with well-used chairs that had been painted green, then white, and then blue… Cursed with terrible internet connection that made me grateful for having brought all the necessary materials with me…. I was put in the perfect conditions to write.

Truth be told, despite these conditions, I did not write the first day. I had a lovely lunch outside, settled into the perfect writing spot, laid out all my materials in front of me, and did not write a single word.

And while I had taken this weekend off specifically to focus on writing, I did not mind. I knew that I would complete the list of tasks I had set for myself regardless, so I took a nap on the dark blue sofa, and went on a walk with my friend. The next day, I wrote everything I had wanted to, and more.

I had not pushed myself to deliver a result ahead of the deadline I had set for myself. I had allowed myself the bit of necessary rest my body craved. I focused on making filling meals, and exploring various tea flavours.

If this had been a few weeks earlier, I would’ve worked through my headache, worked through my shoulder pain from carrying my computer for three hours. Yet, in this context, as the world was quiet and slow around me, it allowed me to hear the small voice inside of me urging to be patient, to trust myself.

In a space that barely moved, I could meet myself at my own pace. And in my own time, the next day, I wrote exactly what I had wanted to. Nothing more, nothing less.

There was no element of comparison, no pressure of excellence or pattern of overachievement. I met myself exactly where I was.

The writing retreat came exactly at the right time. I had almost collapsed two days before after a number of busy days and sleepless nights. I hadn’t been able to hear myself amidst the noise of the city. The cars, the people, the music, the everything.

But here, there were no cars, barely any people except my friend, and only the simple sounds of birds chirping. As it quieted down, I grew louder.

My simple envies were met through lots of chocolate and warm drinks. My mood was set by my own accord, as I had no other commitments than my word document.

Everything became simple. And I was the better for it.

Love,

Anastasia

Our lovely host had also bought some thick pink paper for us to cut up and make cards out of. I drew two oranges - one untouched and one peeled - and wrote down ‘The Orange’ by Wendy Cope. Another cut out a vagina, added some glitter, and wrote a manifesto. We exchanged our cards and I got to bring home a glitter infested bag - a consequence of hauling art in a tram I’m sure.

During our collage making one of us mentioned that she has brought this pretty shiny gold paper that she had bought when she was in middle school. She laughed and defined herself and someone who could never use the special things she had bought, then added, “my mom is the same, she still has her childhood stickers she never used.”

I smiled and thought of all the special stickers and postcards I had bought in January in South Africa still lying on my desk untouched. Too precious to use absent mindedly on a notebook I wouldn’t commit to til the end.

But the idea of having stickers older than my children and still not having them placed anywhere shook me a bit. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that I would most likely end up failing to use my stickers and postcards, and wasn’t that a bigger failure that sticking them somewhere I’d end up discarding?

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Despite this, my stickers and postcards sit still at my window, unused. So why do I do this? And why do you do this?

As someone carefully measured by the seasons of academia, it seems contradictory to myself to use my pretty trinkets before the start of a new academic year. In a way, the trinkets must be used for over than a year to be worth their “tarnish”.

But perhaps this comfort zone I’ve delimited is nothing more than an excuse. A poor reason for not making the most of things. As a firm believer that you can restart a bad day at 2pm or reset the new year in April, I shouldn’t be so hesitant with decorating my academic planner in February, despite only needing to use it til May.

But why do I have such high consideration for these?

Perhaps stickers and postcards are a poor man’s art. Unable to purchase grand paintings or sculptures, one settles for smaller replicas. To alter or tarnish paintings or sculptures in any way would seem almost traitorous, so maybe those of the arts respect stickers and postcards the same way?

Or perhaps each owner has premonitions? We have seen and felt what it is to give art its appropriate home, and wish to do so with all our collectibles.

I often think of humans as crows collecting small objects. We have all been known to pick up a stone at the beach or on a trail. All been known to keep a cafe’s or shop’s pretty card to safekeeping in our wallet. All been known to pluck a flower as we headed home or to a friend’s.

Perhaps our cards, our stickers, our trinkets are just our collection. We may carefully hide them in a box, or carefully allow them to collect dust on top of a shelf. To some it may seem careless, unthinking, and to us it might sometimes seem that way too, until someone else touches them. Then nothing is in the right order, nothing is facing the right way.

Somehow, while they are in no way the skeleton that makes our bedrooms, they have become its clothes. And I wouldn’t exactly want to tarnish a gown on a random Tuesday. Although perhaps one day I will. One day I’ll wear a gown to the supermarket, and remind myself of the joy I felt every time I look a the stains.

Love,

Anastasia

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The note was so well received that I asked if anyone would like a more in depth look into my creative process - so this one is for those that asked and all those who would like to start making their own.

As these are monthly boards, I always start with reflecting on the previous month, and mapping out what the next month will look like.

At the end of January I came home, started a new job on top of the one I already have, wrote phd proposals… As much as I enjoy being busy and tackling several tasks at once, I’m hoping that the feeling of being violently pulled in different directions won’t take over. So, this February board is all about trying to discern what’s important in the NOW.

As always, I open three specific tabs that I will go back and forth to throughout: Canva, Pinterest and Remove.bg.

My second step is scrolling through Pinterest and downloading anything I find interesting and relevant to what I’ve already conceptualised in my mind. I intend on taking “bigger pictures” that need no editing and “element/object pictures” where I’ll remove the background.

Over the months of making these boards, I’ve come to gravitate towards quotes, drawing and real pictures to have different styles and textures.

After I’ve dowloaded a number of pictures from Pinterest and pulled them onto my desktop, I divide them into those I want with background and those I want without background. For those I want without their background I drag them (one by one) onto the Remove.bg tab and download each of the results.

Now that I have enough visuals I go onto my Canva page, in which I’ve selected the size I want (desktop wallpaper or instagram post (rip)).

I go on the upload option on the left and drag all my pictures there. And that’s where the real fun begins. I find it easier that start with putting the bigger pictures on my page and seeing where I want them and how big I want them. Almost every time, I notice I’ve gravitated towards one colour - a helpful accident since it’ll be easier to choose more pictures on Pinterest if I’m missing a few details later on.

This time, I seem to have preferred a lighter blue. After being satisfied with the size and position of the bigger pictures I bring in the details.

In this case, I know I’ll rarely be at home this month as I’ll be working and studying on campus and at work, so I’ve selected a number of bags. Having a neat and practical system to have everything I need on hand is starting to become a priority, so having bags on my board makes sense.

I don’t always know why I select an image - sometimes I find it pretty and only think of my reasoning later on. Take the braids for example, I saved the pictures because I thought it was beautiful, the colours (silver and icy blue) and the simplicity appealed to me. Yet as I put it on my board I was reminded of my goal to focus on taking care of my hair’s health this year. My bonnet is staring at me as I type this.

Eventually, once I have a number of images on my board I’ll click on the white background and go on the colour options (the colourful circle) and then click on photo colours. I find that choosing a background from one of the colours already on the board makes it much more harmonious, but that’s just a personal preference. As is everything here really - this is just my creative process, tips I’ve accumulated that might be completely irrelevant to your own creative process.

Now that my board is taking shape, there are some pictures that no longer fit. It’s around that time I go back on Pinterest, find new pictures, remove backgrounds and pull them onto my canvas uploads. Sourcing images is usually something I do over three to four times while I’m making a board, but that’s simple because I don’t like too many images to stand out.

As you’ll see with the braids, I sometimes choose a picture with a without its background and end up putting both on the board.

Eventually, once I’ve filled my board to my liking and that I’m satisfied with the results, I simply name it and save it. And voila! This is the result for my February board:

As you make more and more art boards, you sort of find yourself doing it almost absent-mindedly, but the process is just as nice as it was the first time.

Hopefully this helps a few of you, and inspires many of you to make your own art boards. Please send them to me if you do! And don’t hesitate to ask me any questions - I’m always happy to share.

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Here’s the art board in all it’s glory for those who might want to save it :)