Stained Glass Reminds us of the Broken Parts

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I have just finished How I Met Your Mother this week and it’s been weighing on my mind - stained glass and broken parts.  There’s a flawed logic in HIMYM. Not everyone’s story gets wrapped up so wholly. Sometimes we’re left with are questions and fragments of memories. I think that’s the thing about consuming TV shows and movies and novels - somewhere along the way, you start thinking life has perfect beginnings, ends, and middles. That everything always gets wrapped up in a tight little bow. Maybe I need a break from consuming for a while. A little detox. Detoxing the idea that things will have conclusions and give me closure.

Fighting for faith on a winding path

Posted on by studyinglifewithgigi

I’m currently in the middle of reading The Winding Path of Transformation for the second time. The first time I read it was first semester of second year. It was transformational like the title states. I’ve mentioned it a few times, but I’ve never written a whole post about it. It’s one of those books you stumble onto, and you wonder how you stumble onto a little diamond hiding out in the rough.

Journaling Prompt Challenge Part II

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Back in March, I wrote a post on journaling prompts and I gave you 5 questions to write about during your week in order to be more intentional and reflective on where you are in life. I wanted to do another one of these because journaling is such a good way to process ideas and turn thoughts into an action plan. It’s also great when you feel overwhelmed with your emotions but don’t necessarily feel like unloading on someone when you are full of emotion.

Sweet days in my life at UVA

Posted on by studyinglifewithgigi

Welcome back to Studying Life with Gigi! Due to moving back home to NYC, traveling fatigue, and adjusting to a relatively new environment, the blog has been a bit quiet lately. Finals and moving and saying goodbye to friends took tons of time and mental energy, so I didn’t have it in me to keep the blogging going. But now that I’m trying to figure out my summer 2021 routine and plan out the next few months, things seem to be steady enough to type away at my laptop again about a few good sweet days in my life.

Dreams, Grief, and Fruit

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I mentioned a few blog posts ago that I’ve been loving my Next Right Thing Guided Journal. I truly recommend it if you ever need some questions and guidance to help you journal. And of course, I have tons of blog posts on journaling. But for me, I’ve been noticing this theme of returning grief. I wrote about grief a while back in this post. And while that was super helpful to get off my chest, it doesn’t feel quite finished.

How Writing Academic Papers Sucked the Life out of Me (+ How I’ve Been Recovering)

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As someone who has wanted to start a blog and then started it, I love writing. I love putting words on a page and making the thoughts in my head coherent. But academic writing has always been the sort of writing that was draining instead of life giving. I have loved all of my English teachers immensely. They’ve boosted my love for literature and I don’t fault them for my troubles with academic writing.

Reflection on 2021 New Year’s Resolutions

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While the initial New Year’s buzz is fun and exciting, launching off a new year with whole new possibilities, those possibilities are improbable to become reality if we don’t stop and reflect on what progress we’re actually making. If something isn’t working for you, change it. It’s that simple. I want to take it a step further. If you made a New Year’s Resolution but now feel out of alignment with that goal despite many attempts to accomplish it, change your goal. I’ll go first. 

Hour by Hour (almost) Day in the Life

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As you all know (or can tell), I love a regular day in the life post. These are so simple to write as a college gal going through paper ~szn~ and it’s sweet for my past self to look back on. I definitely will get back to writing the deeper questions type posts when school dies down and I come up for air. It’s actually been a hot minute since I’ve done a deep dive post and I’m definitely missing it.

Travel in the time of COVID

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This weekend, I went home to New York City. I know, travel in the time of COVID is controversial. It’s important to be safe and not contribute to spreading COVID by reckless outings. But since my parents were planning to come to me, I figured it would be safer for me to come to them. I took a test before traveling and I made sure to travel safely.