June was busy and productive in life, and I spent most of the month distracting myself. Although I guess being busy and productive is a form of distraction.
It’s also been grossly humid, but it’s an excuse to treat myself to cold ice cream (thankfully none of the brands I eat are the ones being recalled for Listeria…). Hopefully, you’re staying cool and drinking plenty of water, and let’s dive into what happened in June for me!
June’s Musings
- [7 Jun] Bookwyrm Breakdown: Thoughts of Rebranding + Just Life
- [11 Jun] Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf ★★★★★
- [18 Jun] Books I Aspire to Read in Summer 2024
- [28 Jun] Only a Monster by Vanessa Len ★★★
Books Hoarded
I got two books!
- Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf – I actually preordered this back when I was employed and then opted to cancel it last minute to save up on money (and it broke my heart just a little because I enjoy Wolf’s books a lot and loved this one when I got blessed with an ARC). But you know what, I deserve a treat for myself (see the breakdown).
- Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan – It’s been a few years since I joined my library’s Summer Reading Club (mostly because I got busy and stressed AF, so I just… forgot), but I joined again this year.
Books Devoured
June was a pretty solid reading month! I finished six books, one of which is from my summer TBR. Ironically, it’s also the one I expected not to get around to because of the long hold line (Funny Story), but I didn’t count skip the line being an option on Libby. I’ll take it though, while my TBR is kind of fresh on my mind!
Most of these were pretty light reads.
- Secrets of Camp Whatever Vol. 3 by Chris Grine
- Sweetheart and The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad by Cookie O’Gorman
- Only a Monster by Vanessa Len
- Spy X Family: Volume 11 by Tatsuya Endo
- Funny Story by Emily Henry
Fandom Assemble
Media we’ve consumed and enjoyed, or what we’re looking forward to that’s been announced lately.
Like May, I only watched one show: Delicious in Dungeon. The final episode for season 1 came out in mid-June, so I just sat down and binged the remaining episodes (I started this in March/April) that same weekend. Season 2 also got announced too, so I’m looking forward to seeing Laios, Marcille, Chilchuck, Senshi and the rest of the characters on screen again!
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos: The Movie is coming out on Netflix on August 22, and I’m super excited to watch that! Knowing me, I’ll likely end up watching it a few months later, but I’m going to try.
I’ve not been keeping up with music lately outside of my commute to and from work, and that’s been ranging from K-Pop and C-Pop to the Bridgerton Official Playlist because I love violin covers of pop songs (I still haven’t watched the show outside of Queen Charlotte).
The Breakdown
What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐
June thankfully didn’t involve a bad hailstorm that took my windshield out like last month, but it was a relatively busy month (at least in comparison to the past few months!).
On life and job hunting
Job hunting continued with interviews and applying, and in the meantime I’m back in food service, which wasn’t exactly on my bingo card. But it gives some stability in my life now, and it’s a distraction for my brain because I’m too busy thinking about how hot it is and having a nice, cold shower when I get home and not “the universe keeps hating on me this year did I accidentally kick a child or something equally bad.”
I hate that I’m probably making my wrists worse, though. And I’m going to be working six days* a week, but I’ll live. I think. I mean, if I [barely] survived two full-time jobs and 18 college credits, this should be easy, right? (Who am I kidding? I almost lost my scholarship and immediately dialed back a semester later.)
*I knew what I was signing up for. Unfortunately.
I did get an offer to work part-time at the library though*, and I’m very excited to start! Working with books is a book lover’s dream, so it feels very surreal — someone pinch me.
*Disclaimer: I got the free copy of Daughter of the Deep before I got hired.
Side note: At one point, my mom mentioned how she’s seen no Asians working in a library ever, so to her, the door was locked and we’re just not welcome. There was a lot more to the conversation, but if I stick around for long at the library, I hope a little Asian kid just like me once upon a time won’t feel like she can’t be a librarian because she doesn’t see herself in the system.
Anyway, I got two cute tote bags for myself: one from TeeTurtle (I love their reversible plushies — also that’s an Amazon affiliate link, so I’ll get a small commission if you purchase from the link!) and one from milkteanco (this one’s not an affiliate link, but I first found them when I was looking for stickers for my laptop and kept them on my radar). They’ll fit my books and notebooks nicely (plus the milkteanco one has zippers and pockets!!!) when they come in July.
I also wrote a letter to my future self three years from now, mostly because I thought it would be fun to get a random surprise from myself close to my 30th. But 2024 has also been a lot of downs so far, and while it’s ideally starting to go up, it’s ultimately been major changes. And the 30s are, in a sense, a major change as well (or at least a milestone in life), so it just felt right to choose three years instead of five years or ten years.
I’m honestly a little curious about what 14-year-old Soph would say to 24-year-old Soph in a letter (maybe 18 or 22, though, rather than 24) and kind of wish I actually thought of doing writing a letter to my future self years ago, even if I’d probably cringe. (Or I’d think the writing style was cute and very 14-year-old core. 🤪)
On goals and seeing how I’m doing with them
Overall, I’m doing pretty well with my 2024 goals. I found myself a new job (well, two part-times, but we’re counting it!), and while it’s not a full-time position, it’s a start. And it’s in one of my dream industries, which is a bonus! (I suppose, in a sense, this could be the better thing the universe held out for me when I got laid off initially. Therefore, I won. For now.)
I finished spring cleaning the blog and my portfolio, though I just realized my media kit is out of date. But in my defense, I’ve been thinking of rebranding, so it didn’t make sense to update that when I might have to change it up completely. I thought of a different perfect name than the one I’ve been sitting on for the past year (that one is similar to a book name), but unfortunately it’s taken, so I’m back to square one.
I’ve also been posting pretty regularly — my goal was to do once a month, excluding wrap-ups, and so far I’ve been doing much more than that currently (weekly? shocking). It’s possible I might dial it back from weekly, though, with my work schedule, but that’s a future me problem.
I haven’t been really good at finding new to me blogs each month (unless we count when I go blog hopping and see an interesting blog name in the comments so I decide to check it out), but I found Daisybutter recently through Sumedha during one of our Discord conversations a few months ago. I honestly forgot what the conversation was about — I think we might have been reminiscing about old blogging memories while also grumbling about Jetpack.
It’s probably the one goal I won’t make for the rest of the year, though, since I’m going to be working six days a week. I get most of the afternoon and evening to myself, which is nice, but I’ve also got to remember to take care of my health (both physical and mental). Sometimes that means learning to just rot in bed, staring at the ceiling for an hour or two (or three) while nursing said wrist and aching feet from standing for hours.
Let’s talk!
Tell me about your June! What have you been up to? Have you ever written a letter to your future self before, or have been interested in it?
Sophia started blogging in February 2012 for the hell of it and is surprisingly still around. She has a GIF for nearly everything, probably listens to too much K-Pop and is generally in an existential crisis of sorts (she's trying her best). More of her bookish reviews and K-Pop Roundups can be found at The Arts STL.
If you enjoy her posts or found them helpful, consider tipping on KoFi!
OMG Soph, I came here following your latest Twitter link, and I realised you’ve been blogging regularly (if sporadically) all these weeks and I had no clue…I suppose it’s because I was following you by email and you switched to Follow.it, so I haven’t gotten any notifications for ages…I’ve subscribed again, so I should get email notifications now, right? And I should probably look into it for my blog as well, since I can’t use Mailerlite anymore…
I’m so glad you managed to find not one, but two (part-time) jobs. Well…one of them isn’t exactly your dream job (understatement of the year), but at least is keeping you afloat while you’re plotting world domination 😉.
“if I stick around for long at the library, I hope a little Asian kid just like me once upon a time won’t feel like she can’t be a librarian because she doesn’t see herself in the system.”
I really hope so myself! Both for you and that future Asian kid…
I’ve definitely been blogging! I just haven’t been promoting them on Twitter (I guess X now?) as much. 😅
follow.it I find seems to delay the posts through email sadly; I think it might be related to the feed issue I had a few months ago that might have affected it (but there isn’t another that I’ve found that shows the full post when I use shortcodes so there’s that…).
The universe isn’t allowed to throw anymore curveballs your way – if they do I’m gonna pour scalding tea on the universe uh huh yep. You know I may have written a letter to my future myself but if I did….I genuinely don’t know where it is right now because I put it in a super safe place. Thanks past me. Though my best friend got me this cute book to store letters to my future myself, which I really should put to use like I’m not getting any younger *sobs*
Music wise I’ve got Chuu’s Strawberry Rush on loop along with Gyubin’s Satellite and Kiss of Life came out with Sticky recently which…listen I’m choosing to ignore the lyrics because I really like the song. (feel like sticky is just bouncy 2.0 xD)
😂 We’ll see! Hopefully this is the last of curveballs (at least for a bit!).
Me possibly losing it is why I opted with a digital letter, LOL. I’m pretty sure my old library card with the super old design is somewhere but I honestly don’t know where it is either so that’s a lesson for myself to never do it physical unless I want to find it never (or when I next move, which at this rate probably won’t happen).
working at the library seems so amazing!! I volunteer at mine, and it’s always so lovely to be surrounded by books.
I also love all the violin covers of pop songs in bridgerton!! they sound so pretty. loved reading this!! <3
Thank you! I love it so far (though I’m sure at some point I’ll probably be tired of it some days, so I’m going to enjoy it in the meantime lol).
I love that you volunteer at yours!
yay for the library position! even if it’s a part-time role, working with books and being surrounded by them for a bit regularly would be quite healing (correct me if i’m wrong and it’s horrible because i have no clue about the actual intricacies of the job).
i actually did write a letter to my future self back in.. high school? middle school? i came across it while i was organizing my shelf a few months back and got emotional reading it. but nowadays i journal enough for it to be enough for my future self to read 😂
Honestly I’m still new, so it remains to be seen! I will say there’s a lot to it than just being surrounded with books and working with them, though, since libraries here provide other services like notarizations, food drives, etc. etc. But I do love it so far, which is a definite plus! I’m sure one day a few months from now I’ll hate my job on some days as we all do or feel stressed on some days, but I think that’s something that comes with most jobs — there’s always going to be some downs.
That letter must have been such a throwback! Though, yeah, I definitely journal enough for my future self to read. 😂 My journal app (Journey) has a throwback option, which can be wild sometimes to go through (though usually I’m thinking, “Wow, I’m such a negative sack.”).
Ah that’s good that you’ve got a good reading month! And also some temporarily income. Job searching is tedious and can take a looong time, so I dont blame you there.
Oooh a part time library job ❤️ sounds absolutely lovely, working 6days a week though.. yikes. Although i’m not one to talk 😅 at work everybody has 2 jobs so im on weekend duties and im the only one covering shifts so I get all the requests 💀 but I remain my 2 days off for now.
Thank youuuu! I love it so far, but yeah, 6 days is definitely very tiring especially physically. Though I guess no scholarships are on the line this time around, so that’s a huge plus (just my rent and bills and such, really, which I guess is equally as bad depending on the perspective just without tuition).
Congrats on the library job!! I also have a part time library job at my university, and it’s going well so far. I have it until I graduate next year, so I hope I can find something similar to it then. I’m proud of you for being consistent with your blog. It’s something I need to do for my own blog. I wrote letters to my younger self when I was younger but I haven’t done it now. Something to think about in the future.
Thank you! I’m glad yours is going well — I’m sure the experience in a university library can definitely carry over to a public, school or private library, wherever you end up being (and honestly it’ll help since it’s the same industry in a way).
I am sending ALL the positive energy in the world that you get a permanent position at the library!!! I hope your experience has been amazing there so far. <3 And that your wrists will always stay 100% okay!
I also had a name I loved when I was about to rebrand (I actually wanted to change everything to my old username, aimeereads) but the blog URL was taken and I was so annoyed for a while bc I had to come up with something that I know I wouldn't love as much. Luckily I'm not too angry about landing with aimee can read, but let's see if I still feel that way in a couple of months. 😅
It’s been really good so far (though, I’m sure I’ll have my rough days too).
Aww no, I loved Aimee Reads (also loved Aimee Always, too, but I think that’s taken now)! Sorry to hear it was taken. 🙁 I hope you still like Aimee Can Read as a name in a few months! And if you ever need to bounce ideas, feel free to DM me (though I’m terrible with names).
Congrats on the library job!! I really hope it turns into something full-time if that’s what you want. I also hope you’re able to work a schedule that allows you to take care of your body and your wrists more than working the two part-time sounds like they might. Either way, you should be so proud of yourself for finding them and taking any wins you can get!! (And you deserve many more!)
Thank youuuu! I’m hoping it’ll be full-time one day, but for now, I’ll suffer through the six days. 😂
I haven’t been in the library much but yeah, the librarians or the people who works there aren’t Asian, at least, the public libraries I had visited. I’ve always thought libraries are more diverse in their hiring but maybe I’m wrong. Good luck with your jobs.
I’ve never wrote a letter to my future self, I think it’s something I cannot do since I can hardly say much if I ever saw my past self.
June was good or at least I think it was. I had forgotten what I did or didn’t do. But at least it’s somewhat productive though you seemed to be more productive than me.
Have a lovely day
Massive congrats on your new jobs- especially the one in the library! I hope you enjoy it 😀 And I love your title for this post!!
Thank you! The library has been lovely so far.