19 January, 1924 Letters To Véra By Vladimir Nabokov

“you’re my best friend, now i’ve got no one to tell i’ve lost my best friend.”

….

All studyblrs out there, I just wanted to say:

YOUR NOTES NEED NOT BE BEAUTIFUL

OR PERFECT

THEY DON'T NEED TO BE IMMACULATE

CROSSING OUT IS OKAY

CROSS IT OUT AND TRY AGAIN. THAT'S LEARNING.

Your notes CAN be beautiful, perfect, without mistakes. In fact you should be proud of them. But at the same time, crossings out do not make notes any less valuable.

"But ohh they make it look ugly" "ohh but crossing out means I got it wrong"

NO!

You did good.

Crossing it out is recognising that you got it wrong.

Let me ask you this:

How would you know it was wrong if you didn't know what was correct?

The crossed out section is a testament to your learning and I think you should take pride in that as well. Nobody is perfect.

I want to see your imperfect notes with little scribbles and jottings.

Capture the essence of the feverish scholar frantically noting down their ideas as they rush towards a new horizon- their breakthrough. Their ultimate discovery. The thing they've been working on for their entire life.

Capture that essence of "I must, because it has to be done."

But again, at the same time, make them pretty! Put effort into their making! It's no different to a piece of art.

Your notes can be however you want them to be. They are for you and nobody else. If you take pride in them, their purpose is fulfilled.

Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

“One day, whether you are 14, 28 or 65, you will stumble upon someone who will start a fire in you that cannot die. However, the saddest, most awful truth you will ever come to find - is they are not always with whom we spend our lives.”

— Beau Taplin, Hunting Season

"Not every emotion needs expression. Some feelings are better kept as private art."

honey instead of romanticising neat little plans that live only in your head, you gotta fall in love with the mess, the challenge, the chaos of a life truly lived. it is so so beautiful but you’re so afraid of anything real and raw; you think it’s ugly and frightening. but it’s not, it’s not!

-Rumi

I've forgiven myself and finally moved on

That's all I wanted was me to love me again

So I can finally smile in the mirror

Laugh at my reflection

I didn't realise days like this could happen

Again

“I hope that you never, not even for one second, become a secondary character in your own story.”

— spanish teacher

Strangers to friends then strangers again

“Things never end the way you expect them to. Though our time with each other was always vibrant and loving, the end came suddenly and spineless, without send off or ceremony, slipping away quietly into the dark. An ordinary moment, like any other, that just happened to be our last.”

— Beau Taplin