11 Comments

I'm reading a novel called Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I'm almost done with it and it has been a ride! It is a female-bonding adventure story, but it's also so much more. It's about women (of a certain age:) getting out of their comfort zone and transforming their lives.

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That sounds fantastic, Autumn!

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Looks great 👀 added to my wish list!

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I've never really been a Medium reader and am in love with Substack so that part here was interesting to me ...

It's coming to the end of my first semester of my return to grad school so a lot of what I'm reading and writing and thinking about right now is related to that, my degree in Visual and Critical Studies. I thought I knew where I wanted to go with my thesis and then I pivoted and now I'm exploring something different which is, really, precisely what grad school should do. So, I'm thinking about perception and what we see and how we see and what we don't see and who gets to be seen and all of this ... and I'm also thinking about my rarely-mentioned mild obsession with true crime stories, particularly stories of missing people, and how all of the theories about seeing apply to how we visualize people who by their very nature are not visible anymore.

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Yes, I've been surprised by the confusion between Medium/Substack as well.

I changed my focus a few times during my doctoral program. I think you're exactly right: that is what grad school is for!

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I feel like your ending here is an excellent new writing prompt, I already have a page and a half on it :)

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I'd love to read your response!

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Jessica, thanks for the shout-out. Isn't Aubrey just great?! xo

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Yay for not coloring your gray hair. I'm 47 with quite a bit of gray now and I have no intention of coloring it. I don't want the expense or maintenance! However, I wish midstory would do a whole article about gray hair so we can swap tips for styling it! I've been thinking about a keratin treatment, but that shit's expensive. My usual hair gels are barely keeping up with the gray hairs' rebellious unruliness!

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An article about graying hair is a fantastic idea! I love it! I think I may do it :)

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Oh please do!! I need advice on wrangling these spiteful silver squiggles at the top of my scalp!!

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