june recap: articles, video essays, movies, & life updates

June was bittersweet. I celebrated pride and community, traveled to a place I’d never been before, and surrounded myself with people I love, but I also said goodbye to a place that’s been a massive part of my life for the last eight years.

I have a weird attachment to my workplace, but let me explain. I began volunteering at my neighborhood library when I was 14. I was an isolated queer kid being homeschooled by conservative Christians, and frankly, my life at home was hell!!! I knew in my head that I wasn’t alone, and that this country was full of kids like me, but the library was the first time I got to break out of my shell and come face-to-face with people who shared my experience. After volunteering for two years, I got a job shelving books. It was my safe place, my oasis. When I didn’t feel like going home, where my parents would monitor my every move, determined to extricate my queerness from me, I would go to the library and bug my friends while they worked.

Three years passed, and I got a job at another library branch in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City. It was a promotion—I would now get to directly assist patrons and host my own programs!—but fuck, was it different. Working in a public library in a major metropolitan area means you can’t just be a library professional; you also have to be a social worker, a first responder, a crisis intervention specialist. While our social services in the United States are either crumbling or simply non-existent, libraries have become a last resort for anyone in need. As is the case with most libraries across the country, mine didn’t provide any training for the difficult situations that staff had to handle. Trying to help people dealing with homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness with no training or support from library administration is the perfect recipe for burnout. Read more about the burnout crisis among librarians.

Over the years, the library has been a source of safety and a source of stress. I’ve made some of my closest friends while working here, and developed a level of empathy for people in crisis. It’s a bittersweet parting, but I’m ready for a change.

On a lighter note, I visited Seattle for the first time! I got to live my PNW-pretending-I’m-in-a-Twilight-movie fantasy for week. Highlights included eating pasta in the park at Gas Works, taking a ferry to the nearby islands, and going on a hike that nearly killed me.

Seattle <3

reading:

The Mind-Blowing Second Coming of the Oklahoma City Thunder by Sam Anderson - I’m not a sports fan by any means, but when the OKC Thunder made it to the NBA finals this year, the energy in the city was so infectious, you couldn’t not get hype.

My Rules for Making by Florencia Ornelas - Consistency > perfection.

ina garten summer by caitlyn richardson - These are the vibes.

Loneliness as a Moral Imperative by Eliza McLamb - Everything she writes just resonates with me in such a way.

10 Dinner Party Rules to Host By by Isabelle Heikens - A fun guide for bringing people together.

‘Arcane: League of Legends’ Team Unpacks Epic Final Season and Teases More to Caitlyn and Vi’s Story by Katcy Stephan - I stay on my nerd shit.

We’re Here by Hank and John Green - I’m a longtime fan of the Green brothers, and this weekly newsletter brings you the highlights of the internet from that week. It’s a way to be more intentional about your media consumption, delivering the cute and uplifting content to you without having to doomscroll to find it.

watching: