Hey, I’m a Honors student and I can’t help but feel quite overwhelmed. 2nd day of classes and I already have a list of things I need to do each day. Today I have 5 things I need to do. I also haven’t completely figured out how Blackboard works yet and there are assignments where it exists but not within blackboard so you have to access an external site to do them. I am so overwhelmed and I wants to know if it gets better.

I’m pretty fine with this Soft Magic System so I’m mainly looking for ideas. In my world, there essentially is a phenomenon known as “Calls”, where someone experiences a push or nudge towards or away from something. The Call is viewed as a benevolent, gray, and malevolent phenomenon by most people. All living things experience the Call albeit to different degrees. To most people, they experience in a handful of times in their life. Some people praise the Call after being guided to head east and finding Gold, some people hate it as the Call made them lose all their money after venturing out into uncharted lands. Essentially, the Call is viewed differently by many. It often manifests as this inexplicable feeling that points to or from something. For example, a farmer may experience a call telling him to become a Blacksmith, but whether he chooses to do it is up to him.

The power system is essentially the “Calls”, hold on let me explain. First of all, to use magic you require mana circuits, not mana but mana circuits. These are things that run throughout your entire body, with the more you have benefiting you. Most people are not born with mana circuits, and quite often the people who do have it have no idea they do. There are mainly two types of people who use magic, Healers and Magicians. Often, a young person with mana circuits gets sent by their family to Magician or Healer schools. The way they use Magic is by building a connection with the Call by bargaining with it. A beginner will start by entering in this blank and meditative state, and then utter something like “I have been Called to generate flames”. And then, small sparks appear near the beginners hands. This is essentially possible with all natural phenomenon but it takes decades to master. For example, it will take 4 or 5 years to generate a flame slightly larger than something from a lighter, then after another 5 years it will be akin to a less powerful version of a blowtorch, and after another 5 years they can blast a power flame, and then after a decade they learn how to detach it from their themselves and manipulate it freely.

What is the cost? Well the cost is more Calls except Magicians almost always do them. The more they use their powers the more they become connected with the Call, therefore, the Call begins to Call them much more frequently. Due to being so connected, the Calls can be extremely specific and happens at an unknown frequency. If a magician chooses to ignore a Call, they will lose months of progress immediately, turning a powerful flame into a mediocre one. A Magician could be instructed to go to a particular kingdom and do this, and by the next day, they get called again to head to the uncharted territories. Magicians train by generating natural phenomenon until their mana circuits get to worn out. Like imagine you’re a beginner generating water droplets continuously. Over time, your mana circuits get too worn/burnt out that generation becomes impossible. Should you choose to keep pushing, your mana circuits may be permanently destroyed or altered. Also, the mana circuits have a limit to how much affinities it can build before it starts to malfunction. A Magician cannot choose to practice generating 9 different natural phenomenons in a single day over a year or something, the mana circuits simply cannot handle trying to build an affinity with all those natural phenomenons. So what Magicians do is choose 2 natural phenomenons they plan to emulate. By slowly allowing your mana circuits to build an affinity with the natural phenomenons, it results in your abilities getting stronger.

There is a difference between Magicians and Healers as Magic is selfish, a magician can become healer if he chooses to take it up as an affinity but most don’t as they are interested in study and manifestation of other natural phenomenons. Healing essentially works in a similar way in which the user requires mana circuits and bargain calls. They are limited to self healing for many years before they can finally move onto the other people. I’m not going to expand too much on Healers as it is not my focus.

Magicians are generally separated into multiple groups based on the phenomenon they specialize it. These groups are Kineticist, Materialist, Neuralist, Astrologist, and another one I forgot already. Magicians along with practicing also devote their time to studying the 2 natural phenomenon they chose to specialize in at their specific Magic school, studying how best to manifest the phenomenon in a way that they can advance their manipulation. For example, water is most stable in a condensed form, they learn to expand it to create a water shield or whatever. A couple things I probably missed but that’s pretty much it.

It’s pretty soft so don’t butcher me. I’m just happy because this was something I came up with.

As stated in the title, this post might be heavily uneducated so don’t hate it too much. I finally realized a trend today after subconsciously seeing it over a year and wanted to share. Just today, I saw a TikTok video about an Asian woman talking about racism and encouraging POC women to not feel as if they have to make themselves palatable for white people. And this woman also made many posts on feminism and various social issues. And I remember being pretty inspired by her video and when I checked her profile to see other videos, she was engaged to a Caucasian man. I personally do not care whatsoever who anybody is dating so I didn’t care in the least but something in my mind clicked from seeing that. Perhaps it’s just me but I’ve seen so many Asian women who speak out about racism particularly towards Asians and other social issues and for some reason, a good majority are dating or engaged to a Caucasian man. I honestly don’t know what I’m arguing for or even implying by saying this but I wanted to hear what other people thought about this. I’m sure I’m very wrong so don’t try to kill me too much.

PUSH

• Incline Dumbbell Press — 3–4 × 6–10
• Pec Deck — 2–3 × 10–15
• Smith Machine Shoulder Press — 3 × 6–10
• Cable Lateral Raise — 3–4 × 12–20
• Dips — 2–3 × 6–10
• Tricep Pushdown — 2–3 × 10–15

PULL

• Lat Pulldown — 3–4 × 8–12
• T-Bar Row — 3–4 × 6–10
• Cable Reverse Fly — 2–3 × 12–20
• Close Grip Seated Cable Row — 2–3 × 8–12
• Bayesian Curl — 2–3 × 10–15
• Hammer Curl — 2–3 × 8–12

LEGS

• Romanian Deadlift — 3–4 × 6–10
• Leg Press — 3–4 × 8–12
• Leg Extension — 2–3 × 12–15
• Hamstring Curl — 2–3 × 10–15
• Standing Calf Raise — 3–5 × 10–20

UPPER

• Incline Dumbbell Press — 3 × 8–12
• Chest Supported Row — 3 × 8–12
• Lat Pulldown — 2–3 × 10–12
• Cable Lateral Raise — 3–4 × 12–20
• Incline Dumbbell Curl — 2–3 × 10–15
• Overhead Cable Tricep Extension — 2–3 × 10–15

LOWER

• Bulgarian Split Squat — 3 × 8–12 / leg
• Hip Thrust — 3–4 × 8–12
• Seated Leg Curl — 2–3 × 10–15
• Leg Extension — 2–3 × 12–15
• Standing Calf Raise — 3–4 × 10–20

At graduation today, I was supposed to give a speech. Apparently I was supposed to speak after the music was over but for whatever reason I went while the music was playing and had to be told to fucking stop. I feel so fucking embarassed for ruining what would have been otherwise a perfect graduation

Everyone I’ve talked to or seen online all say that the prompt was easy and how they did so well. I admit it was easy but I messed up so dang badly. I got the prompt where it discuss old and new and it put a note to not merely summarize the plot. Maybe I just blacked out but I summarized the plot for like 4 straight paragraphs and in panic upon realizing I had 10 minutes left which is shorter than you think, I squeezed out two weak paragraphs that actually had something to do with the prompt. And finally with 60 seconds left, I wrote a conclusion that was literally 2 short sentences. Other than that MCQ was alright and I am confused for the other two FRQ. I can’t lie I didn’t pay attention but you were supposed to talk about literary elements right? Like they used simile to do this or that. Because all of my classmates just wrote about the poem itself.