This Week in Grief and Media: 8/26/24
I'm literally a student, running, Chipotle bowl save me, being a Sabrina Carpenter correspondent
If you’re reading this, I’m literally a student omgggggggg
I’m screaming, crying, throwing up because I start grad school today. I’m incredibly unprepared, while also my whole past 10 years of undergrad and work experience have lead me to this, so I suppose I’m more prepared than I have been for anything ever. It’s a tough line to follow between being so studious <3 and feeling like a deer learning to walk sometimes. Like, figuring out loans for school and filling out tax forms for a GA position and trying to illegal download textbooks (government, I’m soooo joking)? Sorry, I’m actually supposed to be 11 and not doing this.
Amid the high highs of school excitement and low lows of school panic (fuck, I’m going to have those dreams that I didn’t go to class all semester, only this time when I wake up I won’t immediately know it was a nightmare), I’ve taken up running. I know, I know. It’s a tale as old as time. I take up running, I love it for nine days, I sign up for a half marathon, I stop running then push myself on the half marathon day and end up with a foot injury, etc. But I mean it this time. I am a runner. Hear me roar.
I have cried about six times today alone. In honor of my first day of school, Jack and I got bowls from Chipotle, iced teas from Starbucks and a couple school supplies that I didn’t think to get until today from Target. It feels like 2014 in the best way possible, except my mom isn’t here. God, I wish she were here.
Without a doubt, I would be calling her hourly yesterday and today. That job interview I had this morning? Call Mom, before and after. Realizing I already had reading to do for tomorrow? Call Mom to tell her about it. Figuring out where to get the books I need by yesterday but haven’t gotten yet? Call Mom to explain my thought process. She’s my greatest friend, a confidant, a mentor—she’s Mom. Even just the act of typing “Mom” is a reminder that I don’t see that word on my phone screen ever anymore, when it used to make up 95 percent of my call log and sit at the top of my recent texts.
Life feels a lot less comfortable without Mom. At least Chipotle still tastes like she’s here.
First of all, I saw It Ends With Us in theaters. I don’t want to give this too much energy or I will get annoyed having to think about Blake and Ryan another minute, but yea… I saw it. The domestic violence portrayed was intense. I read the book, and I was still a bit unprepared for the way they showed it. I’m even more baffled that the movie promo doesn’t touch on DV at all, again besides Justin Baldoni’s interviews. Unless you’re super interested in seeing this movie, skip it. Not even Blake (I’ll compliment her just right here) and Justin’s acting could make this horrible writing any good.
Secondly, and most importantly, Sabrina Carpenter’s sixth album, second as a non-Disney girly, is out! Short n’ Sweet is definitely short, for sure sweet. I’m a huge emails i can’t send fan, the album that made me an instant fan of her in 2022. I need more time to decide how this album ranks overall compared to eics, but I do love it. I’m serious when I say it’s short (36 minutes), so I recommend listening it all (as I’ve done about 18 times), but my must-listens are: Sharpest Tool, Coincidence, Bed Chem, Slim Pickins, Juno.
Sonically, ~the vibes~ feel very Ariana (Good Graces, Bed Chem), Taylor Swift (Sharpest Tool, Juno), Dolly Parton (Slim Pickins) and the Beatles for some reason I can’t explain (Coincidence).
Finding out a lot of the album is allegedly about Shawn Mendes (like Taste, Coincidence, Dumb & Poetic) is shocking to me. Mostly because I, and this is just me personally, do not find Shawn to be someone I would find writing inspiration from. It’s hard enough for me to even type this paragraph about him. They dated for maybe a couple months (then he got back together with Camila Cabello, a coupling that does absolutely nothing for me).
Sabrina told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe: "I called it Short n' Sweet for multiple reasons. It was not because I'm vertically challenged. I thought about some of these relationships and how some of them were the shortest I've ever had, and they affected me the most."
I don’t blame her for that. In fact, she’s so me, except I’m way taller at 5’3” with a 5’8” rising. I’ve fantasized entire lives with people who would take sixteen hours to text me back “not much.” I get it. But couldn’t she have written about, oh I don’t know, Dylan O’Brien, perhaps???? He’s hot! I want hot people to date. I’m getting real tired of them not doing that.
I dropped my season finale podcast episode! It’s with the incredible host of the Bravo Therapy podcast: Death and Bravo. Lo and I discuss her personal experience with grief, the intersection of Bravo and mental health, Scheana Shay being in her own world (lucky her) and more. Listen on Substack, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts by searching “GRIEF AND MEDIA.”
Up next from me: I’m going to try to finish The Summer I Turned Pretty this week so you can all read my unhinged anti-Jeremiah thoughts and also nuanced discussions around its portrayal of grief. I have multitudes! And so does this show, which is why I love it so much.
I’m also going to take next Monday off from This Week in Grief and Media, but I’ll have my #TeamConrad essay coming at some point in the next two weeks in its place.
That’s it for This Week in Grief and Media. Please consider sharing the GRIEF AND MEDIA PROJECT with a friend. It would mean the world! <3
Don’t forget to join the conversation in the comments! How was your week in grief? What media are you consuming this week? Are you in an entertaining Facebook group a la BAGGU Enthusiasts? Tell me all about it.