Welcome to your Semester of Life.

This is your digital garden — your course catalog, homework tracker, and reflection journal for fall (and customizable for any season after).

A living archive of everything you’re learning, thinking, and creating.

Core Classes (Weekly Modules)

Electives List

Elective Name:	About:
Journaling 101	Morning journaling with coffee.
Bird Watching 201	Saturday walks with Merlin app.
Sketching 130	Café studio hours.
Baking 140	Sunday night lab.

Book/Essay title:	Link to it (if applicable):
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë	my bookshelf
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë	my bookshelf
The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer	https://cdn.bookey.app/files/pdf/book/en/the-art-of-stillness.pdf
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer	https://ccncsj.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Robin-Wall-Kimmerer.pdf

Elective Name:	About:
On Being with Krista Tippett – The Soul in Depression	https://onbeing.org/programs/the-soul-in-depression/
Philosophy Bites – Kate Kirkpatrick on the life and work of Simone de Beauvoir	https://philosophybites.com/podcast/kate-kirkpatrick-on-the-life-and-work-of-simone-de-beauvoir/
Revisionist History – Malcolm Gladwell’s The Satire Paradox	https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-satire-paradox

Media title:	Link to it (if applicable):
Aeon – Nostalgia reimagined (Neuroscience is finding what propaganda has long known: nostalgia doesn’t need real memories – an imagined past works too)	https://aeon.co/essays/nostalgia-doesnt-need-real-memories-an-imagined-past-works-as-well
Nautilus – Why Your Brain’s Sense of Time Is So Elastic	https://nautil.us/why-your-brains-sense-of-time-is-so-elastic-238033/
The Hedgehog Review – The Great Malformation (A personal skirmish in the battle for attention.)	https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/theological-variations/articles/the-great-malformation
The Marginalian – The Milky Way, the Pond, and the Meaning of Life: Thoreau on Solitude, Sympathy, and the Salve for Melancholy	https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/08/09/walden-solitude/

Book/Essay title:	Link to it (if applicable):
Jane Eyre (2011 adaptation) → moody gothic fall watch.	Netflix
Fantastic Fungi (2019) → cozy nature doc, autumn forest energy.	Netflix

In a nutshell:

🫘 Seed – “I just discovered this!”
- The idea or piece of content is brand new to you.
- You want to jot down an initial reaction, note, or quote but haven’t developed any deeper thoughts yet.
- Example: A link to a podcast you haven’t fully processed or a book’s introduction you just started reading.
🌱 Growing – “I’m expanding on this.”
- You’ve had time to reflect or do some research, and you’re fleshing out your notes.
- You might be connecting this idea to other notes in your Garden, or you’ve added key insights/quotes.
- Example: You started outlining takeaways, found related articles, or wrote a short summary.
🌷 Bloomed – “I’ve distilled this into something meaningful.”
- The note feels “complete” for now—your main insights are captured.
- You have clarity on how you feel about it or how it might affect your life/work/creative projects.
- Example: You’ve turned it into a mini-essay, a well-structured summary, or a guiding principle you can reference.