The Best of 2013: Thought Catalog Articles

My 2013 Best of Thought Catalog

After I began reading Thought Catalog when I clicked on a tweeted link early last fall, I have read it pretty much religiously. When I saw Matt Saccaro’s piece, I was reminded of all of the TC articles I’d saved in a bookmarks folder entitled “Thought Catalog library.” I really appreciate TC’s mission statement, which can be found in the previously linked articles, because it reminds me that the site isn’t just representative of a yuppy, millennial population and their problems. The list below surely does not convey the scope of the rhetoric and style the site presents, but the below articles are just a few of my favorites picked from my Thought Catalog library and organized by month.

January:

1. I'm a Liberal Who Believes in God: I'm a liberal who doesn't know how they feel about the idea of God. Very informative.
2. Why Does Everything Have to Involve Drinking?: Pre-college reading.

February:

1. Some Times You've Thought About Death: Who doesn't? These musings stick with you. 

March:

1. Why Your Work Disappoints You: Great thought behind Ira Glass's important thoughts on the gap between work and taste that can be listened to here
2. What the Frack is Fracking?: I wanted to know more about the process of fracking and its effects on the environment

1. A Universe-Wide Mandate: On The Quality Of Lyrics Websites: Amazing satire and highly relevant.

April:

1. 20 Signs You're Sleep Deprived: A bit of light reading before college begins.
2. Pinterest Is About Your Current And Future Self: So true. What else makes 16 year old girls start planning their barn weddings?
3. The 10 Commandments Of The American Religion: Provides a different view of some things Americans hold sacred and is backed up by provocative statistics.

May:

1. So I’m A Teacher Now…: A different perspective from a new teacher, but needed and eye-opening.
2. Why The Arrested Development Of Its Critics Arrests The Development Of ‘Arrested Development’: A response to everyone complaining that the new style of the 4th season AD episodes was odd. At least there's a 4th season, jeez!

June:

1. 19 Quotes For Your Existential Crisis: Always handy. I'm almost 19 for goodness sakes!

July:

1. Maybe You Don’t Deserve To Be Happy: Everyone needs to think about whether they actually deserve happiness. 
2. 24 Books You’ve Probably Never Heard Of But Will Change Your Life: I always need a new list of books to tackle and these often forgotten gems seem great. 

August:

1. There’s A Lot More To Reading Than Just Reading: Cheesy, not as well-written as some of the other articles on this list, but it makes me happy because I know how the writer feels.

September:

1. How to Keep A Library Of (Physical) Books: Perfect timing as this month was when I began cultivating my personal library. Also, it justifies that $72 I spent in one trip at a used bookstore in Lincoln Square.
2. Everything I Learned In College Was A Lie: Funny, but relevant especially to Liberal Arts students.
3. Warning: This Video Of Joseph-Gordon Levitt Will Give You A Sexual Heart Attack: No shame.
4. 35 Breathtaking Photos That Will Make You Fall In Love With Chicago: I love saying that I live in this city now. 35 more reasons to add to the list.

October:

1. 22 Things You Need To Realize While You Still Have The Chance To Change Them: These are basically The Golden Rule, expanded and for teenagers to centenarians.
2. 29 Awesome Modern Romantic Comedies That Don’t Insult Your Intelligence: I need something to tell me what to watch when I have an emotional 2 AM Twizzler binge that is somewhat satisfying.
3. The Complete Guide For Traveling In New England: I wanted to go to school in New England, of course I'm going to have this on my list.
4. What It Means To Be A Critic: After becoming friends with a handful of film majors, I've come to really enjoy the critical analysis of film. This is a sort of critic-ception: how do we critique critics and why?
5. Do It Girl, Make The Move!: The feel-good article for the month. Girl power attitude replenished.
6. College? It’s The Best Years Of Your Life, Right?: This helped ease the "Why am I feeling so awful?" fears I was having at the time. 
7. The 5 Best Surprise Rolling Stone Articles: I get Rolling Stone in the mail. It's usually a crapshoot writing-wise. These are highly informative. Read them!
8. 17 Photos That Prove That Marlon Brando Was The Hottest Person In The History Of Hot People: Even though my first foray into Brando-ville was Apocalypse Now, I recently watched On the Waterfront and I got butterflies. 
9. 23 Terrible Movies So Bad You Absolutely Have To Watch Them: Must have for movie nights.
10. The Only True Happiness Is What We Share When We’re Most Uncool: Awesome. 

November:

1. 7 Famous Thinkers, Presented As Doge: Doge gets me every time, so I love the intellectual spin on it.
2. 9 Mind-Expanding Books Of Philosophy That Are Actually Readable (A Guide To Practical Philosophy): Since I probably won't get to take a non-education related philosophy course (wooo Ed majors), I want to read more philosophy outside of class that is actually digestible without a professor
3. The 30 Most Epic Zingers From Famous People Throughout History: The nerd within me laughs.

December:

1. The Lost Art Of The Mix CD: I love making people mix CDs, so of course I find myself liking this piece.
2. If You Were A Sentence Written In The English Language: Another cheesy one, but it makes me grin like an idiot. 
3. Cancer Has A Way Of Deleting Everything You Could Say: The connection to this is strong. 
4. What Writer's Block Would Look Like If It Were Described on WebMD: Now that I've started to write more, this describes my evenings completely.
5. What You Should Do the Next Time You Hate-Read Something Online: A message to everyone that complains about BuzzFeed.
6. 15 Reasons Why Everyone Should Read More: Friendly reminder that reading makes you a better person in all categories.
7. The Notecard System: The Key for Remembering, Organizing, and Using Everything You Read: Perfect article for my New Year's resolution to keep my notes more organized.
8. My Interview With The World's Youngest Ibogaine Provider: Fascinating article about a controversial new drug that interrupts opiate addiction.

Top 13s of 2013

Top 13s of 2013
(in no particular order)

Albums

Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise

The Maine - Forever Halloween

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Jake Bugg - Jake Bugg

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

The Neighbourhood - I Love You.

Youngblood Brass Band - Center: level: roar

Sigur Rós - Kveikur

Surrogate - Post-Heroic

The Wonder Years - The Greatest Generation

The Maine - Imaginary Numbers

Bad Books - II

Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Movies

The Before Sunrise Trilogy - Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight

Books

Wolf Lake - Anonymous

Sibling Love

"I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THE DECAL WAS SUPPOSED TO GO ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE CAR. IT SAID CAR DECAL, NOT WINDOW DECAL. OK," screamed Dad at the dinner table. Each of us exchanged fits of laughter while our eyes shifted away from our slightly seething, half-laughing father. 

"Can I pick the eyeliner off of you? PLEAAAAAASSSSSSSEEEEE. It looks like it'd be so satisfying to peel off," I pleaded to Lindsay.

"NO. Stop Megan!" she barked at me while reading her Stephen Hawking book. "STOP!" she shouted as she wriggled further into the couch to avoid my prying fingers. "MEGAN, SERIOUSLY STOP IT. YOU'RE SO ANNOYING."

"Hey Matt, have fun last night?" I asked in a nudge-nudge wink-wink tone. "Thanks for waking me up at 2 AM. I loved hearing that door slam. So what'd you do?" Matt continued to pour himself a glass of water and seemed to be ignoring my question.

"I said, What'd you do? Hellllllloooo Matt!" I said a little louder than the first time. 

"Nothing, Megan. OK! Jeez." Matt mumbled to me as he sighed while walking out.

Any of these situations come up on a regular basis when the Pietz clan is back in action. After 4 months of not living together, I think as siblings we've all missed each other. Though each of us knows exactly how to piss one another off, there comes a certain kind of comfort with residing in the same hallway and eating dinner together in the evening.

Yes, we talk at least once a week whether it be text or Facetime while we're at school, but it is still odd not knowing exactly what is happening in someone's life, not understanding their course load, or being able to picture the friends we each talk about. After being with one another essentially non-stop from birth, the transition from knowing and understanding everything to nothing is quite odd, even unsettling at times. 

Everyone knows that college allows people to grow and change. Parents pay thousands of dollars so their kids can realize they're not that smart, they're semi-talented, and that they need to grow up a bit more before they can call themselves an adult. So basically, Lindsay, Matt, and I said goodbye to one another just as we were about to change even more drastically than we had throughout high school. Cool.

Matt and Lindsay can make me scream at the top of my lungs to shut them up,but  there are days when you want your siblings to be around. We still send each other "Hope (insert test here) went well" or "Thought of you when I saw (insert link here) today" texts. We still poke fun at each other's styles, taste in music, and studies. And of course, we all equally miss our cat.

Now every time we see each other, Lindsay likes to scream "I love you!" fifteen times while she bear hugs each of us. I can't breathe, but I appreciate it. Sometimes I want to rip her detachable collars or ask her to chew with her mouth closed for the 8th time, I still love her. She likes to scream it, but we all know it exists. Yes, it's cheesy, but it's true.

I know Lindsay and Matt will always be there for me. Our continued communication has proved that. And I can be confident now that we'll always talk. I love my siblings, and I wouldn't have our relationship any other way.

We never look this good anymore 

The last day all of us were together before starting college.

The Suburbs' City v. "My" City

As everyone starts to straggle home from their designated universities and winter break begins, I realize that in about a week everyone will be bored of their suburban bubble and start to crave doing something "different."The lightbulbs will turn on simultaneously as "THE CITY" pops into their heads.

Don't get me wrong, going to "The City" is fun. But, after experiencing "The City" for ten weeks, "The City" doesn't seem so enticing. 

You see, "The City" is a fictional place. It is made up of: Michigan Avenue, State Street, Millenium Park (or really just The Bean), and every so often, museum campus. And though I used to be one in the population of "The City," the past 10 weeks I've spent at school have given a sense of disdain for the place. It's always crowded, full of tourists, and there's nothing cheap or non-franchised. It's basically a large outdoor mall with a park next door. 

I understand the appeal: popular shops, decent food, lots of holiday spirit all in walking distance off a few stops on the El. It's easy to get to and relatively safe. But, "The City" is not a true representative of the city. 

Yes, 10 weeks is not a lot of time, but it's enough to understand that "The City" creates such a poor picture of the city. So, instead of me talking further about how the suburban kids (including me) need to explore, I've decided to include a few photos of my version of the city. Hopefully they'll make you rethink your winter adventures. 

The Metro - Wrigleyville. My favorite venue. 

Grant Park - far south end.

Urban farm in Bridgeport

Riot Fest - Humboldt Park 

Old Town

View from campus

My parking garage

Boystown on Halloween

Molly's Cupcakes - Lincoln Park

Ravenswood Used Books - Lincoln Square

Panes Bread Cafe - Lakeview

Museum campus view