Beware! Beware, Ravensies, the time of the great burning orb is nigh! All babybats return to the crypts, all goths slather on the sunscreen, and all other spooky types don your lightweight fabrics and bring out the parasols and fans!

Yes, dearest Raven Rumps, summer is to be upon us very soon, and it’s the time when most of us hide indoors to protect our delicate complexions and keep away from the angry burning ball of fire that hangs in the sky to bring heat stroke down upon the ooky-spooky ones who wear their dark finery during the warmer months of the year. Most goths consider this the worst time of the year, but I happen to be one of the few who actually welcome the summer months with glee. I enjoy warm weather, the ability to drink iced tea blends without freezing to death, and the longer days that make for warm nights that are perfect for stargazing. However, summer is also very difficult for me in the way of lightweight outfits, keeping my skin nice and pale, and avoiding being an overheating mess all the time. This summer my parents and I are going to be spending a week in Orlando, Florida for a Disney trip before I go off to college, and I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently: how am I going to survive in Florida while still looking dark and spooky? This blog is going to be my abbreviated guide on how to be a goth and survive in the summer.

The first thing that you absolutely MUST do in the summer is wear sunscreen. All the time. No exceptions. This isn’t just for goths, and it isn’t just about keeping your skin pale (you don’t have to be pale to be a goth, there are goths of all skin colors and ethnicities.); it’s about protecting your skin from the sun’s harmful rays. Skin cancer is a real concern, and, on the less extreme side, sunburns aren’t very fun to deal with.

Another thing you can do to protect yourself from the sun is carry around a parasol with you. It not only brings a nice spot of shade with you, but if you get a black parasol made of a solid material it can absorb almost 90% of the sun’s rays, keeping you cool and your skin happy. If you’re worried about lugging around a parasol with no place to put it when it’s not in use, there are a few on amazon that are collapsible and fit into purses for around $20. I’m also going to include foldable fans in this section, because they look wonderful when paired with a parasol and they can create a nice, personal breeze wherever you are to keep you from overheating.

The next thing to keep yourself a dark, little, “shade-only,” blossom during the summer is to wear lightweight clothing rather than layers upon layers of bustle gowns and lace. One thing to keep in mind about wearing black during the summer is that it absorbs heat, so if you want to wear it look for lightweight, breathable fabrics such as cotton, silk, and other natural cloth. Almost all man made fabrics capture heat because they aren’t breathable, so keep that in mind when you’re looking for summer wardrobe pieces. Skirts and dresses made out of flowy materials are always a good idea, because they allow air flow and aren’t constricting like pants are. For the gentlemen readers who are uncomfortable with the notion of wearing skirts, lightweight trousers and flowy shirts keep the heat off.

Another notion, which may come as a shock to some of you, is that you DON’T have to wear all black in the summer. “What? I thought that all goths wore all black all the time, and if they didn’t they were one of those poseur goths!” No. Goths can wear colors, too, but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. I’m talking about greys, ivories, and even white! These colors, when paired with the correct accessories, can be striking.

Hats. Hats are another important wardrobe staple that can keep the sun off, as long as you choose the right one. Big, floppy sun hats can be decorated with lace, piles of tulle, tiny bats, feathers- just about anything you can come up with. Top hats, on the other hand, are generally heavy and made of materials that will trap heat and keep your head nice and toasty- the opposite of what we want. Jillian Venters of Gothic Charm School has, however, noted in her blogs that there are straw and raffia top hats out there that are good in the summer, but I in no way advocate this type of hat because I don’t own one, and I don’t know how much cooler they are.

My last tip for goths trying to stay cool in the summer months, is to slow down your activity. Walk slower, don’t overwork yourself, and make sure you stay hydrated. Walking slower helps the body keep cool, since the muscles aren’t trying to work too hard, and giving yourself ample time to rest during the summer can help you relax. Also, staying hydrated is absolutely a must. It can be easy to forget to drink water, especially during meals when we will often favor a cold soda over a glass of water. Soda actually makes the body work harder to process the sugars and caffeine, dehydrating you further. If you’re going to be outside a lot, it’s better to drink water during the day and save the soda for the evenings.

Well, that about sums it up for me, and I plan on taking all of these tips to heart for my upcoming Floridian adventure. The main thing to remember is that you need to look after your health during the summer, even if that means giving up your precious Hell Bunny “Florence” jacket and corsets for the next few months. I hope this has helped, Rumpsies, and I encourage you to find your own ways to deal with summer heat. See you next post~

Hello, my Raven Rumps!

It’s been a long time, I know, but I’m back! This blog is a little bit off of my usual dark and spooky posts, but I think that this is a very important topic that I need to touch on in my last few weeks as a senior. What is this mysterious topic, you ask? Well, Rumpsies, allow me to elaborate.

What are we actually learning at school? Is it the subjects that are taught to us? How to interact with people? How to tell the good friends from the fakers? Well, the answer, in my opinion, is all of these. This blog is simply my thoughts on this subject, none of this is hard evidence or anything. Simply speculation.

Alright, first things first. I do believe that we learn the subjects that are taught to us, if only in a brief manner. In my opinion, the way high school is set up is so that they teach us how to pass tests, not necessarily teach us the material. We are taught that as long as we pass the test we will get a good grade, so for many of us (Myself included sometimes), we memorize the material rather than learning it and forget is as soon as the test is over. Now, I would bet that at this point you’re asking yourself, “Wait, isn’t memorization and learning the same thing?” The answer is no. Memorizing consists of repeating things back to yourself until you can recite or emulate them in the manner that they were taught. Learning is being able to take the things that you have been taught and apply them to real life situations. For example, one can memorize a piece of music on the piano by listening to it over and over until they can play it perfectly, but the might not know how to read music to play other pieces, because they were never taught how. They were taught to emulate, not to examine. This is the problem in most schools, that we are expected to do a certain thing to get a certain result and the skills are never truly learned.

Okay, enough with that side of the rant. I should probably go over the more social aspect of what we are actually learning in school, such as how to interact with others. School is a controlled setting where we can learn public speaking, social graces, and other important things that we need to know for communication in the real world. We have our groups of friends, which we socialize with and learn how to behave in public, and we have teachers who represent authority figures and guide us in our lives. We also learn how to deal with people who don’t have our best interests in mind, and we learn how to ignore them and handle situations properly when things get out of hand. These are all necessary skills for functioning in the workplace, or in society in general. Social interaction in high school is a good foundation for the rest of your life, and if you learn how to do it right in high school then you’re going to know how to do it right in the real world. Most students don’t understand this, however, and are content to be immature until they graduate; usually when this happens, they’ll hit college and not know what to do with themselves and end up flunking out. If you’re clever enough to pick up on social behavior in high school and learn how to interact with others professionally, you’ll be just fine.

Once again, my opinions are my own, and I don’t expect everyone to share them. Many of you may agree with me, others of you might see this blog as completely ludicrous. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the matter because I am in my last few weeks of high school and felt as though I needed to give one last reflection on what I think I actually learned in high school.

I promise that my next blog will be as ooky-spooky as they usually are, including a rant about being goth in the summer! ‘Til next time, my darling Ravensies~