Novis Newsletter - April Edition

I fear I may have lost control of the plot — new readers, last minute trips, embracing and navigating a quarter life crisis

Housekeeping (I’ll be quick, promise!)

New faces and introductions

If this is the first Novis Newsletter you’re receiving in your inbox, welcome! To all of my regular readers (hi mom), I will explain soon enough, but there are lots of new faces here. So if we haven’t yet been introduced, I’m Julia, a 22-year-old living in London (for the most part). I’ve recently graduated from a Master’s in Marketing and am going through a bit of a quarter-life crisis. If you want the whole first-date intro, you can check it out here.

What you can expect from me

I started this newsletter after a summer trip with some of my best friends from school to keep them updated on my life, but it quickly became one the best parts of my months. In the name of fueling this parasocial relationship, you’ll be receiving these monthly updates in your inbox, along with essays on life and love in your twenties, book recommendations, travel guides, and anything else on my mind that week.

Losing the plot, new hobbies and oversharing to the max

A month that was meant to have me hunkered down in my London flat saw way more action, including giving this whole substack thing a proper go and making my profile public (hence the new subs). My month started with a major win (spoiler alert: not a job offer). Those who have been following for a while will know I’ve become a regular at my local pub quiz, bringing new friends every week (unofficial A/B testing to see which group pulls through with the best score). As a bunch of my school friends have gotten into new relationships, I pitched a pub quiz night as a low-stakes way of getting to know everyone. Whilst we did not win (and I’m officially haemorrhaging money at this rate), we did come out with our best score yet, which puts this group in my personal hall of fame.

I also hosted a book club this month (in what was probably the final edition, we’re losing members at an alarming rate), and whilst we didn’t talk about the book at all (a common occurrence at book clubs I’m learning) my friend Julia did convince me to open my Substack to the public. In an attempt to keep myself sane whilst unemployed and spend my free time in a meaningful way, I figured I’d dedicate more time to new hobbies as the city comes back to life in the spring.

the start of the month and surprisingly warm weather meant making the most of the sun at every opportunity

What I’ve been doing (besides sending out cover letters)

Writing! I have gone back to my middle school blogging roots and fully committed to the Substack bit. Writing for strangers isn’t that scary, but posting the links to my pieces on my Instagram stories for people who know me irl feels extremely vulnerable. However, I’ve gotten lovely supportive messages from my friends and have caught up with people I hadn’t spoken to in ages because something I wrote resonated with them, which has been very validating (my favourite writer on Substack (Antonia Bentel is who I want to be when I grow up) has also subscribed to this newsletter and I am having a hard time playing it cool). Besides the writing bits, I also went to a driving range for the first time this month and had to eat my words — those words precisely being golfing is an old man sport. I actually had fun (gasp!) and also sore arms for a couple of days. Also, in a turn of events that will surprise no one except me, I left the country again! This time, instead of hopping on the Eurostar to deal with bureaucracy in Brussels (plenty of that in the diary for May), I headed off to Turks and Caicos (how is this my life?!) to accompany my mother (#tagyoursponsor) on a very last-minute work trip. Turns out spending two weeks soaking up the sun in the Caribbean does wonders for stress management. The island was beautiful, the ocean looked like Gatorade, and I ate conch in every possible form. Most of the people there were families with small kids, which made the occasional lost spring breakers all the more hilarious.

We need to find the singles! Everyone in this island is married!

Overheard in line for drinks

Turks dump feat. beach reads, stupid blue water and my mom (the legend who let me tag along!)

I made sure to be back in London in time to support some of my incredible friends who were running the marathon this past Sunday. I’m always away this time of year so this was also my first time watching the London Marathon, and I did not expect to get so emotional! The support from the crowd was insane and I was overwhelmed with pride for all of these random strangers who were tackling something so challenging to support so many causes. So from now on, to paraphrase from the opening mologue in Love Actually, whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I’ll think about the Marathon.

three friends have already called dibs on the sign and one said she wants to hang it above her bed…

Julia’s April Recs — To Read, To Watch and To Eat

To Read — My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

• This was a big reading month for me, so I had a bit of a hard time choosing just one book to recommend, but Rakoff’s memoir recounting the year she spent working at the literary agency that represented J.D. Salinger kept me up and entertained in an eight-hour layover so it takes the top spot. An honourable mention goes out to Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life that came out this month, I think fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or Daisy Jones and the Six will eat this up. My (other) book club pick for this month was Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar was something I wouldn’t normally pick up on my own, but it was unlike anyting I’ve read before and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

To Watch — Conclave by Edward Berger

• This film was nominated for best picture in the Academy Awards but I didn’t get around to it. Then I saw the memes calling in Mean Girls in the Vatican and I was intrigued. After Pope Francis passed away I finally caved and caught it on the way back to London (unrelated but Virgin Atlantic’s in flight entertainment is unmatched). Though I rarely enjoy watching films by myself (I have a compulsive need to pause and comment, its the only way I can pay attention), this had me hooked, and served the double duty of clearing up how the next Pope will be elected.

To Eat — Alison Roman’s Pumpkin Maple Muffins

• If you’re going to say this is an autumnal recipe, you’re not wrong, but hear me out. This is the best thing I made all month, and I tried loads of recipes before leaving for my trip; nothing held a candle to these muffins. I made two batches in the same week, and all my friends who tried them gave rave reviews. I feel the need to defend my stance and point out that canned pumpkin is available year-round. If you’re not convinced: these are perfectly moist and lightly spiced (think subtle and fragrant and not taking a bite out of a Bath and Body Works candle). I like to add a sprinkle of demerara sugar to the top for some added crunch.

What I wrote this month:

Besides this very newsletter, I also employed my hot girl expertise to break down the hot girl literary canon, I told strangers on the internet they really should be crying in public more often, and ranted about how everyone wants community, nobody wants to put in the work (getting ghosted on my high school group chat did a number on me) and the boy that traumatised my whole friend group.