Maddy Gold’s Reviews > A Five-Letter Word for Love > Status Update

Emily: I want to take this chance to live my life and do something important.
John: no, you love being in a small town. Settle for less, don’t try and fail. Just assume you will fail and then stay with me. But don’t tell me you’re settling bc then I’ll be mad.
Emily: love isn’t a substitute for happiness (closes door feeling profound…ly dumb)

I hate her and I’m also bored

I still can’t get over how she can solve TRYST or BAYOU without trouble but SCARF nearly broke her.

Emily is a fundamentally uncurious person who is more enamored by the aesthetics of working in the art world than she is learning about art.
Take a class in every art form before committing to a degree. And crosswords do get easier with repetition because you learn things and start to recognize patterns/common clues.