Reader Rayna

Today, I wanted to talk about something that I’ve been thinking about and planning for a while now, and that is starting my own personal curriculum journey into a topic that I miss very much since I graduated college: literature.

What is a personal curriculum? The personal curriculum trend was coined by a woman on TikTok named Elizabeth Jean in 2025 in which she wanted to explore topics of interest in ways that were deeper than just surface level, and so she would create small personal curriculums for herself each month to study. A personal curriculum can be about anything you want: literature, knitting, sailing, gardening, cooking, etc. It’s a personalized field of study where you tailor how you want to experience how you learn about the thing you’re interested in.

There’s been tons of videos and articles made about personal curriculums over the past year or so since this trend took hold, and though many people seem to have fell off of the bandwagon, there are still many people going strong with their studies, choosing new topics each month, or continuing to further their progression in whatever it is their interest is in when they first started. You can make it as fun or as strict as you want, as well! Include movies, outings, and all manner of activities in your curriculums – that’s what makes it personal.

For my own personal curriculum, I’m going to be focusing on Jane Austen’s works, including her juvenilia and short works, over the course of an academic year starting in September 2026 and ending in May 2027. I plan on reading one book per month, up until I reach her shorter works in which I’ll combine them all, and in those months I also plan on doing a few small assignments alongside each of those readings as well, such as:

• Watching at least one adaptation of said book per month, if one is available, and writing a short essay that compares the two
• Write a review on my blog for each book as I normally would
• Write an essay on a major theme that I noticed throughout the book, and how it played a role within the story, as well as how it would have played a larger role in society at the time of Jane Austen’s life

As you can see, I have a fun assignment, which is to watch an adaptation of the book during that given month. (You know I’m going to be watching the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. That’s one of my all time favorite movies!) I want to give myself the short essay assignment of the compare and contrast between the book and the film/show in order to work on critical thinking skills, observation skills, as well as other skills I learned as an English major.

I then have a standard assignment, which is to write a review on my blog of the book like I normally would after I read a book for the first time. Now, to be fair, I have read Sense and Sensibility over a decade and a half ago, but that was before I blogging and I don’t remember anything, so it will be like I’m reading it for the first time, anyway. These reviews won’t be like the essays I’m going to be writing for my film analysis or my theme essay; they’ll just be my standard bread and butter reviews that you’d normally see on my blog.

Finally I’ll have my in depth assignment, my long form essay in which I’m going to be writing about a theme that I found to be prevalent throughout the novel that I want to talk about in depth. How does it appear in the text? Where does it make its appearance and what is the significance of those moments? How does it transform the characters? Does it transform the characters? How does the theme play a part in the life of Austen and her society as a whole at the time? This assignment is in depth for a reason, and I plan on doing more research into the topic at large as a result of it.

For my in depth assignment, I do plan on looking at other university syllabi to see what professors teach and talk about in their own classrooms and to see what kinds of other resources I can use in my own study. Finding syllabi from universities online is honestly a godsend, especially if you have a topic like mine where Jane Austen is such a beloved and well studied author, because then there’s many places for which to find extra resources about the time period, the people of that period, the fashion, etc.

I don’t know if I’ll be sharing any of these essays outside of personal friends (and my therapist, who’s interested in reading them lol), but I may look into potentially sharing them as an independent scholar and look for others to peer review my work and such, or maybe someplace to talk about what I found and all of that. There’s a lot of possibilities, and honestly, I’m just very excited to dive into this for a number of reasons.

1. I honestly kind of miss the school environment. I don’t miss school itself, per se, in terms of the stress and money and all of that, but I miss being able to learn something new, discuss those things, and be able to really work my brain into understanding what it is I’m learning about.
2. I’ve felt as though I’ve been losing my intelligence as time has gone by. I know I’m not alone in feeling that way, and especially since I graduated college, I feel like I’ve just left a lot of that need to learn and grow and do better in that way behind me. Seeing this personal curriculum trend over the last year really sparked something in me, and I’m finally doing something about it.
3. Doing it this way is one way to save money, for sure, and a way to see if potentially going back to school is something I would even want to pursue in the future, and what that could look like.
4. This will also help me get back into the groove of writing, in general, as I’ve also wanted to be an author for a long, long, long time.

I do planning on reading other books during this time period, as well, of course, but these books are the focus of study in particular, so they’re the ones that I’ll be focusing on over the next academic year!

As far as the capstone work goes, what I’m thinking of doing is writing about my experience doing this project overall, as well as a potential theme or two that I can trace throughout all of her works that she talks about in each book, whether in great capacity or in small fragments, such as the effects class or social standing might have on a family or a woman, for instance. As I get closer to the end, I’ll have a better understanding for what I want to write about.

That, however, is what I want to do for this personal curriculum! I hope that if I’m successful with this one that I’ll have many more to come over time as personal projects for myself.

If you were to take on a personal curriculum yourself, what topic would you choose to do? What sort of fun assignment would you give yourself as part of that topic? Let me know in the comments!