For the Women

Sunday, 26 March 2017

For the Women

For the women,

Some of you will see this (so thank you for reading :) ); some of you won’t.  Maybe because right now you have no desire to access the Internet and read my blog.  Maybe because you are no longer here.  Some of you are women who have known me since before I knew how to tie my shoes.  Some of you see me every day.  Some of you are women who have seen me struggle to be better than I was the day before.  Some of you know me better than I know myself.  Some of you don’t know me at all. Regardless of which category you fall under, this is a letter of thanks to you, the strong women, because it is because of you, I am me.

I don’t think words can encompass your power.  I could write for hours – and believe me, I’ve tried – and I would still struggle to capture the ways you have impacted me.  But I don’t doubt that I would not be the person I am today without your example.  It is because of you, I learn.  It is through of you, I live my life in a way that reflects your strength. 

You have shown me that we are powerful.  We are brave.  We are tenacious.  Our accomplishments don’t have to be limited by our gender.  You have proven to me that hard work will get me wherever I want to go.  You encourage me to pursue my passions, live my dreams, whatever they may be, continuing to support me every step of the way.  You have taught me to look for the beauty in the others and accept everyone for who they are because it is through that that I can, most importantly, appreciate the beauty in myself, whether that be my appearance, my spirit or some weird combination of both.  You have pressed and pushed and prodded me until I developed into the confident and capable woman I am today.

Maybe you gave birth to me.  Maybe you are my best friends.  Maybe I saw you on TV.  Maybe we shared something – a story, a smile, a struggle.  No matter what are connection, association or relation is or isn’t, I strive to be like you.  Your positivity inspires me to smile more.  Your voice gives me courageous volume.  Your compassion makes me kinder.  Your activism gives me freedom. You teach me to never give up.

So here’s to the women; the remarkable women.  Thank you for all the incredible gifts you have given me. I can only hope to do the same for others some day: because of you, I am me.

Signed,

A woman in the making.

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The Universal Truths of Learning to Adult

Saturday, 4 March 2017

The Universal Truths of Learning to Adult

1)      You will face at least one existential crisis per term.

Such crises shape the deadline-looming/budget-making/budget-breaking/trying-to-get-your-life-together mould that undoubtedly is Freshers Year.  You start out in September bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with a pink fluffy pen which was supposed to write you into 2.1 territory and your brand-new laptop which holds the answer to every question ever asked about anything ever.  “You’re a go-getter; you’re ready for this” you think.  Little do you know that that entrance into 2.1 territory is pretty much the equivalent of trying to break into Area 51 of the education system, and the questions you ask yourself *Siri* and the answers you’re *Siri* meant to have seem to increase tenfold.  The pressure builds as the essays pile, the bomb explodes, and rather than chuck the new laptop to the ground and waste all expense (see point 2), you find it perfectly acceptable to lay in bed 6 hours before the deadline contemplating the purpose of your degree as if we’re all dust in the end anyway.  Yet you still pass.  And you breathe a sigh of relief.  And once again the cycle begins.

2)      Think you’re broke now?  Ha.

I have learned that adulting – yes, that is now a verb – requires a certain measure of monetary management.  ‘Finance’ and ‘Budget’ are words I am slowly learning because, shockingly, things cost money.  Who’d have thought it?  Student loans are of God; gilded butterfly wings of beauty that flutter into our bank accounts termly with promises of a food shop, nights out, maybe a concert ticket…the possibilities are endless, dangerously making overspending far too easy and resulting in you being that person who lives off tinned tomatoes for the rest of the term (true story)  Be a grown-up.  Budget.  Spread the word to save a life.

3)      People will tell you that winging it doesn’t cut it here, but you’ll wing it anyway.  And it will work.

Links back to point one, really.  You have 6 hours and 2000 words to write.  Enter a modern form of Plato’s Euthyphro Dilemma: does this student rite of passage release the adult within, or do you step up and become an adult to make it through the night?  Adult-like qualities of strength and self-motivation seep through your pores, leak through your tapping fingers onto your keyboard to power you through; the essay is worth 60% of your module, after all.  Winging it ignites a fire in your belly; becoming an adult, you discover, means you can complete anything on time to a satisfactory standard.  That, and that caffeine truly does work. 

4)      You will be expected to grow up and figure out just what you want to do, yet the wider world will still view you as a child.

Not a Harry Potter or Matilda Wormwood ‘child prodigy.’  Not an educated person who is finding their feet in the big wide world.  Just a child.  Better yet, a millennial: a social-networking, technology-obsessed member of Generation Y.  You’re lazy, entitled, floating through life in university, dreaming of a future in politics or media; you think it’s tough?  “You lot don’t know you’re born! Kids today, eh?”  Kids.  Call me a kid and question my maturity when you pay my accommodation fees due at the end of this week.

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