The time stolen from them is now invested in me. It is my responsibility; no longer just mine to waste as I please; I must do something with it, use it for us. There is a real, working part inside me that does not belong to me. It has lived in someone else. It is rented, borrowed, robbed, a gift that was never intended to be mine.
Read MoreSince the UK went into lockdown, and the world went crazy, it’s been difficult adjusting to the ‘new normal’. Some days I am the most productive, running 5k’s and baking banana bread, whilst other days it's a miracle I even leave my bed at all. On the days I am at my least productive, it is hard not to feel like I’m wasting time;
Read MoreI started mine about 10 minutes before a group of my school friends & I were due to perform our very energetic dance at a rival school’s competition. I was not prepared and was ushered to the office in silence by a teacher I didn’t know and handed what can only be described as THE BIGGEST SANITARY PAD IN THE WORLD.
Read MoreIf I can get through this completely alone, with no distractions for the first time in my life, I can get through absolutely anything completely alone. And I will come out of this a better, stronger person. With a huge arse.
Read MorePrior to the lockdown I felt like I had been running on ice for months. Since finishing University, I had felt like I had been moving frantically in a desperate attempt to stay balanced, but I couldn’t find a way to step forwards in the direction I wanted to go in.
Read MoreI loved my cap when I was younger. It wasn't any old cap but a Chicago Bulls cap circa 1992-3. And I considered it to be a lucky cap. Though you have to understand that for a 17 year old young man of colour, living in pre-gentrified East London was not always a breeze.
Read MoreOur society has been built on the idea that time is linear, that we are constantly evolving and developing our ways of living and creating - however, Hauntology presents an alternative, that perhaps time is something less one-dimensional and in fact, the past, present and future are able to coexist through the acts of recycling and repetition.
Read MoreWhen nurtured, these sensitive characters (often highly reactive when young, seen to present physical excitement at stimuli that warranted a mere smile in the future extroverts) are referred to as orkidebarn, or ‘Orchid Children’. People that if brought up in nurturing and guided environments will bloom into flowers of unusual beauty, especially if given greenhouse care.
Read MoreAfter a short spell of illness which caused me to temporarily lose my appetite, I lost weight which as a result, and seemingly overnight, put an end to the negative abuse I received. Instead, I was greeted with comments like “Wow, don’t you look great?’”. I remember feeling seen and acceptable for the first time. I particularly remember a comment from a friend of my brothers who remarked that I was turning from an ‘ugly duckling into a swan’.
Read MoreTaking a relaxed approach is no longer acceptable in my opinion. If we want a beautiful planet to explore, we’ve got to save it. Which may mean taking fewer flights and planning holidays closer to home. If you aren’t prepared to give up your long-haul lusting then why not try and ensure your journeys are as environmentally friendly as possible; making sure there are no stopovers is one option when travelling huge distances. Websites such as ‘Skyscanner’ do the work for you and highlight the green journeys.
Read MoreTrump is a nasty human being. He is a racist, sexist, greedy, narcissistic, thin-skinned compulsive liar. What I could never understand, no matter what I read on voting patterns and voting incentives, was why anyone would vote for someone so obviously evil.
Read MoreI have now been away from my hometown for two years, almost. You might think that at some point you get used to it, being far away. Well, not exactly. I don’t know about all of you out there, but I need some certainties in my life. Like knowing where to get a decent coffee, or which street is better to avoid when coming home at night, or which cashier is nicer in my local supermarket.
Read MoreTime-skip to teen years and everyone else’s crushes were starting to get a bit more practical. I had had a very generic sex-ed class at school, and I had an idea of how “all of that worked”, and while I still felt entitled to say “ugh gross” when my friends mentioned porn, I started realising not experiencing sexual attraction, especially during a literal storm of hormones, wasn’t that common. I already believed there was something wrong with me because I liked men, but this only seemed to make things more complicated.
Read MoreThe whole world is on pause and yet we are still being told that we need to have a stiff upper lip and not worry. If we do as we are told and stay positive, that it will be okay. However, a lot of the time it isn’t okay, for many of us, the struggle to stay positive becomes the very thing which weighs us down.
Read MoreAlcohol plays an enormous part of many student lives. Freshers’ week is essentially a battleground where, after a couple of niceties enquiring where you’re from, what A-Levels you did and what you were studying, you’re sizing each other up over who can neck the most shots in 30 seconds, or who can down the dreaded dirty pint without puking before getting to the club.
Read MoreThis isn’t all about my dear old Aubrey and his life, the kind of man he was, and how much I and so many others will miss him. I could go on forever with that. It’s really about how moved I was on the day of his funeral… I learnt on that day that we as people adapt with the tenacity of compassion and love, by any means necessary. How we need to connect in order to survive or, more plainly, to cope.
Read MoreAlthough interracial relationships are great and, let’s face it, natural, interracial dating experiences are usually tied inextricably with racism. Interactions with some of my partner’s friends have been interesting to say the least…
Read MoreThis is a strange time where more people than ever are making banana bread and, the big one, getting out in the garden.
Read MoreI remember feeling sick to my stomach, going home straight after the lecture and crawling into bed while I bled through my underwear. It would be another four years before I got my endometriosis diagnosis.
Read MoreWhen I was in school I used to self harm. The last time I did it was at university. It’s something I still think about a lot; not that I tell people that but I do still struggle. I still battle with something that feels like a craving; like wanting a cigarette or a glass of wine at the end of a hard day.
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