Author: Malou Micola
I REMEMBER
I remember my dream in which I would fly with blue wings attached to my back and watching a day pass by from the edge of a cloud. I remember the projection of a news channel on the wall in class showing the collapse of the first Twin Tower. As I stepped out into my backyard at home the blue There’s more for you to read!
Dissociated ego states
Two weeks ago I felt like what I would usually describe as ‘anxious’ during football training. This week I started reading The Myth of Sanity by Martha Stout, a study in human consciousness that focusses on forgotten trauma, dissociated mental states and multiple personalities in daily life. As I got halfway through the book I started recognising a possible certain altered mental There’s more for you to read!
Staying above the surface
Mentally, I have never felt this great. I’m feeling more confident, I’m happy and I’m starting to believe in myself. You could say there’s not a single cloud on the horizon. I feel like what I always imagined to be normal. Life feels a lot lighter as if she sun has consistently started shining and it shines through in my There’s more for you to read!
Too functional to suffer
As a child, I went to the paediatrician for my lungs. I only have exercised induced asthma so it’s not that serious, but at the time it was bothering me when I cycled to school. They did a few tests and could only provide me with an inhaler. However, the paediatrician also wanted me to do a fitness test. Apparently, she There’s more for you to read!
Scrapping ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’?
While Trump has just banned transgenders from the military, Amsterdam announced that they will henceforth only use gender-neutral language. Just two weeks earlier, the London Underground announced to scrap ‘ladies and gentlemen’ for a gender-neutral greeting and yesterday the NS, the biggest train operator in the Netherlands announced that they will do the same. I think this is a great There’s more for you to read!
The Right to Die
Why are you so concerned about the way someone else lives their life? Who are you to decide whether someone has to live or not? Do you feel the pain and suffering that this person has to go through? Have you spoken to the individual and listened to their pain and suffering? I am talking to you, Kees van der There’s more for you to read!
‘I’m not as good as that person’ – pressure at University
‘I’m not good enough. I’m not as good as that person,’ is a thought that crosses my mind on a weekly basis and a thought that Chloe Price had too while at university, as written in a post recently published by the Guardian: ‘The party’s over – how tuition fees ruined university life‘. The article discusses a lot of topics There’s more for you to read!
So I had a Job Interview
Today I attended a job interview for a position as a signpost mentor. I had been looking for jobs because I felt like I wanted to do something meaningful, I guess. What I mean by that is that I wanted to feel like I was doing something useful. ‘What are you doing over the summer vacation?’ ’em… nothing.’ Been there, done There’s more for you to read!
Accepting my Dutch past
Over the last two years, I only visited the Netherlands for a total of two weeks. I left the country no longer feeling at home and when I came back to visit for a short period of time everything felt peculiar. I wrote about it in a blog post then. I felt like an outsider who knew the insider’s secrets There’s more for you to read!
Writing and Mental Health
On the 16th of March, Gwyneth Lewis (a Welsh poet) gave a talk on Writing on Mental Health at my university. I was interested because I’m a writer and I have struggled with depression myself. I wanted to know more about the relation between writing and mental health and one of the first points that Gwyneth gave immediately spoke to There’s more for you to read!
Sausage and Mash
Grace entered her girlfriend’s apartment with the spare key that she was given months ago. It had a little wooden sheep attached to the keychain with the words ‘Love ewe’. They bought one for each other during their first trip together in Inverness. The white fur of the sheep had now turned into a brownish yellow with grey edges and There’s more for you to read!
I lost ‘that one person’
I lost ‘that one person’. It’s a post I wrote that I am unable to read back. We struggled with the distance but we struggled more with other things. They don’t matter now. I broke up with her and I broke her heart. It must change something permanently. No matter what, she will never be able to see me the There’s more for you to read!
To belong or not; anxiety
I just finished writing an essay on Harry Potter for my children’s literature module. In my essay, I talk about the quest motif, and in specific about Harry’s quest for identity. When Harry discovers that he is a wizard and belongs in the wizarding world his identity changes. Suddenly he feels like he belongs somewhere as he is amongst ‘his’ There’s more for you to read!
Drinking alcohol or not
To drink alcohol or not to drink alcohol, is a question that runs through my mind way too often. I don’t know if I want to drink. Personally, I don’t feel like it. Socially I do. In a way, coming to a university in the UK was a mistake. The drinking culture is crazy. People drink to get drunk. The end. A There’s more for you to read!