Category: Life lessons
2017: The Year of Confidence
At the start of 2017, I was caught up in life. I wrote some blog posts but didn’t publish any of them. I didn’t feel the worst I ever felt, but I wasn’t entirely happy either. It felt like several pieces of a puzzle had been misplaced and thus the year became one of the difficult decisions to try and There’s more for you to read!
In between places
During one of my writing modules this semester, we discussed liminal spaces; places that are in-between, border places or places in transition like an airport, travelling on a bus or train and places like universities. For a lot of students, university is a place of transition. Students move to a place away from home where they can start building their new lives and There’s more for you to read!
A Black Hole of Worries
Am I doing the right thing? Is it right or wrong? Will they think I’m a bad person based on the decision I make? We all have to choose sometimes. At times it can be fairly easy, and it can be overly complicated for others. Most of the decisions I have to make become the latter. I’m fairly confident I There’s more for you to read!
A Surge of Panic
I went to a party the other day. It had been a while since I’d gone out and although I felt anxious about going, I’d convinced myself to go no matter what. The first hurdle came with the dress code. The theme was American Frat party, which sounds easy enough, right? Except it wouldn’t have mattered what the dress code There’s more for you to read!
Time doesn’t stop
For some reason, time didn’t matter when we were young. If I got sick as a child I could stay at home for a week, no problem. I could watch something I like, play a game I enjoyed or do whatever else I desired as long as I stayed in bed and kept warm. It didn’t matter that the other 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!
‘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!
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!
A person is a person
I remember a time in which I thought I was okay with seeing two girls in a romantic relationship but felt like I couldn’t look at them if they were kissing. I think this was the case for me because I could relate to it and that scared me. The key thing that I would like to focus on here There’s more for you to read!
My struggle at University
When I came to university I was afraid that I would not be able to live up to the standards of academic work. Like most, I was also afraid that I might not make any friends and at the same time, I had the slight fear of having chosen a course that I wouldn’t like after all. Then once I There’s more for you to read!
Irrational insecurity
I know my thoughts are irrational. I know you like me and enjoy being my friend. But sometimes I really don’t know and I panic. I become afraid that I’m the most disgusting thing in the world in your eyes. You might dislike the way I sometimes turn away when our eyes meet. Or the way I never stand up There’s more for you to read!