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Showing posts from March, 2012

modern social context

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Here I am again, in an all too familiar environment, everyone is asleep and I find myself amongst the quiet recesses of my dimly lit living room. My highlighters, pens and journal articles are scattered across the table and chairs. An observer would say this is what utter chaos and disorder looks like, although I contend, this looks like productivity. I enjoy this, despite how unhealthy it is for a recovering insomniac. There's a feeling that I cannot dispel, these quiet moments invoke inspiration. I haven't anticipated on staying up all night, it was a habit that I thought I was finally rid of. But alas, here I am wrapped in a blanket and sitting before my laptop. I've got to be more organised and motivated. We live in an increasingly connected society, this is the accelerated digital age. One of the qualms of this age is that we seek to remain connected to people through social networking, yet we fail to really connect to people in our day to day lives. Personally, I

BHK

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Recently I've been thinking about a childhood friend of mine, I often wondered when things started to go wrong. We were always together; we joined the choir, keyboard classes and the school dance groups together. Whenever people made fun of how clumsy she was, I defended her. I've always known how difficult things were at home for her, I've seen how tough her parents were. Slowly but surely, we drifted apart as high school progressed. A few years ago, I ran into her parents on the train. They were really disappointed in her, she didn't live up to their ideals. She was kicked out of her home by her own parents, I know her sister misses her dearly. I wish her parents would just accept her as she is. A little bit of parental pressure can be a good thing, but an excessive amount leads to rebelling. Today she has chosen to turn to illicit drugs, her idea of fun involves alcohol and a concoction of pills. It makes me feel so disheartened to see her like this and I know

anomalies

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Usually at job interviews, I end up talking to other applicants. At my last interview, I became friends with one of the other interview attendees. We're live in the same suburb, share a friendship with the same childhood friend and we just really clicked. The interview was really competitive, I guess I'm not that surprised I didn't get the job. Even though I wasn't successful, the interview seminar was a good experience in itself. Not to mention it was the first time that I actually kept in contact with the someone I met at an interview. I was disappointed but I didn't feel that way for very long. I learned a lot about myself and I've made a new acquaintance. I certainly didn't feel this liberated from any previous interviews. Tonight I received an email from an employer from five years ago, T. She asked everyone to come hang out and have a drink for old time's sake. I never noticed how fast time has progressed, sometimes I need to be reminded that t

social assimilation

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We're all expected to lead a certain life, but who is to dictate the confines of normality? We go through years of education and training, get married, have kids, shoulder a mortgage and live a fruitful life. People are often shocked to hear that marriage or children are not part of my plan for life. They're shocked because marriage and children are qualities which define a woman, I don't believe in that. In fact, I am often quite offended by this one dimensional thinking. When I read that a certain female politician was judged by fellow politicians and certain religious groups about her choices, I thought it was completely out of line. Who is to say that a person who chooses to live a life without religion, children or even marriage is going to be a bad person or make bad choices? Is it not right for someone to shape their own life according to how they see fit? Don't get me wrong, my friends have children and I adore them. I just can't picture myself as a mot