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Showing posts from July, 2021

The 'right kind' of grief

I wasn’t sure how I would write this one because it seemed so strange to be writing about it and I wanted to get it right. Then I thought about it and decided that ‘hang on a second…. I’m the one who decides whether it’s right or not!’ And so here we are, me just doing my thing. A year ago, I wrote about finishing my first week at my job post-uni . It was an odd week. At the beginning, I was finally starting my post-uni life and embarking on a career, I’d bought my own car, COVID seemed to be somewhat under control. Sadly, on the Friday morning, I woke up to discover that my grandma had passed away asleep in the night. It wasn’t a death which came as a huge shock to us. She was 92, and had suffered for a number of years with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, which got markedly worse over the year before she died. But of course, it hurt, because she was somebody so very important in my life, a figure who had been there throughout. In my mind, I don’t remember her as she was, I remem

Some thoughts on England, 2021

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You know something? I’ve been trying to start writing this for the last couple of days now. But every time I go to start, I just stare at a white screen and ask myself whether there’s any point. I don’t really have anything new to add, nor do I even know exactly what to say. So I’m not going to worry about having anything new to add, I’m just here to write down some of the thoughts in my head, and if you find it interesting, well, that’s just an added bonus. For a long time, I’ve struggled to identify with this: I’m sure most of you will recognise this as Saint George’s Cross, which the English adopted as their national flag many centuries ago. Most people would feel some kind of pride when they see their country’s flag or feel safe and secure. For me, the English flag has never represented that. For me, this flag is linked to lots of the negative things that appeared following the end of the Euro 2020 final. Now, before I continue – I know full well that not all English people are rac