Quote of Note

"Mental imbalance is about as acceptable as herpes. It’s never going to be accepted. But really, it’s a disease just like cancer. It just happens, and eats away all the good parts of your brain, like judgment and happiness and perception and memory and life. And you can die from depression just like any other disease. And it’s not as if people choose it. So why is it still a joke of medicine? “She died of cancer” is a lot more socially acceptable to people than “She committed suicide.” Why?"

You. Yes you. You are absolutely, one hundred percent, draw droppingly gorgeous. 
No, don't shrug your shoulders like that and tell me I'm wrong.
I don't care that your eyes are just a little too close together, or that your teeth are skew. You are amazing.

If you're looking for a sign, this is it. Go find that special guy and tell him how you feel. Just ask her on a date already!

You're only young once, so don't let anyone make you feel less than a hundred percent happy.

And for those of you who think it's too late to be happy...

What the hell are you doing? How old are you...16, maybe 17? Did you ever once think about how you're wasting your life? 

Stop thinking about whatever broke you, it’s not worth it. Stop moping around and being down in the dumps just be happy. You're only young once and this is where you need to forget about everything that doesn't make you happy.

 You're only a teenager...go with the flow and just chill. Stop being unhappy with yourself, you are wonderful. Stop wishing you could be like someone else. Take chances. Tell the truth. Date somebody utterly wrong for you. Spend all your money. Get to know someone arbitrary. Be random. Sing out loud. Laugh at stupid jokes. Tell someone how much they mean to you. Tell the jerk what you feel. Laugh until your stomach hurts. Live life regretting nothing.

The future

I find the future very frighteningly daunting. I mean, sure I also want to grow up, just like everyone else. But the uncertainty of what the future holds scares me most.

I mean, everyday I sit in class, staring out the window wondering who I'll be, and it frightens me immensely that I don't know.

Often I tell myself I can't wait for school to be finished. I can't wait to start university. Then, I start to think about what doing this actually entails. It means I won't live with my parents anymore. It means I don't have teachers to spoon-feed me. It means that pretty much every decision I make will impact my life.

And then, after university, comes real life. Real life holds all the really scary stuff, like paying taxes and getting married. I don't know if I could share my whole life with someone.

I guess, I just wish everything would slow the hell down. We think high school is stressful, but it's probably going to be the least stressful moment for the rest of our lives. So we should go and live it.

Quotes I love

"when was the last time you did something for the first time?"

"there is no such word as 'loved'. Love has no past tense. If you ever stop loving someone, you never truly loved them in the first place."

"I've never told a lie and that makes me a liar; I've never made a bet but we gamble with desire."

"If every drop in the ocean was an adjective, I still wouldn't adequately be able to describe my feelings for you."

Diagnosis and Doctor Google

Is it just me, or does everyone seem to self-diagnose these days?
It really pushes my buttons when people are all "I'm dyslexic"...no, you just can't spell.
Sure, there really are people who are genuinely dyslexic, but the majority of said "dyslexics" have diagnosed it themselves.

The same thing can be said with depression. Every second person is depressed, and while it can be said that depression has become more socially acceptable, I think that it is extremely misdiagnosed and moreover, over-diagnosed.

The worst about self diagnosis, though, is when people have a bit of a headache and a slightly ticklish throat, and when they google their symptoms, they end up deciding that they're dying of meningitis. 

Fact or fiction?

This is a question I have to keep reminding myself when I read Dan Brown's books. The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol all raise issues which I tend to take at face value and I probably shouldn't.
For instance, Angels and Demons suggests that Galileo Galilei was part of the Illuminati - an anti-church brotherhood who stood up for science. Their emblem is said to be an ambigram (it is identical whichever way you turn it) and this was because of Galilei's love for symmetry.
To me, this makes a lot of logical sense, but in googling it, it shows that Galilei was born about a century too soon for this to be possible.

However, they were right in saying that George Washington was a Freemason.

Sisterhood - A celebration of being a woman

‘I'm very proud to be a woman. I've been one my whole life.’ – Ellen DeGeneres

The bra. The medical syringe. Chocolate-chip cookies. Windscreen wipers. Bullet-proof vests.  Disposable diapers. The electric dishwasher.  What do all these things have in common? They were all invented by a woman. Not the same woman, of course. (Now that would be a brilliant - yet potentially unstable woman!)

So, without women, as well as not being able to reproduce, we would be left with dirty dishes, unruly breasts, and terrible visibility on the roads.

Along with arguments as to whether or not windscreen wipers are an important invention that can be accredited to women, there are numerous arguments about the stereotypical idea of women being bad drivers. Women are said to be negligent drivers, something that men usually blame on their ‘emotional instability’. Another car would have driven into the woman, but it would have been because ‘she had a rough day’ and ‘didn’t stop in time’.

Women are usually made out to be whiny, emotional and sensitive, and when women are anything but cheerful, it is generally due to ‘that time of month.’

Then, men have this idea of a stepford wife, who smells of cookies and spends every day baking. She enjoys watching rugby all day, and always makes sure there is an unlimited supply of beer and biltong in the house at all times.

As well as the pressure of having to live up to the expectations a man has of how his future wife ought to act, a woman must also bring in at least half of the household’s income, if they are not already the primary breadwinner. This does not, however, negate their role as a main care-giver and making sure that their offspring attends ballet, French and piano lessons every week.

What do we really need men for anyway? If every man had to drop dead right this second, the world wouldn’t end. Humans would not even die out due to sperm banks and women already carrying their ‘precious loads’. On the other hand, if every female had to die, besides men being completely apathetic and not even attempting a solution, the species would not ever continue.

The Black Widow Spider expresses a similar idea, if not the epitome of my thought process.  After conception, the female bites off the male’s head – if this isn’t concrete proof that women do, indeed, hold more purpose than men, then I don’t know what is.

Throughout society, women have always had a vital (if not dignified) role in society. Women have been used to link families through marriage, they have been used to gain political power and they have been used to raise the next generation.  Women have been repressed in terms of their freedom and choice, but we have always had women in the past to look up to (Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale…need I say more?) When Joan Jett began to start her band, the Runaways, she was told that ‘girls don’t play electric guitar.’ She broke the stereotype, and formed the first ever all-girl rock band.

An illustration a bit closer to home is the political stance in South Africa. Kwa-Zulu Natal is run by the African National Congress, which essentially, is being run by a group of men; the Western Cape, however, falls under the ruling of the Democratic Alliance, which is run by a woman. Comparing the cleanliness of the beaches, the overall state of the cities and the general efficiency of the two would be like comparing pears and apples. While Durban city centre is too dangerous to walk through and reeks of the rubbish decorating the pavements, Cape-Town is free of these litterbugs.

 So now people begin to think, ‘well that’s great. It really is. Women can change light bulbs. But what do women really have to celebrate in terms of their achievements? Well. We can celebrate our liberation and freedom. We now have our free will to make our own choices, we have independence and we’ve broken stereotypes.

Also, we can use our ‘weaknesses’ to our advantage. When a woman gets pulled over and the policeman is about to give her a ticket of being a metre over the stop-sign, she can start up the waterworks with ease, and tell the cop that she really is sorry, and it’s just been one of those days, and nine times out of ten she’ll get herself out of the ticket.

In the same way, men will nearly always get squeamish when you mention anything to do with menstruation, and this can get you out of PE almost always.

Women have succeeded in breaking gender stereotypes, but we haven’t quite reached gender equality. While women can be lawyers and doctors now, and while I am not discrediting the existence of such, I have yet to meet a female plumber, or a male nurse.

I yearn for the day when we can accept that ‘an incredible person’ did something, not questioning whether the said incredible person was a male or not.

In my view, this is when we’ll experience true gender equality. 

My apology

I haven't blogged in over 3 months.
That is literally the saddest thing I have ever heard.
And I don't even have a proper excuse.
So, I promise to blog. At least once a week.