Saturday, 13 September 2014

Labels

Labels. We sure like labels. You know what I mean? What we call ourselves and each other. I am a wife, a mother,  a student and a bucket load of other things. I am all of them, yet I am none of them. Why? Because they are just words, and words may label me but they don't define me. There aren't enough words and phrases to just sum me up in a nice neat little package. 

There is an amount of weight behind these labels, a value that we place on them. Being a mother is one thing, then there are stay at home mums and working mums. Each of these things has a different weight. They are valued differently depending on who you are talking to, the situation you are in. 

Why do we label?  In a way it helps us organise our little world, and that's not always a bad thing. It becomes a bad thing when we value labels differently, or less than we should. You're a stay at home mum? Don't you care about yourself/house/family enough to work? You're a working mum? Don't you car about you family/kids/house enough and stay at home to do everything?

See what I mean?

In the end the label doesn't really matter. We are all of the labels and none of the labels. Not words but people, and all of it counts.

Monday, 1 September 2014

All worked up

I've been feeling pretty worked up over the last week- I have essay deadlines looming and a brain that didn't really want to be productive. 

The bare minimum got me through without feeling like I'd done nothing, but left me feeling uneasy. So I calculated. I figured out an estimation of time for each essay, how many days left minus my lectures and I felt better. 

That was until I didn't. Feel better that is- I woke up two days ago with a cold. Gah! Amazingly day one and two were quite productive thanks to the reading is done last week (maybe it wasn't really bare minimum after all?) but today has been a big fat wipeout. No work was done due to feeling really crappy. 

So no the pressure is really on, but it leaves me with the question- which is better for my mental well being? 1) letting myself be sick in order to recuperate quicker, then work my fingers to the bone and my brain to breaking point to get an A. 2) work while sick so I don't feel 'behind' 3) be sick, and get what I can done, and if the mark is less than usual accept it and move on. 

I have no idea, but it is what it is- I like to get good marks...but...well I'll be okay either way, won't I?!