Sam Rogers Scribbles

You know the Fergie song Big Girls Don’t Cry? (If you don’t, hit YouTube ASAP.) My favourite line from the song is “I need some shelter of my own protection, baby. To be with myself and centre, clarity, peace, serenity”. It captures a lot of what I aspire to, but all too often forget to actually do!  Whenever I’m walking about in my daily life and get stung with some sort of crazy huge feeling out of the blue, (which is to say, about a thousand times a day) I often go straight to my phone or the person I’m with and start blurting out all this emotion. Which rarely ever gets the perfect reaction, as they are struck with the energy of the emotion I am projecting. We aren't able to effectively communicate through the fizzling flames of feeling, and therefore the other person is often unable to pick up on what we are actually asking for from them. What a pickle.  My partner and I struggle with this to no end. When I ring him and launch into a rant, he doesn’t hear ‘I am

“Which is the greater ecstasy? The man’s or the woman’s? And are they not perhaps the same?” Almost all of us are socialised male or female. On the whole, the female is conditioned as irrational, caring and emotional but without much practical ability. She is encouraged to compromise herself for others and potentially act passively or passive aggressively. Any anger not fully processed and felt by the female, is still there and is likely to seep out in unhealthy behaviour – shame, mockery, punishments. The male, conversely, is conditioned to communicate his feelings much less. He still has the same maddening depth of feeling, but perhaps struggles to demonstrate this. This may lead to destructive or self-destructive actions, as with the woman. What is overwhelmingly clear is that people are not raised to communicate through these enforced gender stereotypes, and we are brainwashed to respect them as though they are real and entrenched. As it happens, they are arbitrary and divisiv

We’re soon to hit April and I wanted to preparations for the month with a giant mug of fruit tea and a conversation about books. We all want to read more, right? And seeing as a large portion of the world is currently stuck inside, it seems as good a time as any to get stuck in. My suggestions: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple One of my favourite books and a tale which explores the difficult themes of abuse, rape and neglect with warmth, compassion and humanity, Purple is a must read.  Following Celie’s story as she battles through life to find her voice, fall in love and start her own business will remind you that even in the hardest of times, humans are resilient, and anything is possible.  I am currently studying a BA in English Literature and recently wrote a high scoring essay on The Color Purple and Orlando , so if you are looking to study these novels yourself and want any resources or fancy a discussion about them, let me know! Virginia Woolf’s

It’s psychologically damaging, isn’t it? Having your routine, your agency, your free will ripped from under you at a moment’s notice. Not to even delve into the medical mystery of it all.  Every lunchtime when I was at school, slumped by the blue PE equipment storage containers, me and my best friend would repeat our mantra ‘stop the world; I want to get off’. But now it’s finally happening, it feels like the sky is pressing down and smothering me. I walk through the city streets with sunglasses shading my watery eyes from view. Being entirely unsettled, and stuck inside with your family, is hard enough for the average human. But even more difficult for adolescents who are plagued with a barrage of mental-health-destroying hormones, complex social relationships and tons of schoolwork.  At the risk of sounding corny, you are not alone. What I mean by this is that you must not be hard on yourself for feeling lethargic, down or frustrated. I feel all of these things too a