It has been a while!!!!! Too long. I took a break from writing late last year, I had been struggling a lot with my mental health, something I will talk about in another blog post soon. I have SO many blog posts written out, my phone notes are FULL of them, but so much anxiety over posting them. I just got into a horrible habit of picking them apart, never thinking they were good enough, but I’m working on it, particularly during lockdown where writing became my escape again. Although I wasn’t sharing what I was writing, it really helped me remember how much I loved sharing my experiences and my thoughts. This one gave me a little hope as I was reading it back, so I thought maybe some of you have been struggling too? Maybe it could give you a little hope too? And end my “writing block” at the same time. Or maybe it will just give you something to read, to pass the time, and give you a little food for thought…

It’s been a horrible year so far, no one can deny that. Many people have lost their lives, many of you, including myself have lost loved ones, there has been so much tragedy, and I am so sorry for your losses. I pray for anyone who has lost loved ones to Covid 19 or any of the other tragedies of 2020 so far, I pray you and your families have the strength to get through this and come out stronger than ever. But maybe there is a tiny little bit of comfort in knowing the people you have lost have played a part in possibly changing the world forever…

I saw a quote today by Leslie Dwight and it really put into words so many things I have been thinking over the last couple months.. maybe 2020 isn’t the year that everything went wrong… maybe it shouldn’t be “cancelled”, maybe 2020 is the year we NEEDED. Maybe 2020 was a cleanse. 2020 was the world screaming at us to change and us finally accepting that we need to. Clean up our act and clean up our planet, in more ways than one. We’re not even halfway through and already the people in power are starting to realise things that they previously brushed under the carpet, things we always knew and many of us have been fighting for, for years, but maybe it took the madness of 2020 for the people who can actually make change to start realising.

They’ve realised how much we were destroying the environment, that we can slow down and still be okay. That we don’t NEED to be producing all the pollution we were producing, the earth needs us to slow down, in just a few weeks of working from home air pollution was MASSIVELY reduced. We CAN reduce pollution so much just by working from home more, by schooling from home more. We can live more sustainably by reducing wastage, properly using all the food we have in our homes, being more selective of the clothes we buy and taking care of them better, reducing plastic packaging by making our own bread and our cookies, it WAS possible, we always KNEW it was needed, we just never had a need to do it until now. Of course I’m not saying all our environmental concerns are now solved, far far from it, but it is a good step in good direction, maybe it’s the first domino falling, maybe it is making us ALL take a good hard look at how we treat the environment and what steps we can take to help, I know I have.

They are realising how AMAZING women can be in positions of power, how Male leadership is NOT in any way better than Female leadership. That women can be just as good if not BETTER than men at everything that they thought we couldn’t do. That we will no longer accept being paid less or treated unfairly. 2020 FINALLY got rid of the period pad and tampon tax after YEARS of campaigning. Did you know up until 2020, tampons and sanitary towels were taxed and regarded as a LUXURY GOOD? Wow. Women leaders are being praised in the media like never before, women CEOs and female empowerment brands are getting recognized like never before. The gender pay gap is being looked into in more detail than ever before… misogyny is no longer being so openly normalized, it’s being called out, constantly!

They are realising that people are no longer afraid to speak up. Sexual harassment laws are being made stricter left right and centre because of everything ALL OF YOU brave beautiful people have been doing. People are coming forward who have never come forward before. Questions like “what were you wearing when you were raped” are being called out more than ever before and the definition of CONSENT is being hammered into everyone, as it should be.

They are realising that they can no longer hide behind a “your word against mine” narrative. The rich are finally being called out for favourable treatment, social media uproars are forcing justice to be given correctly, everything is documented, everything is recorded, injustice is being played out for the world to see, the “he said she said” pretext is being destroyed and people can no longer turn a blind eye and get away with it when there is solid proof in front of them.

They’ve started to realise that not allowing people to practice their religions, will almost always come back to them in some way. They arrested Muslims for covering their faces, now they are all being forced to cover their faces. They called them letter boxes, now they are fighting to order enough supplies so everyone can be a “letter box”. They mocked them for not shaking hands, now no one wants to shake hands. They laughed because we washed our hands and arms and everything 5 times a day so we could pray, now they are advising the country to wash their hands for 20 seconds multiple times a day… They are learning to let people live… because if you don’t, one day you may end up eating your words.

And just recently, within the space of a few days, following the horrible heart breaking death of George Floyd, the days of protests, the massive petitions, and the media and social media uproar, it really does seem like they are realising that their racism can’t go on.. For the first time in HISTORY, massive corporations are being forced to publicly condemn an act of police brutality. These officers have not been convicted yet, they have not been found guilty yet, they haven’t even had a trial yet, but massive corporations are publicly condemning it. Publicly having to show how they are supportive of ethnic minorities and how they are going to help people of colour moving forward. For the first time in HISTORY, it is not enough for them to say they are not racist, or make a statement about how they accept all types of people, they are now having to SHOW what they are doing to help people who are not being treated equally, show HOW they are anti-racist.

Maybe some of you will argue that they are doing it so they don’t lose business, they don’t actually care, but in my opinion, and forgive me if I’m wrong but I don’t think that’s the point. Of course, many of them are doing it for the business, money is what drives everything, but companies are actually thinking they MUST take a stand against racism or else they will lose money, that is amazing. The whole justice system is SHOOK, the biggest petition in the HISTORY of change.org, the whole world screaming and the officers FINALLY getting charged correctly, it took days but we MADE it happen. There are petitions pushing for the DEATH penalty (please have a scroll through my BLM highlight on my Instagram page for more information on all of this and other petitions to sign), make an example of the officers, tell the world that injustice like this will NOT be tolerated on any level. Big corporations are what we need, these big billionaire companies are who support people like Trump thinking he will give them favourable treatment, but once they all realise their support of his racism is losing them money, they will stop, they can’t afford not to. This is the change we needed, the whole world screaming together, pushing out the racism of the people in power. I prayyyy we can see this through and see a real long-term change. I pray one by one we can push out all types of discrimination and any injustice going on in the world. It feels like we are on the right track…

I know, 2020 might have been the worst year for us so far. Covid 19 affected so many of us, physically and mentally. We lost people, we were forced to stay home and stay away from people we love. We were stopped from doing the things we love doing like going out, going to the cinema, the beach, even ordering food, going shopping, shopping online, all changed and felt so strange; it affected so many of us mentally, including myself.

The last few days particularly have really affected me, I had panic attacks and nightmares, I couldn’t get images of people dying at the hands of the police out of my head, I couldn’t get the names out of my head. I couldn’t help feeling like as someone who considers herself to be “woke” and as someone who constantly raises awareness for injustice and discrimination on her platform, that I had failed so many people. All the names I had never heard, the deaths I had never raised awareness for, the things I had never thought about before, it broke me. But I have never seen people come together like this before. I have never seen so much philanthropy, so much fundraising, so much awareness for injustice before, EVERY SINGLE STATE IN AMERICA PROTESTING THE SAME THING, I can’t EVER remember that happening before. I have never seen so many people checking each other for making racist jokes, or sexist jokes, or discriminatory jokes, ever before. I have never seen so many CELEBRITIES and INFLUENCERS publicly condemning the people in power before. I have never seen so many people checking THEMSELVES before, admitting faults or mistakes in themselves or their communities before. I have never seen so many people click on my petition links before, I have NEVER raised so much money in such a short space of time before! I could go on…

Maybe we needed this year… a year to pause and look at so many of the things we were doing wrong, a chance to correct mistakes, and apologise for the damage we have caused, maybe 2020 was our detox…

I know we are so so far away from where we need to be, I know there are so many things wrong and so many people suffering all over the world, but it really does feel like for ONCE people are actually listening. Let’s not give up. Let’s not become complacent with this little bit of awareness. Let’s make sure we never stop. There is so much we can achieve and so much we can change if we just work together, fight for justice together, support each other and KEEP checking ourselves and everyone around us, learning together, being better TOGETHER. There is only one goal, equality for all. Safety and happiness for ALL. You can only be for equality or against it, and being for it means you are for equality of ALL people, regardless of their skin colour, their beliefs, their illnesses, their disabilities, how much money they make, who they choose to love, what they choose to wear and where they choose to live.

I love you all and let’s keep doing what we are doing. Raise awareness, support each other, fight against injustice in all forms. Sure, we might come across some obstacles, or some things that make us sad. If you saw my story the other day about the followers I lose every time I speak about injustice happening in the world, or how many I lose every time I try share how we can help people and fight for people who can’t fight for themselves, of course that upsets me, not because I care about the followers, but because I can’t believe that people wouldn’t want to know how they can HELP PEOPLE, but we can’t ever let that stop us. We can’t ever stop fighting, because we can all make a difference no matter how small you think your action is. Your small donation still helps ONE person, one person in the world is better off because of you, your ONE signature on a petition might inspire someone else to sign it too, your ONE post raising awareness, might influence someone else to share it too, see how when you wear a cute top to work someone will ask where it’s from and go out and buy the same one? You influenced them; this is the same concept. Whether you have 10 followers, or 10,000, you are still influencing people and that is amazing. Use your voice, no voice is too small, and all our voices screaming the same thing together? That is the most beautiful sound.

Love you all and I hope you are all well and staying safe! If you have anything to add or even anything you don’t agree with, please comment below. I try to educate myself as much as I can with everything that happens in the world and share what I know but I know for sure I miss things out too so please do educate me too. I know I also discussed some sensitive topics and while I try my best to articulate myself correctly, we all make mistakes, so if there is anything I’ve said that doesn’t sit right with you or you need me to clarify, please let me know x

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