Unfiltered Thoughts

I often find myself saying “I’m sorry” to people. I miss a social cue (forgetting to ask how someone is in return) or just behave awkwardly (blanking on words to say in conversation) and I later realise how uncomfortable that must have been for the other person and I can’t help but apologise. I knock myself on the head and hope that, next time, I’ll do better. I will be the perfect conversationalist. Yeah…that one I’m still working on. I tend to overthink social situations. I know I’m a kind and genuine person and I want that to shine through so badly that I end up planning conversations in my head, which never go to plan in real life, leaving me having said or done something awkward. Isn’t that paradoxical, that I want to come across as kind and genuine, and express my true, weird self, but I just end up being more awkward because I put pressure on myself to execute this conversating masterplan? I always say that I am a better writer than a speaker. And I don’t, by any means, m...

A recent tragedy struck the City of Manchester, England, in the form of a terrorist attack at a concert, killing 22 people and injuring 59. It is sad to say that these attacks are no longer unexpected. It has been released that the attacker who carried it out was a Muslim. But why is it that, after these attacks, we enter a period where hate crimes are more prevalent against Muslims? The ignorance we display towards Muslims is almost as shocking as these attacks. *There are over 2.7 million people identifying as Muslim residing in the UK, and over 1.5 billion in the world. Less than 2% of the terrorist attacks in Europe in the past five years have been carried out by Muslims. Yet we still label all Muslims as terrorists after an attack carried out by a few purported (extremist) Muslims. The Oxford Dictionary definition of terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”, meaning there are many occurrences...

When it comes to mental health, our society has become more liberal and we have become so much better at acknowledging it. However, we have much further to go in how we treat those suffering mental health issues. We tend to try not to get too close with them as though they carry a contagious disease. The last thing people need, however, is to feel even more isolated than such issues can already make them feel. We also, as a society, do not like to come across as too eager or be involved in deep, important discussions. But it is this lack of communication and love that drives loneliness and individualism, which inevitably leads to problems for all of us, and especially disables us in reaching out to those who need help. Many of us will happily spend two minutes thinking about an individual from a distance but will not actually show love to them as we don’t want their burdens to be placed on us. And yes, we all have our own lives to get on with, our own problems to deal with, but wh...