Dera's Diary

Saying 'I am not racist' means nothing. Just like with everything else in life, words are meaningless if not backed up with action. We can claim whatever we want, but ultimately are our words consistent with our actions? Don't get me wrong, words can be so powerful in instances of racism. Saying something can mean everything. But empty statements like 'I'm not racist' without consistent actions to back them up mean nothing. Just wanted to throw that in there :) It's been a really crazy year, and there are still two months left! Can't wait to see what happens next... I'm really grateful for 2020 though. It's been a really tough year, but it was so completely necessary. Like those who lived through revolutionary years of time past, we will remember 2020. It was a year of 'waking up'. Technology makes it ao easy to be so connected and yet so out-of-touch. Our feed only shows us things we've already searched for. It makes it so easy to

I don't even know where to start. Simple stuff first. I'm on midterm now. But the thing is once you enter higher education, you spend your school time wanting a break and your break time doing school work. It's an endless cycle that only really ends at your retirement. I'm blessed enough to be surrounded by a group of the most ambitious people to have ever walked the earth and it definitely encourages me to keep going and chasing my dreams. Beyond that, I'm encouraged to keep studying cause when all youir friends our pulling all-nighters, you know you have to step up your own game. Aside from all that stuff, Nigeria is struggling. The corruption of our police force isn't new news. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that. But this whole SARS thing is definitely news to me. And what makes it particulalry upsetting is that the world is trying to handle racism. We're trying to destroy discrimination against black people. And yet, we have bla

I'm going to talk about something a bit different today. I call it 'speaking out'. I'm sure the whole world calls it that though:) For such a long time, I would hear stories of or watch people stay in horrible situations. And I just couldn't understand it. They would say it's because of love or because they believe that people can change. I could never grasp it. I'm a bit more empathic now. Having experienced a few more situations I truly believe that what people really fear is consequences. When people do major unethical things to us, we tend to hide or gaslight ourselves because we are subconsciously scared of what happens when we speak out. We're scared that someone will go to jail, or be isolated, or lose their job and family and that we will have that hanging on our consciencies. I get that now. But even though I completely understand that fear, I still think it's completely irrational. How are our minds capable of making us the villains when w

Dear diary, This week I was pretty scared that I would have to share one of my unpopular opinions. I think these days of technology make it so easy to cancel people and it devalues listening to and respecting people's opinions. I was pretty scared of being cancelled. But I've learnt that the only things I can do are prepare my "arguments", give others the grace I want to receive and move on. I can only worry about what may or may not happen... but I never know for sure that it will happen. I'm tired of giving worry so much power over me. Worrying about what people will think and about people not forgiving me. I'm tired of it and I'm done with it too. I encourage you all to leave it in your past as well. God bless. Dera