Dera's Diary

Hey, Yesterday, I was playing soccer with a group of my classmates during our sports time. It wasn't a really serious game and there was a lot more laughter than actual playing. I remember going to defend when the opposite team was taking a corner kick and getting whacked in the face by the ball. It was painful, to say the least. My teammates were saying sorry through their laughs (not that I can blame them, it was probably really funny:)) and I was just trying to get off the field. After a few seconds of trying to find a safe spot away from the game (without succeeding), I decided to go back on the field. I'd hardly been back on 3 minutes when everyone was laughing again. I wasn't sure if they were still laughing at the hit to my face or if something new was happening. It was about me, that much I was sure of. They were laughing and looking at me and saying 'that's not okay','that's not right' to the guy who had apparently said something racist. I

Hello, I've been meaning to talk about this for a while now... It's the first time I can remember having a title for the post before I wrote it. So, I'm just completely flabbergasted by social media sometimes; by the power it has over us, by the precious time I spend just scrolling and about the entitlement we feel on it. Don't get me wrong, I understand that everyone has their own opinions and whether or not you're allowed to share them, you will have them. I know that. But I don't understand why we feel entitled or justified in trolling or hating on people on social media. Maybe this is way more complex than I'm making it sound so I'll try to be specific to what I'm talking about. Someone will post something, like a picture or something and there'll be comments telling them they've added weight or something. Or someone will make a huge life decision, and because we're their followers, we feel entitled to an explanation. This probably

Hey, I struggled a lot this week. It was one of those situations where everything I had been feeling recently compounded and crashed on me at the same time. Add that to some not-so-great academic situations and my feeling of having more work than I was capable of doing and I was an overheating computer; slow and stuck. I remember feeling so drained by Tuesday, feeling like the whole week had already passed by. I can give no easy advice if you feel like this too. But I can tell you what worked for me; talking to people, writing down all the work and allocating time to each task (chances are it's not as much as it feels), crying (Can't emphasise this enough. You don't have to cry, but if you feel like it, do it!), and trusting God. As I move further in life, only more work is going to attach itself to me. But I guess I determine whether it greets me or attacks me. Some days will be tougher than others, but God is real and He's working. Basking in that knowledge is the f

Good evening everyone, Welcome to February, the best month of the year (but I may be biased...). Something about the beginnning of this month really struck me. I felt the newness of it the way we feel the newness of a new year. For some reason I just had a deep feeling that great things would happen this month. Because of the way life is, I've experienced some tough things since then, but that hasn't dimmed my hope of what is yet to come. Apparently this last week was mental health awareness week (goes to show you just how much I still have to learn). But in the theme of mental health, have you been taking care of yours lately? Mental health week might be over, but there is value in prioritising your mental health everyday. Whether that means staying away from things or people that are toxic your mental health, or taking those necessary breaks during the day or maybe even just speaking the truth to yourself when the lies are so much louder. Whatever that looks like for you,