My New Companion // A Eulogy
I’ve been navigating empty spaces lately. Tracing the outlines of where someone once was, wearing their clothes and sifting through paper trails. Grief of this kind is akin to shuffling around in a pitch-black room, feeling the contours of unknown furniture with outstretched hands and piecing together a mental map of the new confines of your life. This task has been made all the harder by how unprepared I was, where I’ll forever be left longing for a goodbye or…
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The Call of the Void
I’ll preface this post by saying that none of this constitutes any qualified opinion or advice regarding mental health. I’m mainly putting this out to raise awareness and give people an idea of the lived experience of a misunderstood mental illness. For resources from charities, health bodies and psychologists, please see the bottom of this page. Cheers. The French call it l’appel du vide, which is a very pretty way of saying ‘the call of the void’. A lot of…
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The Carbon Footprint Paradox
Growing up in Scotland during the noughties, climate change and environmental awareness were a part of the curriculum at both primary and secondary school. I would say that it is safe to assume that including such topics in school has an overall positive affect on the way that children think about the world that surrounds them. Promoting recycling, green energy and water conservation all in the name of saving the planet likely taught us some valuable lessons and worked to…
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Aberdeen Finds Community Spirit Down by the Beach
It’s the first sunrise of a new week, and I’m in my swim trunks down by Fittie Beach. In days gone past the only reason I or anyone else my age would have for being up at this time would be because we haven’t slept yet from the night before, and yet looking around me there seems to be a remarkable turn out of like-minded young people seeking out more Covid-friendly thrills as the sun comes up. We’re all here…
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A North Sea Love Lilt
There’s a curious Scottish myth about selkies, shapeshifting creatures who can transform from seals to humans with the shedding of their skin. It’s a story I can recall my mum reading to me when I was a child. I was, and still am, a bookworm; the type of person who will go happily to bed clutching a favourite story; someone who prefers the company of words and ideas to people and loud places. My mum would perch on the edge…
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Stuck in the House – Blair
Hello there and welcome back to our new feature, Stuck in the House, where we share personal insights and tales from our contributors about their time during lockdown and their reflections about the past year and concerns for the future. We want to create a safe space where young people can discuss life under lockdown and engage openly with the topic of caring for our physical and mental wellbeing. We would like to make clear that all contributions to this series…
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Stuck in the House: Ewan
Hello there and welcome to a new feature, Stuck in the House, where we share personal insights and tales from our contributors about their time during lockdown and their reflections about the past year and concerns for the future. We want to create a safe space where young people can discuss life under lockdown and engage openly with the topic of caring for our physical and mental wellbeing. We would like to make clear that all contributions to this series are…
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Stuck in the House: Charlie
Hello there and welcome to a new feature, Stuck in the House, where we share personal insights and tales from our contributors about their time during lockdown and their reflections about the past year and concerns for the future. We want to create a safe space where young people can discuss life under lockdown and engage openly with the topic of caring for our physical and mental wellbeing. We would like to make clear that all contributions to this series…
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(We need to talk about) flights.
It seems like a lifetime ago now, but there was a time back in January of this year where coronavirus was merely a distant blip on our radars: subject to only a passing, casual mention on the nightly news. Instead of images of face masks and microscopic pathogens our attention was turned toward the Land Down Under, as horrifying footage reached us from the Southern hemisphere showing forests billowing out smog and blackening under ferocious and unrelenting flame. The fires…
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inertia 