Gay Rights in the USA

This video has been going around the social networking sites and when I first saw the link I figured it was a news report related to gay rights in some way. I wasn't expecting such a moving and important video. I literally had tears running down my face by the end. I felt an overwhelming sadness about the hate that so many people have inside them and how that effects so many people in our country. The stories of young boys who have taken their own lives because of bullying and society constantly reinforcing that there is something wrong with them hurt me the most. I have many more emotions and thoughts to share about this but first want you to please take the time to watch this video, I think it's pretty important.

Violence Unsilenced- A survivors' blog

I stumbled across this pretty amazing website through a facebook friend. It is a blog for women who are survivors of violence. The premise of the site is really quite simple. It is a place for people to share their stories of violence and abuse in a safe and supportive way. This site was created to be a safe space for a person to write down their experiences in black and white, sometimes saying it out loud for the very first time. It is a place to get supportive comments from other survivors or just people who care. It can often be difficult to explain the complexities of abuse to friends, family members, or current partners and this platform can give someone the power to share with an audience who doesn't know them personally but can still understand their feelings and emotions. It is also for people to understand that they are not alone.

New Year's Resolutions

People generally try to make new year's resolutions at the dawning of each new year.... those who don't usually are vehemently against them as they see it as a time for people to make goals that they barely try to achieve... or there are the few that forget or just don't care enough to make a change in their lives. Usually I fall into the first category but end up the person that the second category despises,  so on this January 4th I find myself unsure of how to proceed. This year seems to be a big one in London with the Olympics coming to town and all, it also happens to be the year of my ten year high school reunion... lesser milestones would be turning 28 and a 4 year wedding anniversary.  It all feels like a lot of pressure so when my partner asks me what my resolutions are this year I find myself unable to decide. I don't want to just blurt out all of the regular things I want to change about myself but haven't yet been able to succeed but want to come up with something more... something do-able, something that will finally pull me up out of this rut. I do feel like I've made positive changes in the last year (some probably related to last years resolutions, or so I can hope!) including starting to heal some deep down emotional scars that hold me back from getting on with some of the more external goals I have for myself. So in that respect I do feel like I've taken steps to get out of this proverbial rut but I guess it's easier to gauge the more external factors in my life which I haven't been able to conquer yet.

So with some reflection, I've decided that I will have some resolutions for 2012 along with measurable steps to attain these goals. This year my resolutions will not be ones for the new year but instead for the 28th year of my life (or shall I say 29th?) so I have two weeks to fully put my thoughts together and come up with something realistic but continuing in the right direction. Here's to the 28 year old Becky getting past the writing stage and taking a few more steps to make life easier and a bit happier :)