Be kind to yourself
Luisa, 91黑料不打烊’s music choral captain, urges us to reconsider the judgements we make of ourselves.
I have a multitude of procrastination methods, but my most recent habit is checking my phone; not to look at social media, but to check my daily horoscope prediction! Yesterday, when I opened the app it told me, “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Other people will do that job for you.”
This felt a bit too personal, as I am well known for putting lots of unnecessary pressure on myself, whether it’s around assessment results or co-curricular commitments. I am the first to admit that I often find myself getting overwhelmed and forgetting to take breaks, so I would probably benefit from practising what I preach! Nevertheless, I’ve come to realise that to be able to give out free life advice, you need to be either really insightful, or just have a loud voice (you can decide which one applies to me).
I am someone who constantly says yes to everything that comes my way. This is both a blessing and a curse, as I often find myself swamped in different musicals, choirs, major works and other random co-curriculars. When my schedule becomes busy, I find myself worrying about how well I’m doing, wondering if I could have performed better, or stressing about fulfilling my own expectations of myself. It’s moments like these where I have had to realise that owning my story includes being kind to myself and sometimes accepting that I need a day off. Everyone has that little voice in their head that loves to tell them that they aren’t doing enough, (I named mine Tori last week), and it’s important to realise that at the end of the day, no-one is a harsher critic than Tori is.
As you may know, it is International Women’s Day today, and I think we can all use this as an opportunity to reflect on the judgements we make of ourselves. Especially, in light of everything that is happening in the world right now, and all the uncertainty that surrounds us, one thing we can do is focus on controlling the controllables.
To be able to own your story, you must let yourself fail and accept that you can’t control what’s happening around you, but you can control how you respond. For example, you may not be able to stop the West Commons ceiling from leaking, but you sure can put a bucket under it!
So the next time you look at your horoscope app for inspiration, life guidance, or giggles, think of me and Tori and remember to be kind to yourself.
Luisa, Year 12
Music Choral Captain 2021/2022