“And remember: the sky is the limit! You can be anything you want to be!”
“Thank you. I want to be a secretary.”
That stopped them short. “What?”
“A secretary,” she repeated.
“But…” they trailed off, dumbfounded. “Why? You could be a CEO, a scientist, a law–”
“I don’t want to be a CEO,” she said. “I want to be a secretary.”
They scoffed. “You want to answer phones all day?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“Schedule appointments?”
“I like organizing.”
“Be a second banana?”
An affirmative nod. “I’m skilled at helping.”
“I just don’t understand,” they said. “HOW could you be okay with all of this?!”
“I enjoy the work.”
“BUT YOU CAN BE WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE!”
“I know.”
“Then WHY?!”
She shrugged.
“Because I want to be a secretary.”
Honestly though, this is very similar to my mom’s experience. She’s always been super bright, but has realized as she’s gotten older that intellectual pursuits just aren’t her jam. She dropped out of her PhD program to have kids, and although she has her master’s and was a pretty good school psychologist, she hated having to make huge decisions. She’s a church secretary now and loves it, and she’s GOOD at it; she’s letting her school psych certification permanently expire this year with zero regrets. If you can be anything you want, that includes the things we don’t tend to value as highly as a society. Not everybody is built for or wants the “respectable” careers.
On a similar note, not everyone needs to be in a leadership position- if you’re good at doing a thing, that doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll be good at leading people to do the thing, or that you should want to lead people to do the thing. There’s lots of stories of really good programmers who become team leads, except they wind up spending most of their time in meetings, pissing on fires, dealing with BS, and telling other people what to program, they turn out to miss programming and turn out to be poor leaders who hinder the people under them, bad blood develops, and then they quit.
I don’t have the social skills or patience to be a team lead. I don’t want to sit in meetings and piss on fires and deal with BS and tell other people what to program; I want to do the programming myself, and I want to get really good at it. I’ll happily leave the decision-making to other people.
It’s perfectly fine to strive for more if that’s what you want, but it’s also perfectly fine to want to stay where you’re happy. Leaders need skilled people working for them who can make the magic happen.
This is why I have this. Even if they can get the lock opened they can’t push the door open. Got it at Lowes for $20.
reblog for that last bit to save a life
If you’re like me and have a large gap under your front door (someone could take a stick and just poke the leaning stick style door jam out), I recommend the Addalock. It’s small, perfect for traveling, and this lock is CRAZY. It’s so simple but the door does not move.
You can’t see it from the other side, either. It also cost about $20, and I can’t recommend it enough. Easy to travel with, too! Great for Air BnBs!
That’s why I have these on my doors. They get drilled into the side and once its flipped over the door nothing is getting it open. Not the door being unlocked nothing, I’ve unlocked the door and pulled and pushed as hard as I could and it didn’t budge. When I go on a trip this is what I use and when I’m home I leave it on too. No one is getting in here.
Okay I know that it is necessary for many but what do you do if you need medical attention and you’re not able to open the door from the inside? Can the fire department get through these at least?
Yes. The fire department can and will break down your door if necessary, it’s one of the reasons they have axes; it’s entirely possible for door frames to melt/expand/seize or otherwise become unopenable during a house fire but the door itself can be hacked down. Or the window. In rare cases, the wall. Firefighters don’t fuck around with collateral damage when lives are at stake.
a guy in a salvos truck yelled at me and my gf while we were kissing today so I was thinking of this
Do you know, when I was in high-school I went to the mall near my house with my girlfriend to do some Christmas shopping.
We were there, sixteen year old me and seventeen year old her, holding hands and window-shopping, minding our own business.
This Salvation Army shitheel gets aggro about it in the middle of the mall and I’m there totally flabbergasted cause like, it’s christmas
Only, 16!Tabi had even less composure than 26!Tabi, so I lost my fucking mind on her.
Thing is: when I’m really angry, I don’t rage, I go all cold and apparently that freaks people out, because I could see my gf backing up and the lady getting tense and then I realized that anger doesn’t solve problems.
So instead, I started wailing.
Picture this: 5’4, tiny, blonde haired high school girl with her little violin on her back and pearls in her ears just as PTA-approved as could be, full on sobbing in the hallway.
Just, sobbing like my dog’s been shot.
Now my gf’s like, “oh fuck” and the lady’s like “oh fuuuuck!” and I’m here, head thrown back, tears down my cheeks and in that shrill, distressed, /loud/ voice, “WHY WOULD YOU B-b-be so MEAN?! It’s CHRISTMAS!”
And the lady’s like “please stop Oh fuck” because now we have a crowd, and this Molly Weasley of a woman putters over, “what’s the matter, dear?”
And mall security’s coming and this bell ringer is looking very uncomfortable so I just look at this matronly ellen-watching suburban housewife lady, eyes wide and wet and my lip wobbling.
“I was, she s-said, s-s-she said I was going to HELL!”
And I burst right back into tears.
Maaaaaaaan, they didn’t even stick around to ask why she’d said it. Soon as I said it, Mall po-po bounced her like a fucking pogo stick.
We get outside and my girlfriend’s like “that is the most Slytherin thing I have ever seen anyone do.”
It was four years before I saw the Army back in that mall.
that is beautiful
Holiday reminder: don’t let anyone get away with trying to make you feel bad about yourself.
So yeah, they’re not just ‘homophobic’, they’re bigoted fucking murderers.
(Wikipedia article on her death conveniently (for SA) omits Salvation Army connection, linking only to expired articles from local newspapers)
SA claims that they didn’t turn her away, and accept all homeless people, except, it’s not like Jennifer Gale was only trans woman refused shelter by Salvation Army, making this denial appear to be worth less than bullshit:
Tis the season for reminders: Salvation Army is a horrifically conservative as well as plainly ineffective charity that runs more like a business. And actively spreading reasons not to support them helps them wither amd make room for more productive and hollistic charities.
Another great seasonal reminder: Slytherins are awesome
It doesn’t run like a business. Businesses have to pay the women who work for them.
Few months early but if I see Salvation Army in a mile radius of me, I’m walking around with my pride flags
i get the sentiment i’ve been seeing around tumblr lately of “if you were mean to someone as a kid or teen you should message them now to apologize” but idk. if one of my junior high bullies messaged me that would be kind of unwelcome tbh. leave me alone actually
Having gone through a twelve step program, there are guidelines regarding making amends. One of them is specifically to NOT reach out if contact could cause more harm, such as a past romantic partner who is now married to someone else. We were specifically encouraged to write letter and seal them in envelopes. We did what we could w/o causing more damage by contact. And yes, I did reach out to a few people I’d hurt, but the other part of amends is NOT EXPECTING A RESPONSE. Seeking forgiveness and apologizing are humbling acts that may ask for something but by definition cannot demand anything.
not to be dramatic but the uk is literally slipping into a legit fascist state rn, our rights to free speech are slowly being revoked and literally nobody is talking about it lmao I hate it here
Internet anonymity possibly being revoked
rights to peaceful protest no longer a thing, AND what really gets me is the fact that police can arrest you if they THINK you’re going to a protest or being disruptive. you’re disabled and you walk by a protest about disability rights? police can arrest you on suspicion of partaking in a protest. couple of teens hanging out on a street corner? police can arrest you if theyre having a bad day and can say you are suspected of protest.
stop and search warrants. this goes back to the protest thing. you’ve just been to a DIY store and have bought some DIY equipment. police can now stop and search you with no reason and say you were using that equipment to incite a protest.
gag orders on the press
most UK press being in parliaments back pocket and therefore we get no real truth unless its leaked
maybe im going to the worst case scenario but I’d rather do that than be complacent. are you terrified yet?
okay, really bad stuff
what can we do about it? /g
honestly…talk about it. speak up about it and spread the word. minorities are suffering because of these laws and we can’t even protest it right now. make people aware of it and share it. Parliament is trying to slip this through quietly while we’re all distracted so let’s make it harder for them to do it quietly
I really never want to hear a single god damn thing about zoomers being the Most Progressive, Empathetic generation again when they turned a woman who was forced to testify for the cameras and publicly cried over being assaulted by her dysfunctional addict ex husband into a meme on TikTok and then go apeshit at those of us who aren’t gullible misogynists and believe her mountains of evidence
People are already flipping the script on Megan the stallion, Melissa Benoist, and Evan Rachel Wood.
I said this trial was going to set a dangerous precedent for abuse victims and it will be ugly in the next couple of weeks. It’s going to be ugly for awhile
Please please please do not ignore what is happening to abuse victims and survivors rn. It’s very important to equip yourself with knowledge and be ready to stand up for those of us who are too scared to speak.
I cannot even express enough how ugly this will all be for a lot of people.
I’m being so serious it’s very important now more than ever that people are ready to combat the violence that’s about to come out fully. Johnny depp was literally just the beginning and people were so quiet about that
“I think we have to stop asking that question [‘why didn’t you leave your abuser’]. I know that you’re asking it out of love, but I’m just gonna make a stance and say that I’m not gonna answer that question anymore. Because the question should really be, to the abuser: why are you holding someone hostage with abuse? You know? And people say, oh, it can’t have been that bad, because else she would have left. And it’s like, no, it’s *because* it was that bad that I couldn’t leave.”
aaron taylor johnson and charlie heaton were both groomed by older, more powerful women when they were new to the industry. terry crews spoke of being sexually harassed by an executive. brendan fraser was sexually assaulted and the experience was so horrible for him that it spiraled him into a depression, affecting his career. his assaulter never faced charges. the kevin spacey trial is coming up where he is being charged for sexual assault.
if you GENUINELY care for male victims, at least famous ones, you’d make some noise about these cases. however, these past few months, i have hardly seen a bolstering of these cases. instead i see a campaign of inappropriate memes and edits being made. is that your way to show you “care about male victims” lmao?? by making a mockery of a case discussing dv topics?? i think people like to hide behind the guise of caring about male victims when it’s really just an excuse to engage in inappropriate, obscene behaviors.
I think it goes without question that if as a hetalia fan you decide to represent the current ukraine and russia situation in the form of ANYTHING be it fanfiction, art, memes (specially MEMES), etc, it will be simply incredibly insensitive.
The hetalia fandom has a shit reputation, and rightfully so, as political and historical material is handled poorly and often dehumanised. Now more than ever it’s important for people in the fandom to consider their actions and the content they create/post. And no, I won’t hear the excuse of “it’s just art/fanart” or other dismissive commentary. Because everything you put out as an artist has an effect, says something. You have a major responsibility here in your actions so take charge of them. The internet is not a place you can hide behind to do impulsive stupid things.
And the reason I post this is because I’ve seen already too many people online saying sarcastically “oh I can’t wait for the hetalia fandom to make fanfics of this”
There are real people behind this. There are real lives at stake.
Please dont forget addicts when youre advocating for people with highly stigmatized mental illnesses. Addiction is a disorder and it deserves just as much visibility, acceptance and support as any other stigmatized mental illness.
As OP has pointed out in the replies, addiction is in the DSM. Certain genes/genetic factors have been linked to addiction, along with socioeconomic factors. Many of those of you acting smug and heartless in the notes would be terrified to learn that you’re a circumstance or two away from winding up in the very situations you’re judging.
