School Woes Continued
16 Aug 2011 8 Comments
in Hindsight Tags: eating disorders, high school, self harm
On my walk home from the grocery store tonight I saw an orange Toyota with a British Columbia license plate. Whenever I see a plate from BC I silently wail, “Why did you come here?!” It’s my dream to escape out to BC and go to school at the University of British Columbia. It has the best writing program in Canada and is where my two most favourite authors honed their skills. If I were to win the lottery the very first thing I would do is apply to UBC.
Erin’s Reason for Not Going to Post-Secondary School #3: Money
Money with a mixture of parental control.
I’d graduated high school with straight A’s and decided to take a year off for my mental health before going on to university. Coincidentally, around that time my parents had told me and my sister that they would be selling the house we grew up in. We moved that summer to a house half the size of our previous house. I moved from a spacious perfected-to-my-tastes bedroom with two windows to a teeny tiny basement bedroom in our new house.
Cue self-harm, cue anorexia, cue suicidality. It was a very bad time in the life of Erin but I still managed to keep my hopes on going to school the next year. My parents convinced me that school in BC was too expensive. They said that they had spent most of the money they’d put away for my education on my mental health treatment, and so I would have to rely on a provincial government loan. I was disappointed but understood.
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Letter to My Younger Self
24 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in Hindsight Tags: coping, eating disorders, high school, mindyourmind.ca, self harm, tattoos, younger self
Dear Younger Self,
I know life is hell right now. I know that it takes all of your energy just to get out of bed and thinking about feeling better is like thinking about moving to Mars one day. Believe it or not, however, hope is much closer than you think.
Being a teen sucks, but what they don’t tell you is that you are almost there. They tell you that after high school you can decide what career you want, but more importantly, you can decide what kind of life you want. You are almost at the point where you are old enough and capable enough to live on your own, and that is the key. No longer under your parents’ command, you can take care of yourself and do what you love! Sleep in, stay up late, play your music loud. Choose your groceries, your apartment decor, your reason for getting up every day, be it going to school or writing a music blog. The opportunities and choices are endless. Once you are an adult you are your own responsibility by law. You are free!
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