"New Year, New Me"

I'm not going to start with the cliché "new year, new me", because I feel like it means I'm going to change into a totally different person, which I'm not. I'm going to try to be a better person, improve myself, but not change, and even if I change, I'll change for the better, not into a different person. Step one would be to be more creative, and the other day I saw a quote on Tumblr saying:

Unfortunately I can't find the original post and the source, but thank you to whoever made this because it has really helped me. I've been procrastinating this one fantasy story I'm supposed to write during the holiday, because I just had no motivation to do it. But then I saw this and thought, "This goes for writers too, right?" so I got off the couch and started writing.

I also looked at my pencils. My little sister had just sharpened them as she borrows them sometimes, and a sentence crossed my mind. I later wrote it down, along with another New Year's resolution to be more active in keeping a journal:

"The secret to art is a well-sharpened pencil."

Because you're not going to feel like drawing if your pencils are blunt and broken, right? I got some sheets of paper and doodled some random things, and then about three hours before 2015, I started working on a poster with the lyrics from my favourite song, Weightless by All Time Low:

I've always loved the song, the lyrics, everything about it. If you haven't heard the song, you really should, even though you might not normally listen to pop punk!

Yesterday I spent most of the day on Tumblr and Twitter, even though I promised not to waste so much time on social media, haha! But I kept my journal beside me, and wrote down little quotes and words I thought were interesting. I think I'll keep doing that from now on, as I don't just write in it, but I also like to doodle around the paragraphs and stuff. By the way, one thing I had on my Christmas wish list, but sadly did not get, was the Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. I've read so many cool reviews about it and it seems like such a great way to keep a journal and be more creative! I'm definitely going to buy it once I've saved enough money. Meanwhile I'm going to stick to my own journal, and try to write and draw more. Because I don't want to commit emotional suicide, right?

While we're on the topic of suicide, I want to talk about Leelah Alcorn. You might have heard about her, with the hashtag #LeelahAlcorn trending on Twitter and Tumblr. She was a 17-year-old transgender girl, born as Joshua. She killed herself on December 27 and left a suicide note on her Tumblr blog, explaining how her Christian parents did not support her or love her, how they forced her to go to conversion therapy, took her out of public school and isolated her from her friends by forbidding her of getting on any kind of social media for 5 months, because they wanted her to change her gender identity. The pressure and hopelessness of everything made her end her life, but not before leaving one last wish:

"My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please."

And so, the Transgender Human Rights Institute has started a petition to ban transgender conversion therapy. I have signed it, and as I'm writing this, only a little over 1,000 signs are needed now. It won't take long, and while just one person might not make a difference alone, together we might all be able to change things. This isn't just about Leelah, it's about all the transgender teens in this world. We're not going to forget about this.

So anyway, I hope you have a nice day and a wonderful new year!

Xx, 

Mary