INVASION : THIS IS NEW TERRITORY
EDITORIAL | PHOTOGRAPHY
Let’s
ignore the futuristic picture behind this title, a product of entertainment TV’s
making and focus on the fact that we are about to read through another rant by
yours truly. But fear not, this is new territory.
There’s so much to be happy about, so much
to be sad about, so much to not care about really, it is life. And yet somehow,
we all feel the need to tell ourselves how we should feel instead of simply
feeling. Tell ourselves who we should be instead of simply being.
Do you ever wake up feeling tired? Tired of
the hard work you put into living, yet not feeling a single sliver of
accomplishment. Tired of all the bullshit people put you through just because
they can? Tired of all the noise, experts telling you how to live a life you
are only still trying to carry, what you should want, how you should be, who
you should be.
There is a tiredness that has tied itself around the
choices we make. How we have become too tired to think for ourselves and allow
ourselves to be thought for. Line ups of billboards, advertising consumerism as
the portly overfed cow it is, enticing and drawing us into a circle we did not
exactly ask for but were too tired to turn down. And so, we were invaded.
Invaded by thoughts that were not ours to
think, words that were not ours to speak, doings that were not ours to do. We
were invaded by the choices of others, and in this process, forgot ourselves like
the akatanga man on a main road who had burnt one too many grasses in his
throat and forgotten that one did not wear nakedness like a cloth.
We will start to choose who we are and
forget who we were told to be. We will start to ask ourselves what we desire
and why we desire it. We will remember ourselves and remember that we are
people with our own minds, our own uniqueness, our own shortcomings, our own
insanities. We will remember who we were before the invasion, at least we will
try.
There is a tiredness we feel now and it is
a new kind, it is vivacious and demanding. It is brazen and individual, it is
strong.
We want to be asked about what we want, we
are tired of the speculations and the stereotypes and the judgemental queries
unjustified as they come. We are tired of being told to like a certain thing
because we are female or male, black or white; our biological differences. Tired
of being told how to be instead of being asked how we are. We will focus on the
story we must tell, our beautiful fantastic stories and we will sit in this tiredness
and hatch eggs, birthing our resistance to an invasion we have grown tired
of.
I have felt this tiredness, the first kind,
heavy like an overfilled jute sack of Bendel yams, thick and succulent. Heavy
like a thing should be heavy, a thing that is not your baggage to carry because
you did not choose it. I will leave this tiredness because I am done cutting
and folding away pieces of myself I should not hide. I will leave this
tiredness and go to a place, a place where I can be green because I am green.
So, exams are
done and dusted, although still obligated to continually go to Uni until
December, my content creating and blogging time has returned to normal. In
which case I have to ask how you all have been? A while yes? Well so so and so,
so… lol.
In main news, I
have formally decided to refute the title of fashion blogging and rename myself
a creative blogger. Fashion addicts, fear not for I shall still be curating
styling tips and all that but I have come to realise that I do more than
fashion blogging and this label does me no justice as a definer. Thank you all
for the constant love and support through this journey, I know I don’t say this
a lot but it means so much to me! #yourgirlgrows
P.S to all the
unanswered/unreturned phone calls please forgive me, I am after all a
self-proclaimed bundle of crazy with no excuse whatsoever other than being in a
chaotic space, and then of course, there’s life.
A hi nya, with
love, x E
(Blame all this weirdness on my just concluded binge watch of Stranger Things.)
Photography
|| Ene Ijato
Creative
directing || Ene Ijato
Styling
|| Ene Ijato
Makeup
and Hair || Ene Ijato (still in dire need of a volunteering makeup artist
though!)
5 comments
Woah...i am sitting o,buh in my mind m giving a standing ovation...That was awesome!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelvin, such kind words! ❤ E
DeleteNice write-up �� .
ReplyDeleteThank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. ❤ E
DeleteNice write up, got me thinking about my everyday war.
ReplyDeleteI live or exist everyday and I just look at others and wonder: "Are they thinking in their mind like me? Is their mind this dubious as mine? Does their mind have so much control as mine or do they just succumb to it and so they don't get to fight a battle behind their eyes and above their throat every sunrise and sunset?"
You are right, nature sets down paths of right and wrong. Though man has created society and through society set what he feels is right and wrong (I'm not against society by the way just what man uses it for.), and one tends to look at the bigger picture that begs the question; Why?. Why is that right? And why is that wrong?
Indeed there has been an Invasion right form time immemorial, but it seems it was necessary, a necessity that has been hijacked by the good, the bad and the insane, though I feel that hijacked by the insane has most freedom of choosing who you are... lil(laughing in loud).
Thank you, now I know I am not crazy or rather the only crazy one.
Though God be not left out.
Eager to hear your thoughts!