Our Side of the Story

Something for your eyes🖤

This exhaustion that comes running every semester end when you have only one exam left, again እዋይ University!

አይገርምም ግን? That everything comes with a price? Isolating yourself from people so as to keep your inner peace and stay unbothered by whatever that comes along the way of being involved in people’s lives. But then again you’ll have to taste loneliness and an ache to be loved and nurtured. ከዛ ደግሞ when you decide to have a little bit more of interactions and going out of your routine to experience people like you never did before, you’ll have to face disappointment, uncomfortable conversations, እንደዚህ አይነትም emotion አለ እንዴ? moments, ምን አጥፍቼ ይሆን, what have my unfiltered words done to hearts?, and so many more. ተቸገርነ! ግን I think ሁሉንም እንዳመሉ መቀበል ብንችል things would be easier but you know life ain’t that always simple. ለማንኛቸውም መልካም ቀን :)

Somedays you just need your people, I know you can take care of yourself well but on those some days you really need your people. Grateful for mine.

Everyday make it your responsibility to expect less from people, not in a degrading way because it’s in our blood to find ways to disappoint each other.

“You can’t change people, you can only love them” With every human I come across, there’s a me who yearns to mold them just like myself. Beauty lies in all the patterns I unlearned about my idea of needing to only love people similar to me and learning new patterns of accepting them with all the differences I have with them. I’ve been progressing with making interactions a lot, I listen and speak my mind more and I’m loving even more. These few steps forward I’m taking are guiding my hands to tracing all the smooth and rough edges of love. To love is to find your heart smiling at the sight of your people despite your misunderstandings or fights about minor ideas. To love is to save a piece of gum in your pocket when they’re not with you. To love is to talk to God about them. To love is to find their names in your journals and conversations with your parents. To love is to realize they’re not your ideal people but regardless you eat, laugh and cry with them. You won’t find the perfect people, you just love each other through the trials of striving to be perfect for one another.

Do you ever feel like you are missing out? Missing out on things your eyes tear up for because your soul cannot handle the excitment it feels while thinking about them...Like you are missing out on all the lives you could have lived...All those stories of strangers you could have heard and documented and soaked yourself in... All of the hearts you could have loved? That you missed out on cause it was a bit too risky....Do you ever mourn everything you could have been but didn't become?

trevor

After spending a lot of time away from home my mother still considers me as her baby, helpless, fragile and innocent. I’m not gonna lie, there’s some comfort in that, to be considered innocent enough and be protected from some truth. አንዳንዴ...የምን አንዳንዴ...ብዙ ጊዜ ማደግ ያስጠላኛል...ኧረ ጊዜ ሆይ...ጊዜ ስጠኝ:: ካደግሁ ሗላ ነው ልጅ እያለሁ ይደበቁኝ የነበሩ ሸክሞች ሰለባ የሆንኩት...ነገሩ ያኔም መሸከሜ አልቀረ ነበር...አሁን በዛ እንጂ:: I love it when people consider me safe, to put their trust on and leave their stories in. But somedays there’s a stranger at the back of my head screaming “ኧረ ተይ! ልክ አለው...leave some space for your burdens too" ጭው ሲልብኝ...ግማሽ አናቴን ከፍሎ ስለ ሌላው ጭንቀት ሲያመኝ...I wish I listened.

ሁሉም ለሰው አይነገርምና journal what goes on in your mind everyday, you’ll see the progress.

Keep Ethiopia and The Ethiopian Orthodox Church in your prayers. And please if you have nothing of support to say about the situation, stay silent. በቁስል ላይ ቁስል isn’t what we need right now. መልካም ቀን!

Not a fan of dos and don’ts but found this being somehow precise.

How to love someone with Anxiety issues? -Someone with anxiety is inclined to assume everyone is going to leave. So much so, sometimes they might be the ones to ruin a relationship. The truth is they battle something they can’t control and there is a sense of insecurity within themselves when it comes to relationships. 1. Remember they’re worth fighting for. - It might be hard sometimes, there might be stupid fights of scenarios they’ve created in their own head. But more than anything, they’re worth fighting for, if you can fight with them through this, it’ll come back to you ten folds. 2. The phrase, ‘It’s okay,’  can never be used enough. -It’s two words. Two words that stop every thought running through their head. And honestly, you can never say it enough. 3. Sometimes you just have to listen. -They’re going to play out these situations in their mind and jump from point A to point B, sometimes you’re not even going to know how they got there, best thing u can do is let them go off on their tangent even if there’s no solution. 4. Never tell them, ‘'you’re overreacting'’. -To you, it might seem irrational. But to them whatever they open up to you about, it’s something that actually keeps them up at night. So just take it as best you can. 5. They probably won’t sleep through the night. -Whether it takes them a while to fall asleep or stay asleep, you’ll be woken up by them at 3 am as they lay there wide awake. Just hold them close and the comfort in your presence might be enough to get them back to sleep. 6. Remember it’s not that they don’t trust you. They’re just scared. -You say it’s an ex and in their mind, they jump to cheating. You say it’s a friend and in their mind, it’s someone trying to break you two up. It’s not you and your relationship that isn’t trusted.. it’s every worse case scenario automatically playing out in their head and they hate themselves for it. 7. Don’t be mad if they send a double text. -You might turn your phone on, to four texts. If you can remember it’s not that they’re trying to be annoying. They care. They care too much and they know it makes them look bad. 8. Answering texts timely does   help more than you know. -You’ve probably noticed they answer embarrassingly fast and they know not everyone is like them but it helps when people understand it. It helps when you say ‘I can’t talk now this is why I’ll text you later.’ …Silence kills anyone with anxiety. It creates problems in their mind that aren’t even there. It ends in apologies that aren’t even needed. And it adds a layer of stress to their life they wish they could control. 9. Get them medical help when needed. SInce youre no certified professional, getting them medical help isnt something to be ashamed about. When anxiety gets out of hand medical/psychological help must be taken. 10. Once trust is gained they’ll   love you unbelievably hard. Someone with anxiety, if there is something they’re good at it’s love. If there’s something they’re strong in, it’s their ability to show you how much they adore and appreciate you. It might take them a while…to trust you but once they do their capacity to love you will fill you in ways, you didn’t know you were empty or even missing something." ik its tough to deal with people having anxiety issues but we cannot leave them alone. we need to be a helping hand and rescue them it costs nothing but patience and love.

The world and it’s unfairness back at it again💔

A conversation I over heard in the hair salon today made me obsess over the theory that victims of assault of any kind adapt to their abusers and develop an obscure bond with them. The hairdresser, a woman, with two children, a black eye and a possible divorcee had some complications with her husband as she said and he hit her. She filed a complaint against him, But she doesn’t seem to have the courage to let him go. She constantly kept talking about how he disrespected her and how much she loves/misses him all in one sentence. My issue isn’t with her but about a comment this woman (very older than any of us in the room) made. "ከመልካም ቤተሰብ ክፉ ባል ይሻላል" እንጃ እኔ about the point she tried to make. But somehow she was trying to convince the hairdresser not to divorce her husband because you know “children”. And "ከምንም ባልሽ ይሻልሻል" I don’t know how sure she is that this marriage won’t be a traumatic experience for the children. መካሪ ግን አንዳንዴ🤦🏽‍♀️ It was so disturbing to realize where we are at as a society and my heart broke for the women going through this everyday.

You get friends so you don't explain yourself too much. There is almost no need to interpret your jokes, your behavior, your habits, your quirks, and your temperaments.

Faith.

መልካም ቀን💜