Life is funny like that; when you feel like the sky should be shaking apart with thunder and lightning to match what’s happening in your own head, you’re faced with a clear day and a light breeze. You will make mistakes and pick figs that you are unsure about, but that is not the finite end. You can nourish the figs you picked, the tree may grow even more figs, or maybe you are the metaphorical tree and can’t be limited to just one fig. Or, one version.

And in a world of people watching the clock for 5 pm, that’s the difference between someone doing a job and someone building a career. Honestly, that ending just always gets me mad. I wish Andrea had stayed, owned it, built her own empire. But maybe that’s what the film is trying to say, that not everyone has it in them to see it through.

In creative spaces, diversity inclusion should be a given. Yet, I often see industry executives babble on about representation optics rather than actual inclusion. They have a quota to hit, and god forbid they highlight more than that. One BIPOC artist on the roster? Box checked. One cultural heritage exhibit every few years? Done. Dare I say though, art has, will, and should belong to the marginalized. It’s something that cannot be taken away from anyone.

We often hear the term “self-made.” It’s plastered across headlines, social media bios, and even award speeches. The phrase seems to celebrate hard work, grit, and ambition, qualities that are undoubtedly important. But let’s be honest: the idea of being truly “self-made” is a myth. No one achieves anything entirely on their own.

Why Disney’s Live-Action Obsession Is Ruining the Art of Storytelling. Accepting the subpar in the media, in the art, we consume is relevant. On a political level, it’s regressive. On a personal one, it’s boring and provides no intellectual stimulation. I know… “stop making my entertainment political.” But, it is political. It always has been.

Another raging climate disaster? Scroll. Mass school shootings and deportations in the US, while Trump authorizes strikes in the Middle East again? Typical Tuesday. Polarized presidential elections, mainly discussing which rights of women should be taken away? Been there, done that. This isn’t apathy; it’s learned behavior. A coping mechanism, dressed as convenience.

We live in a man’s world; Men in power. Men at the top. Men in business. So, how do you, as a woman, especially a woman of colour, succeed in a world that is not designed for you? That is structurally rigged to work against you?

I hate you for everything that you are, and for everything that you have done, and even for everything that you will become. And I don’t mean it in the secretly-still-love-you or miss-you kind of way. No. I mean it in the most spiteful, seething hateful way. I hate you.

The heart is lonely during its pursuit for love. But, when it completely surrenders to love, what happens to the heart when it gets stabbed instead of fought for?

I am but a cog in a grander machine. I submit to the will of another under the illusion that it is my choice. I move because I am told. To stop would be catastrophic; to move is survival. So, now what?

To be different is to be difficult