Yeah as the title says, I'm still copping a lot of slack for my decision to quit the society. One "boss" wants me to stay in a minimal capacity just for continuity, and the other wants me to either get my job back or quit completely. One represents the University and the other represents the national society, but they have no relation to each other except that they were both in charge of some facet of the society. I've switched off my mobile phone and I'm ignoring their emails. i've had enough of people yelling at me on a mobile phone, and angry emails and I'm just not emotionally biult for this bull s**t. I know that there is a Reverend out there who reads my posts. WWJD? What would Jesus Do? And everyone else, what would you do?

I just can't deal with this right now!! I just CAN'T!!!

I feel so poor... What did I do wrong?

Its my 21st in a couple of weeks and I have been feeling the sting. Youth is no longer and excuse!! I do not feel "finished" so I am more than a little concerned. Anyway my friend (the same one who sent me the other post) sent me this and I wanted to share it with you. For me its just one more confirmation of what I already know. I am getting old!!

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags -riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark.

No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Ipods, no Internet
chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new
ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids,before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face:

The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986........They are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and theUptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam. AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.They believe that Charlie's Angels, the Bourne identity and Mission Impossible are films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.They can't believe a black and white television ever existed.

And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.

2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a
night out.

3. Your friends are getting married/already married.

4. You are always surprised to see small children playing
comfortably with computers.

5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.

6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time
around.

7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good
old days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.

8. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some other friends because you think they will like it too...

Yes, you're getting old!!

Aaahh... I am unfortunately getting old and I do relate to many of the things in this email. I remember what it was like to have just one radio station and one t.v. station, which ran from 4 p.m. until midnight. I remember vinyl and tape players and the Jackson 5. I remember "Sunday best", those clothes that only came out on Sunday for church, and the original high tops. I remember Michael Jackson's single white glove (and thinking it was the pinnacle of cool) and the original straight fit trousers. Stonewash jeans, jerry curls (or curly kits as we called them in Kenya, side ponytails and hopscotch. I remember the running man, MC Hammers pants, biker shorts and hi tops.

Oh dear, I'd better go and find my knitting!

As I said, I recently resigned as head of a society that I am in and I just wanted to keep anyone who is interested updated. (Actually I think this is more for me to actually look at and see, because I can't believe it happened).

Anyway, through some bureaucratic nightmarish situation, I has no less that 3 "bosses" in my capacity as team president. I was in the process of systematically informing these bosses of my decision when all hell broke loose and one of them gave me and angst driven phone call.

Her tone of voice went fro condescending, shouting/angry to placating all in the space of 22 minutes! If I had any idea what had happened I would be hurt, angry or guilty, but it was such a blitz of sentiment that I sincerely don't know how to respond.

The gist is that she wants me to stay in the society (guilt for letting her down), she demands that I stick with it because I started it ( anger- who does she think she is?), she could have given it to anyone but she chose me(defensiveness- why doesn't she?). All this while shouting down a mobile phone (I hate those contraptions! Who needs to be that accessible??!!); even my mother figured out when I was about 16 not to shout at me - I'm like the hulk with that, it makes me angry, and you will not like me when I am angry!

So, I've decided not to make any decisions until next week and I told her as much. My mind is still reeling.

Thoughts are welcome...

Hi

As I write this I have just come from making a tough choice. I have decided to resign as president of a society I was in, that I helped found, recruit for and generally get up and running. Its a big deal when you consider that its only been about a month or two into my term of office, and I was originally supposed to be there until June. But I feel that it was a choice that just had to be made.

You see, I believe that sometimes doing the right thing is uncomfortable, particularly when it is not so much a moral choice. There would have been nothing wrong with me going on as leader, we would have done well enough and stuff, but I just felt that I wouldn't be doing MY best, and that's a deal breaker with me. I like to look back on the things that I do with pride, and satisfaction, knowing that what I did was MY best (and not necessarily THE best). No matter how hard I tried, I could not see that coming to pass with this things.

So I resigned. It was hard, because the people in charge of the national office had put a lot of faith in me and had given me quite a bit of room to do what needed to be done. I felt so guilty, like I was disappointing them, and I guess in some ways I am, but...aargh! Sometimes you just need to do what needs to be done.

My hands are still shaking and stuff, but my heart is at peace; I know I have done the right thing by everyone. I have never quit anything like this before, does it always feel like this?

Anyway, the new year has brought a new sense of vision and of purpose. I still have not made any definite career choices or anything like that but I am praying for that, and I know that it will come to me when the time is right. I have remembered who I was, and who I wanted to be. I find that I am no longer overly concerned with how others see me and what they think when they see me. Take it or leave it is my new motto.

I made no new years resolutions as usual. I don't like to, I think its important to take one day at a time and do your best for that day, and then worry about the other stuff when its time. I do however make new years commitments - one overriding theme that I will apply to my life for the year, kind of like and annual mission statement. This year, it is "in search of a vision". For my life, for my studies, for everything.

I am however, going to try and be more careful about money, and eat less frequently and better. No definite resolutions but just general ideas.

Does anyone out there feel like sharing their resolutions with me?

Just a quick note to wish anyone reading this a Merry Christmas and brilliant new year.