A rose by any other name...still as sweet?

It's never easy to admit that Superwoman's having an off day, but alas yesterday afternoon my cape had to be hung in the coats closet. I felt it necessary to put emphasis on the possessive pronoun because some people might be tempted to have such blasphemous thoughts of there being another Superwoman than myself. Well now you know.

I'm so good at compartmentalising my life, the daughter, girlfriend, sister, employee and friend very seldom meet unless of course dark alleys and bottles of hard liquor are involved. Seriously though I don't know why my mind does this but the relationships I have with the different people in my life are all very distinct and almost from different personalities altogether. I'm an obedient daughter but my parents know better than to reprimand me for whatever transgressions they believe me to be guilty of without an airtight case. I'm sure they remember nostalgically the days I used to nod my head in compliance and be on my not-so-merry way.

I'm a laid-back sister, my siblings know to come to me for advice, and they know I don't blow my top with them. I'm a paragon of sisterly virtue. I spoil them when I can, I push them to do their best, I encourage them, I'm what commoners reverently call awesome.

Then there's the attentive efficient employee, the doting albeit hot-headed girlfriend. These are the many facets to my personality, sometimes I convince myself that I have so many faces because I'm complex but in light of recent events (there are no recent events it just felt like the perfect place to put that phrase) I've come to realise that I'm brutally simple. When I'm speaking to you, you will absolutely feel like you're the most important person in my life at that moment, most probably because you are.

I don't know what I'm saying anymore. This was supposed to be about Superwoman now I'm coming across as some decrepit superhero with a wet cape, not a good look, "so I put on my make-up put a smile on my face and if anyone asks me everything is okay..." My point is the daughter doesn't know the sister and neither of them know the girlfriend. I have many faces, I wear many hats, yesterday the balancing act was too much and I was one person. I was exhausted when I went to bed because the employee thinks the daughter is a little too headstrong and the girlfriend thinks the sister is too virtuous.

Sleep came swiftly and I answered its call immediately. Today I'm back to juggling hats and everybody is none the wiser. Usually people struggle with people judging them. How do you reconcile your spirit if the judging is within?

Employee

Sister

Daughter

Friend

 



Textually challenged

Hi my name is Nono and I use Facebook and twitter ALOT. I've been an avid Facebooker since 2007 and the appeal it had for me was connecting with old friends and cementing relationships with current ones. However as with any well planned party a few gate-crashers managed to cheat the system and I was probably high off my growing popularity in my social media sphere, I began accepting people I didn't know, people I would never know. At first I used to make an effort to chat to my new digi-pals then I just lost interest, I'm very fickle (or whatever being a Gemini is about). So my friend count just kept increasing and all these people whose lives I had no interest in were appearing on my timeline talking about what they were planning on getting up to on a given day, or who they saw and what they thought about who they saw.

I then had a rare moment of clarity to reflect on the bizarreness of my relationship with all my social media non-friends and I went on a deleting spree. My finger is still a little crooked from all that clicking. Then I began working at Soul Magazine and I needed people to be the sources of my articles and because I now had no strange people on my friends list, only people I knew, people who wouldn't help me with a story if I begged, bribed or blackmailed. Then the vicious cycle of accepting people I don't personally know began again, but at least this time they were helpful. So I studied people's status updates and based on that decided who to approach for what.

I no longer have standards when it comes to accepting friends (on Facebook) but a few of my real-life friends put a bit of weight behind this statement, but still I love. But every social media slorebag has to suffer for her sins; show me a girl who hasn't had a relationship proposal from a stranger sent to their inbox and I'll show you ten who have! Just yesterday I received a "I wld love 2 date u" last week: "Gorgious how are you doing today?" err is that the same as gorgeous? Same week: "You have such a sexy bum wld luv to touch it" and so it goes. On the basis of these brave brave men not knowing how to write they fail, I assume their not knowing how to write is directly related to not knowing how to read because my profile clearly states that I am in a relationship.

I'm still debating whether or not to go on another deleting spree, but if I do who will be the willing guinea pigs for my journalistic escapades? I think until the time comes when my friends allow me to tell their stories, interesting alcohol-fuelled ones might I add I am resigned to a life of accepting friend requests and being textually harrased via inbox.

25 reasons I am so awesome

1. Anele and Ayanda Tshabalala are my sisters and best friends. Blood sisters!!

2. I love fried onions. I put them in everything...well except for cereal and cake and ice-cream etc but they go in everything else.

3. I didn't know I wanted to be a journalist until after matric.

4. I'm a committed Christian. God's been too good to me for me to be any other way. I don't, however, believe in the Church.

5. I hate seeing misspelt words. Before I went for anger management classes I had been known to hurt people over this.

6. My, punctuation is. dodgy 'but I welcome: the judgement.

7. My left eye can't see without the aid of glasses. "Blind as a bat" is an apt description of me.

8. I like telling people I'm married...cause I am.

9. I had my first taste of alcohol when I was 12. It was a sip really then again in tertiary. Such a badgirl!

10. I love sports.

11. My biggest character flaw is that I'm neurotic. It's really bad, I stress over the smallest things and I've even mastered the art of passing on my nervous energy to whoever is unlucky enough to be around me at that time.

12. I am a bad judge of character. Absolutely terrible, but you don't seem too bad.

13. I'm a closet vegetarian. The intentions are there but the body is weak.

14. I can't fall asleep unless I've done a bit of reading.

15. I'm very tolerant and open-minded about people. Discrimination isn't in my vocabulary.

16. My mom left us when I was 5. I thought she was going to town...she never came back.

17. I was painfully shy when I was younger. Then I discovered humour and hid behind that, so when I crack jokes (often the self-deprecating kind) non-stop it probably means I'm covering up.

18. I can't sing but I was in the choir from grade 4 to Matric. I'm persuasive.

19. I learnt how to swim, unaided, in grade 7.

20. I'm annoyingly ticklish.

21. I don't eat Oats or Weetbix.

22. I LOVE pizzas and pastas. I'm convinced I was Italian in a past life, maybe even a part of the mafia because that's just how awesome I am and we all know organised crime is cool.

23. I'm self conscious about my eyes. When people are talking to me it comes across like they're boring me. So not true it's these small eyes.

24. I love hard. One of my many imperfections.

25. I love music. I can't dance, I can't sing, I can't even hum but I love music.