Is a week or even a month long enough?

Hello once again,

I hope you’re all doing well, and have been enjoying the lovely weather we have been having (except for Friday… Friday was awful!).

I have noticed over the past couple of years that many weeks and months of the year, are now dedicated as an awareness week or month for something or other. This in itself is absolutely fine, in fact it’s amazing! Topics and things that were never spoken about before are now being brought out into the light and the people who were oblivious before, are no longer so.  However,  it does lead me to ask the question: is a week or even a month enough?

I have seen far too many times, celebrities who, in the month of June for example, change their profile pictures to a rainbow for ‘Pride’ and then come July/August are arguing against the individuals on the issues they are supposedly supporting. One cannot go hand in hand with another? Last year there was the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement which took off and finally something was beginning to take hold, and people were taking notice. However, it ‘died’ down and people started to revert back to their ‘normality’ leaving those who need the movement to carry it on the most, without the support of their ‘allies’. The ‘All Lives Matter’ brigade came out, and stomped all over it, and when fans returned to stadiums across the country and across the world, racism continued to happen. Only the other day in England’s friendly against Austria before the Euros kick off, the players were booed for taking the knee as a mark that Racism will not be tolerated. Twitter is a breeding ground for this behaviour and people follow along blindly, not truly thinking about the impact their words and boos are having on others around them, who are subjected to the vitriol day in and day out.

Celebrating differences and raising awareness about something for a month and then pushing it to the back of your mind because it doesn’t affect you directly is not enough and not the way to go. You cannot say you are an ally for the cause if you do this. I not going to sit here and say I haven’t done this in the past trust me I have, many a time. I have fallen into the category of pushing it to the back of my mind, and I most likely still do and unwittingly will do. But I, along with many others I have been following this past year especially, are trying harder. There are many issues which are close to my heart which need shouting about, and which need the attention. Some voices are louder than others but every voice matters and should be given a platform.

Now, this is most definitely not me saying we shouldn’t be celebrating months like these because they can bring about amazing and positive change. These months can raise and spread awareness for things that may not necessarily have ever crossed someone’s mind, or even their lives. What I guess I am trying to say is yes, we should kick off the topic of conversation within a certain week or month of the year which will raise awareness of the issues/ conversations that need to happen but then these conversations should and need to continue, promotions should carry on, celebrities who change their profile picture, who Instagram/ Insta-story constantly about the issues surrounding the topic during that week or month, should continue to do this throughout the year to keep the conversations alive. Only if, and when this happens do I feel like change can really happen.

In May (8^th-16^th), there was Cleft Lip and Palate Awareness week, which in itself is awesome! As someone who was born with the condition, it gave me a chance to scroll through others’ stories, to look at how they are coping, and see how others have interacted with the posts on varying accounts. Growing up, I don’t remember there being anything like this; anything other than the other children I was sharing wards with, that I was visiting the hospital beside, to talk to, to share my experience with. So during this week, I was able to share some of my own experiences with a wide range of people and perhaps try to open their eyes a bit more. That week I felt more confident and more at ease about the condition. However, one scroll through the search tab on various social media sites, brought that all crashing back down again. Awful, awful comments were being made literally seconds after a person had bared their soul and shared their stories or seconds after the ‘awareness’ week had ‘officially’ concluded. This in itself cements to me in my head, that more needs to be done, not only to monitor and stamp out hurtful, hateful, and discriminatory language on these platforms, but also to continue the conversations and the stories far beyond the week given to issues and topics such as these.

Personally, I love the idea that there are weeks and months that everyone can relate to and where everyone can get involved in the conversation, no matter their gender, size, race, or sexuality. It brings people together and helps to start something that could have remained hidden. All I’m asking is that the month lasts forever, and these conversations and change continue on after the promotions and ‘trends’ have passed by. It is very important to me, and I’m sure a lot of you. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- one small change can make one hell of a difference. Ask that friend their story, talk to that group of people about their outlook on the world, about their experiences at school, in work, on the street. You never know you might learn something you didn’t know, or realise something about a situation that you may never have realised without that small bit of input from others.

Then again who am I to talk about these things? A small fish in an exceptionally large pond.

I don’t know if I’ve written this properly or if what I have written makes any sense. Please let me know your thoughts. What are your experiences of the world? What are your thoughts on the awareness months and weeks?

Let’s start a conversation! See you next (or this one again…) month.

Sinead xx