An ode to the women who inspire me

Okay, so this writing of odes has been inspired by a girl who I will be ackowledging in this post. I read both of hers and I thought it was a wonderful way to express my feelings and love for those who help me search for the next rainbow whenever the last one disapears. Some of these women I know more than I know many things and some of them I have never met but purely by their talent and their demenours presented in their interviews and their performance, they paint a near perfect picture of what life can be about - if we choose it to be that way. And one thing these women all have in common? Beauty. Not in the physical sense (although all of them do in my personal opinion) but in the sense that their words and their actions mean more than the way they look. All of them are also successful. Now I hate it when all people care about is being successful but so many interpret that as money and being "loaded." I don't. Success is when you achieve something that only you understand as a goal you needed to achieve - it is something that brings you the deepest of joys and the most beautiful happiness, especially at that moment of realisation - the moment when you take a second to breathe and it suddenly dawns on you that you have done it. My driving instructor once said to me that I can "do it. Whatever 'It' may be." I'm going to take him up on that with the help of these wonderful, beautiful ladies. I'm going to start with no one in particular - just whoever pops into my mind as I write passionately along.

To Naya Rivera (to most of you, she is known as Santana on Glee). I can only judge on what I have seen of this amazing girl on interviews and random clips on YouTube, but from what I can tell, she just seems to be one of the most witty and delightful people on this planet. How one woman can be so inextricably charming is beyond the stretches of my comprehension. And for the most part, I tend to go on her unbelievable string of talents and even then, I still fail to mirror her phenomenal sense of 'this is life, let's go for it' kind of attitude. Her voice is just exceptional and I thank God that she has been promoted in Glee and her dancing skills just take everyone by utter surprise - The Naya Dance will forever cheer me up when I am down. And to simply mention her acting is ignorant of me, however to say all that I'd like to say about her interpretation of Santana, I would probably have to write at least more than three posts. The way she has developed that character and allowed her to be deeper than what people expect from Glee is something that I admire to an extent that flies off the chart. She is incredible and more than anything, her charm that is portrayed though the media is something that just has to be respected.

To The Saturdays. Without this band, cheesy and sad as it all sounds, I would never, never have progressed as far as I have with recent battles. Their constant commitment to their work and to their love of singing has got them to such amazing places and even though they feel they havent reached the pinicle by achieving a number one, their personalitites make them so much more than just another girl band. They are saviours and however much my family think it is unhealthy of me to 'obsess' over a group of girls I don't even know, even though they have no idea, The Saturdays have helped me more than a lot of people closer to me than them. Their weekly flips concerning their hilarious antics keep me going every week, knowing on Saturday, I will get to indulge in someone else's joyful lifestyle and their forever upbeat attitudes, espeically Mollie's, enlightens me to a degree I never knew possible. Every time I have met Rochelle, she just defines the word 'Beautiful'. She constantly thinks of the people that look up to her and that alone is something to be admired. And without Vanessa, I would never have met five of the most loveliest people I have ever met. I know my sisters think I am pathetic and sad, but meeting five other girls who adore the same people I do and getting to meet those people with them and having hysterical laughing fits with them made me happier than I have felt in some time. I was able to relax and know that I wasn't going to be mocked by anyone. I may not be such a defined member of Baby Team Ness nowadays due to my focus on my final school year but there will never be a time when I don't hear a Sats song or read a Team Ness tweet and not smile and be content for a second or more purely because of the personalities of everyone I have ever met during my Sats craze.

To Stephanie (Sinead off Hollyoaks). I don't think I have ever spazzed so much when this girl tweeted me. I have loved this girl and her talent ever since she was on Over The Rainbow. Sadness and tears doesn't even begin to describe how I felt when she was knocked out of the competition but now I look back on that time and feel such contentment and peace. Stephanie will always have that young girl attitude towards life and her gratitude towards her career take-off and success is so overwhelmingly beautiful that I am blown away by how good she actually is. She can sing, she can act and her dancing is just amazing. How someone can be SO talented is simply fantastic and something I wish I could have but for now I am just happy seeing Stephanie's happiness peak through in her performances on Hollyoaks.

To Marny Kennedy, the girl who inspired this post. She may be younger than me but it makes her no exception to the fact that I look up to her in every way possible. First off, she speaks and writes so fluently and so irrevocably beautifully, that I cannot help but feel inspired to constantly write and write about everything and anything. I am just in awe of her. She represents the perfect kind of life that I would love to lead - she cycles to her favourite cafe and she still manages to go to school on top of acting in the most delightful of programmes. I recently saw her dancing in her new TV show and she was brilliant at that as well.

To my twin sister, Rosie. I have written about her before but there is no doubt that however much we argue and however much she thinks I am sad and pathetic and that she thinks I am my own worst enemy, she is still this person that if taken away I would not actually know what to do with myself.

And finally to my cousin, Nancy. She is my best friend and I could not live without this girl. We can be stupid around each other and we can be serious. But most of all she takes me to a place, unconsciously, where I can cleanse myself and forget about what I have to deal with. I can heal when I am with her because she provides a place where I can live like there is no tomorrow.

And all these beautiful women provide this place, just in their own way, and without even knowing they are doing it. They bring with them time to learn to love again and learn to remember what life means to me. And even though I haven't figured that out yet, I know that whatever it turns out to be, my biggest aim is to be successful - to feel that feeling of realisation which brings happiness, contentment and joy in which I, and everybody else out there, longs to experience. So thank you Naya, The Saturdays, Stephanie, Marny, Rosie and Nancy for unconsciously standing as my stepping stones, as I pave my way through this turbulent and adventurous thing that God gave us, called Life. It is a gift and I thank you for being the hands that wrapped it so carefully.

Glee Brittana Story

Oh wow. Oh wow oh wow. I never throught that Glee could ever move below the comedic surface that brings it so much success. But it has. And it just did. And now I have realised that it is not the comedy or the humour that the characters bring to the show with the songs they sing and the stereotypes they hold that brings the show so much success - it is the way they so effectively capture every day issues and teenage feelings and portray them in a way that gives so many people, feeling the exact same thing, hope and the promise that they are not alone. So many fans of the show can relate to whatever it is the characters are going through and none of this was proved seriously until the episode, 'Sexy', was aired.


The episode features a couple of scenes with Brittany and Santana disscussing their friendship with one another and its not until Holly Holiday returns that Santana finally allows herself to admit not just to her friend but to herself that she has feelings for Brittany. I have always been one for wearing my heart on my sleeve when it comes to emotion and this episode was no different. Half way through, Santana sings 'Landslide' to Brittany, with the help of Holly. During the whole song, Santana finds it hard to keep her tears inside and they eventually tumble out of her and you can almost feel the relief she experiences at that moment in time. The second most touching scene between the two was the scene where Santana full on confides in Brittany and opens up about what she is feeling. ("What I realised is why I'm such a bitch all the time. I'm a bitch because I'm angry. I'm angry because I have all of these feelings. Feelings for you which I'm afraid to deal with because I'm afraid of dealing with the consequences. I wanna be with you but I'm afraid of the talks, the looks...I'm so afraid of what everyone will say behind my back. Still, I have to accept that I love you. I love YOU and I dont wanna be with Sam, or Finn, any of those other guys. I just want you. Please say you love me back. Please.") For Santana, these words are seriously hard to speak - she never opens up about anything and always uses her defensive attitude to aviod accepting who she is.


I have so much respect for Glee now. I think it is so refreshing and so good of them to explore not only gay love but lesbian love. As a society, we are SO wary of using that word. We avoid it as much as we can because it seems that being a gay girl is far more 'wrong' than being a gay boy. Male gays are far more accepted, which is fantastic, but I think what Glee proves to everyone, is that they are not afraid to step on the dogdy ground that is female gay love. As Pink once said, 'You can't move mountains just by whispering at them'. And what was ever better about this episode is the way teenage girl's feelings were depicted. Santana is ovbiously in so much pain; she has no idea how to react to the feelings she is experiencing, let alone express them. And that's when mistakes are made because we are not in control of them and she reacts defensively because she can be in control of that instead. I love how much hope this will bring to the teenage girls who are also going through what Santana is going through. Apparently, so many have said that the episode helped them come out and I think that is such a positive thing. We can't dodge around the subject anymore - it is there, in front of us and all around us, as much as grass is around cows. It's what's creating the new generation and we have to embrace it and try and accept everything that young people feel nowadays. Because if you are going through what Santana is going through, then I think it must be one of the hardest experiences ever. And I feel for all who are going through it and they all need to know that it doesn't matter what everyone thinks you are, it is actually who you are. And I don't think it matters why you feel what you do, because you do and you can't change it, I think it matters more about what you feel and who you feel for. Who cares if they're the same sex or not? If you care for them and if you love them, that's all that matters. Love is such a messed around and played with word (for lack of other ways to describe it) that it makes it so much harder for people to admit stuff to themselves and accept themselves for who they are and what they feel. You can love anyone and anything and this has to be known. And it has to be accepted.


And all credit to Naya Rivera for her completely amazing and honest portrayl of someone feeling the things Santana is feeling. If not for her, I don't believe the episode would have had nearly the same effect as it has done. It was so touching and so truthful. She played it so beautifully that I even felt her pain and I am not even gay. I think that her and Brittany should sing Pink's 'Perfect' in Season 3 because Santana needs to know that she is perfect and that the whole world adores her.


The world would be a terrible place if not for Glee and their amazingness. Thanks to them, we have characters like Santana and Kurt, and we have songs like Get It Right and Loser Like Me. What tunes. They have such powerful messages, too. I hope Brittana become one officially very soon because I think they world would benefit from it and after all, they are soulmates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N8FhmCLDsw