Archives for May 2017

If You Want To Be You

May 31, 2017 by Staff TUL Leave a Comment

Life can be complicated. There are so many things coming at us, all the time, and from all angles. It can be tough to process it all. From a young age we’re inundated with peer pressure, social pressure, parental pressure, and political pressure, etc, to “be” a certain way. It’s hard enough to figure out who you are, and what you want your life to be without having all these metaphorical arrows pointing at your head. Frankly, it can be exhausting.

Despite life’s complications, it’s important to be mindful that you always have choices. Always. The cliché, you can be whatever you want to be, isn’t just about obtaining a job title. It’s also about being the person you want to be. And being “you” is often the bravest choice you can make, especially if it defies conventions. So if you’re feeling pressure to conform or to go along to get along or to make any choices really, remember, it’s your life, make it what you want. We think today’s clip does a great job of encapsulating what we’re trying to articulate.

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Don’t Throw It Away: Voting – Yeah, It Matters.

May 30, 2017 by Isadora Teich Leave a Comment

Image by Theresa Thompson (License CC BY-SA 2.0)

If there’s anyone who understands complete pessimism and the strange seduction of reactionarily giving the fuck up, it’s me. I understand that in the face of all of the terrifying possible futures for America, it’s really easy to collapse inward and totally withdraw. Our political climate is tumultuous and unsure, and shit is fucking terrifying.

I’m not looking to undermine the realness of this threat, or to shame anyone who has to disengage for their own mental or emotional well being. I don’t know you personally, and if you’re realizing what you need to do to stay afloat and are doing it, good for you, my dog.

However, working on your mixtape while Rome burns is a shitty option, regardless of how on fire it is. In fact, because of the way our political system operates, you (YES, YOU) actually have a lot of power to effect change. Even more than you realize. And it doesn’t actually take you chaining yourself to a tree, throwing blood on people in fur coats, or marching anywhere; other than to a polling place for a few hours occasionally.

“The powers that be are actually actively trying to stop people from voting, because within our system of government, votes fucking count. Knowledge fucking counts.”

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Underemployment And Chasing A Dream

May 26, 2017 by Hannah Lamarque 1 Comment

When you reach a certain age, society tells you that you’re supposed to have specific things in place; to be some way towards reaching an intangible goal. When a few years down the line, you finally understand that having that perfect career, working your way up the ladder, and maintaining a rich and full social life is all but impossible, you’ll probably kick yourself in the foot and scold yourself for not trying hard enough. And that’s a huge problem. With so much pressure to achieve the perfect work-life balance, we’re practically destined to fail; pitting ourselves against a version of life that is simply not achievable.

18 months or so ago, I upped and left home; focused on a better life in Paris. Turning in my quiet country home for a major European capital was just the move I needed, I told myself. I could finally realize my dream of becoming a fully fledged writer- with a social life to envy on the side. I had already lived in Paris for a year when I was younger. I worked as an au pair, and was familiar with the French landscape. I told myself that coming back to live as a permanent resident would be a doddle. I had done this all before, right?

Moving abroad brought a mixed bag of emotions, and although uprooting my life to Paris had been something I knew I wanted to do for quite some time, I could never put my finger on exactly why the city seemed like such a good fit for me. Ask anyone else and they’ll tell you that Parisians are mean, the city is dirty, and the expenses of everyday life are through the roof. It is, of course, all true, and while there’s no denying that things can certainly feel like this on a bad day, there’s something about the city that makes dealing with the bad things worth it.

Paris has an imperceptible energy and for some reason, for whatever reason, I knew that the French capital was where I needed to be in order to guide my life in the direction I so desperately wanted to go. My life, finally, would be on the road to being perfect, and perfection was the goal. Reality however, has a way of getting in the way of the best plans, and while I had a vision of what my life should be like living abroad, my Parisian dream felt like it was just out of reach from the start.

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Being a Feminist and Dating: It Shouldn’t Be So Hard (But It Is)

May 25, 2017 by Jessi Jordan 1 Comment

You’ll remember my friend Sam, from my online dating article where I shared what he told me was the missing piece of my online dating puzzle. Namely, “men don’t wanna talk to you online, they only want to meet you.” That was a bombshell dropped on me. It was like that episode of Sex in The City where Carrie’s boyfriend, Berger, tells Miranda “he’s just not that into you,” and her whole world changes in an instant!

Well, Sam dropped this second bombshell on me yesterday and I have some mixed emotions about it. He said, “Women do not really want equality and men do not really want an independent woman.” Sam says, “if women really want equality then they must understand that professional equality directly informs social equality. Basically, men are much less likely to treat with kids gloves that which he now views as equal.”

Sam isn’t claiming that this is just. But he does feel that when men no longer feel the need to provide for those around them, due to the independence of those around him, men tend to not feel the urge to nurture those around him socially. Be it right or wrong, the closer we get to being equal to men professionally, the less likely they will feel the urge to treat us as “princesses”.

“There are some serious misconceptions as to what an independent woman really is and as to what she wants, and what feminism actually is.”

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Can We Work It Out?

May 24, 2017 by Staff TUL Leave a Comment

There’s a lot of turmoil in the country right now. Large groups of Americans are at odds over seemingly everything. We can’t agree on politics. We can’t agree on the direction of the economy. We can’t agree on social issues. We can’t even agree on what we disagree on. Sigh.

There are good reasons for this divide, but we aren’t going to use this space to get into that hornet’s nest. Instead, we want to take a time out, and remind everyone that we are all just human beings. We are flawed. We are imperfect. We make mistakes. It’s not easy being human.

It takes a lot of courage to open your heart and talk to people you may not agree with; to treat them like fellow human beings, instead of as the “other.” Today’s clip reflects that challenge. We chose The Beatles’ We Can Work It Out, because A, We love The Beatles and will use any excuse to use them in our column, and B, it’s a song that is lyrically more complicated than you might think. Ultimately, we like to think the song is optimistic about people learning to cooperate and put aside their differences. Enjoy the clip.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un: Two Peas In A Pod?

May 23, 2017 by Turner Wright 1 Comment

Image by MB298; (License CC BY-SA 4.0)

I feel very far removed from life in the US right now. Physically, it’s because I’m living in Japan for the next year. Mentally, not as much news crosses my path as it used to; with the exception of one colleague asking me what Trump meant when he called Kim Jong Un (KJU hereafter) a “smart cookie.” My language skills weren’t advanced enough to explain to him that the president just says things without thinking and doesn’t care about the consequences.

I can understand why the average Japanese person would be interested in US politics when it intersects with North Korea. Although KJU’s latest attempts to create an ICBM have fizzled, Japan is just as much on the front lines as South Korea in terms of aggression from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK hereafter); possibly even more so, as both Koreas may ultimately see the other side as “lost” and in need of a steady hand to exert control. Unfortunately, animosity towards their former occupiers is still widespread, even passed down to the younger generations.

“Even facts for which there is video evidence, like not having the largest crowd of all time on Inauguration Day, remain a fluid topic for someone like Trump.”

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Southern Heritage Does Not Mean Confederate Pride

May 22, 2017 by Andrea Thompson Leave a Comment

Image by Design219 (License CC BY-SA 4.0)

The usual stereotype goes; if you live in the south, you’re a racist. If you happen to spend your days in a South Atlantic state, then it’s automatically assumed that you love rebel flags, the KKK, and Donald Trump. If you don’t love these things, why are you here? How could a person possibly be proud of where they come from if where they come from is known for racism and hate group sightings? Why not pack your bags and move to Cali, where there’s a liberal on every corner and the population as a whole is “enlightened”?

I am from the south and I’m proud of it. Now, before you grab your pitch forks and torches, give me a chance. There’s a difference between southern heritage and confederate heritage. I’ll say it again for those in the back; southern pride and confederate pride are not the same thing.

I’m proud of where I come from. The south is a beautiful place, full of blooming wildflower fields and cool creeks to dip your toes in through the hot summer. I’ve spent more days than I can count, snapping green beans on my mamaw’s back porch. And believe me, I’ve seen my fair share of tobacco fields.

I was raised to understand the value of hard work, and was taught at a very young age that you only get out of life what you put into it. You want something? Work for it. I live within 15 minutes of virtually all of my close family. My child has the opportunity to grow up much the same way I did; close to those that love her and learning the worth of what she has around her.

“Just because I have pride in my southern heritage doesn’t automatically mean I’m proud of my home state’s confederate heritage.”

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4 Things I Wish They’d Told Me During The Interview

May 19, 2017 by Kay Smythe Leave a Comment

Image by Hiroo Yamagata (License CC BY-SA 2.0)

My dear readers, I am jaded. I recently believed that the corporate world was for me, as I am such a skull-crushing know-it-all with killer instincts. In reality, neither my physical nor mental body could quite comprehend the horror I was about to unleash upon myself.

This is not a new thing. Almost a year ago to the day, I took a similar position in an almost-identical company back in Wales. Want to know how that ended?

I moved six thousands miles away to live at the beach…

Still, not all was lost. As a researcher, I used these painful mistakes to create the following nuggets of wisdom so that you, my loves of my life, don’t have to make the same terrible errors in your own lives…

4 Things I Wish They’d Told Me During The Interview

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How The Gig Economy Hurts Freelancers

May 18, 2017 by Dianna L. Gunn Leave a Comment

Image by Peter Alfred Hess (License CC BY-SA 2.0)

Full time jobs are disappearing at alarming rates, across dozens of industries. Some are being replaced by robots, but more are being replaced by part time positions and freelance gigs. Almost all the job growth in Canada in 2016 was in part time jobs, and the numbers are similar all around the world.

As a freelancer by choice, people often think this is good for me. After all, they say, isn’t there more work for you than ever before? Isn’t this the kind of economy you thrive on? It’s entirely based around the type of work you do!

When I started freelancing (and I was still in school), I had a similar attitude. I believed the gig economy would work in my favor. I also believed that, as a writer, I was better prepared to enter the gig economy than most of my peers.

Only one of those things turned out to be true. I am more at peace with the freelance cycle of feast and famine than many of my peers, both because I chose it and because I grew up in poverty. But I’m not really better off when it comes to finding work.

Today I would like to show you why.

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The Gig Economy: So Many Gigs, So Little Pay

May 17, 2017 by Staff TUL Leave a Comment

The gig economy has been blossoming for some time. Uber, Airbnb, petsitters, freelance writers (I think we hire those folks actually), etc. It’s become one of the popular choices of employment for a new generation of workers. We can see the allure. You work when you want for as many hours as you want. Sounds great; but is the gig economy a good thing for the overall job market? Is it good for the workers? Is it good for the economy?

Essentially, gig economy workers are freelance workers. They independently sign up with an employer and each can decided to separate when it suits them. No two week notice necessary. Just leave. That’s appealing to a generation that values their freedom and views the typical workweek with a side eyed, suspicious glance.

While there’s reason to celebrate a freer life, the gig economy has serious downsides. Workers in the gig economy, have no bargaining power over wages or working conditions. No benefits. No job security. They have nowhere to go to complain if they’re mistreated.

Who really wins in the gig economy? And make no mistake, there are definitely winners and losers here. Today, we have a clip that features interviews with gig economy workers and a labor organizer. They discuss the pros and cons of being a gig economy worker. It’s a fascinating glimpse at a whole different approach to work.

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