Trying Something New.

Doing the 500 Words a Day Challenge for the next month. I feel like the challenge title is pretty self explanatory.

[thetimidwolf-blog1]

Day 2.

Okay so my days may consist of more than 24 hours... That’s just me not being able to find time every single day due to work and other social commitments so I’m taking this challenge at my own pace. Point is, I’m writing. 

Not today I thought I would regale you with an experience a personal anecdote if you will. Roughly this time last year I was in Europe having a grand old time as I was out of the cold and dreariness that is this city, so there’s a hint I must be in the Southern Hemisphere. This trip to Europe saw me visiting France, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. But the country that really stood out for me in this trip and the whole reason I was going, was Bosnia. Myself and a couple of friends had been accepted on a university study tour of Bosnia to gain an understanding of post-conflict societies. I had only heard about Bosnia in passing and had very little real exposure to what happened and what the socio-political context of the what happened was. It had only ever been brought up as an occasional example in a human rights class here or there. So, while doing some research beforehand I started to become of aware of just how emotionally loaded this study tour might be. 

For those who are like me and have very little knowledge of Bosnia-Herzegovina here’s a little breakdown. The country itself is located in Europe as part of the Balkan region, it is a largely agricultural society and was once part of the former Yugoslavia. The country itself can be located in between Croatia and Serbia. Now like many of the Balkan countries it has had its fair share of bloodshed and war. But unlike some of the other countries in the region Bosnia was a subject to genocide. The Bosnian War was an event which formally began in 1992 and its conclusion being in 1995. So this is fairly recent as far as history is concerned. Another major fact to know about Bosnia is that there are three major ethnic groups that make up the population. A major indication to identify what group an individual was a part of was what religion they followed. Therefore, the Bosniak’s being the largest ethnic community in Bosnia are often Muslim, the Bosnian-Serb’s are often Serbian Orthdox and the Bosnian-Croatians are Christian. The war itself was focused predominantly on the eradication of Bosnian Muslims, however all sides saw heavy losses and were subject to trauma and displacement. Reasons for the war and who the villains of the war can be debated and reasoned until the end of days, depending on who you speak to. However, the standout event for me and the most probably an event which has had the biggest impact on me and may ever will was attending the Mars Mira 2017.

The Mars Mira is a peace march that is held in Bosnia every year. The walk lasts for three days as it follows the death march that men took to escape from Srebrenica and name which is now synonymous with genocide, grief and loss. The original march took roughly 6 days as thousands of unarmed and unprotected men escaped Srebenica and with an estimated 8,000 of them dying as they were fired upon and captured by Serb forces. The Mars Mira is a memorial march for this event as it follows the train in reverse, beginning in Nezuk and ending in Potocari, a village north-west of Srebrenica. Thousands of people participate in this march every year with many people travelling internationally. 

 Okay so I might end today’s writing here as I have three days of walking to explain and I’ve already 600 words.

Until next time. 

[thetimidwolf-blog1]

Day 1.

I’ve never been much of a writer, I’m not particularly good with words anymore and I feel that my sentence structuring is somewhat awkward and not as delicately put as it could be. Like that. That sentence was ridiculously longer then it probably needed to be. A good writer and someone who had that refinement could probably have written that same sentence in half the amount of words and in a far more poetic or metaphoric way than what I have done. Therefore I am doing this challenge to try and develop my non-existent writing skills and to just challenge myself to do something a bit unconventional and interesting. Who knows I might actually find a writing voice or style that I can use. At the best I might find I really enjoy this and on the flip side it might just be that writing isn’t for me. Either way its an experience and that’s what we’re meant to be doing with our lives right? Finding new experiences and making the most of them. While writing 500 words everyday for a month may not be the most exciting of experiences I still have something to gain from this. So through this challenge I’ll be aiming to write about something new everyday. Whether it be about my own personal experiences or maybe about something more historical, international security based, who knows I’m just making this up as I go anyway. So today, I’ll give you a bit of insight in to myself. 

Essentially I’m just a graduate who’s working part time in a job not related to my field whilst I try to search for a job in my field and coming up with nothing short of rejection. It’s great. I love job hunting. Its as though with every bit of rejection I gain an understanding of just how bloody hard the real world is . How do people do this? Companies want the best but what do you do when you know that you’re mediocre at best? Now I know people always try to tell us otherwise and to think positively but sometimes you have to think realistically and just know that you are this and this is what you are. I know that I’m at best mediocre and I do try to improve myself, this challenge being one way but also through reading the news, reading in general, trying to stay up to date with my field etc. However I find that I’m just too awkward and out of place to be someone exceptional. I’m terrible at interviews I never know how to phrase my experience in a way that isn’t clunky and short and even with psychometric testing I’m average at best. So you know you have to realise where your strengths lie and for me its not in making a good impression on people. Rather I feel like I’m more the type of person who enters a job and learns and picks up new concepts and ideas fairly quickly. I’m dedicated to working and will compromise my social life to be more available for a job. However its getting a job which is eluding me. 

I’ve already exceeded my 500 words for the day so maybe I’ll come back to this idea, maybe I won’t but what I do know is that I’ll be back tomorrow to write again.