living

27Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Queenie, The Story Of A Young Black Woman Living And Dating In London, Is ‘Complex, Funny, Broken, Fun’

My favourite fictional character: Queenie, a young Black woman living and dating in London, is ‘complex, funny, broken, fun’. Early in the pandemic, I looked after my niece because she had conjunctivitis and couldn’t go to daycare. Despite my best efforts, I caught it. My infection morphed into tonsillitis and I became very sick. I couldn’t read or watch TV properly – which everyone knows are the only pleasures of being sick. So I downloaded the audiobook of Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and listened in bed with my eyes closed. Eric Nopanen/Unsplash, CC BY Before long, I found myself pausing the book to leave myself croaky, semi-lucid voice notes as I fell in love with Queenie Jenkins. (I should have known, in the middle of my PhD on rom-com, I’ll never read commercial fiction sole...

The Three Rules Of Life For Living Happily And Successfully

There are many problems and challenges we face in lives. From the moment we were born until the day we leave this world, we have to go through physical, emotional, mental and spiritual changes that define us as human beings. Regardless of our family backgrounds, we can and should find our purpose in life through our goals, dreams and aspirations. These are the pursuits that give meaning to our lives and make life worth living. This is destiny in the making. However, despite our best efforts, circumstances can derail our plans and make us move in a different direction from the one we have chosen. But we should not be sidetracked by obstacles along the way nor should we be discouraged by them. We need to build strength in all four dimensions of our beings- physic, mind, emotion and spirit -...

More Young Adults Are Living With Their Parents – Is That Necessarily A Bad Thing?

When the Pew Research Center recently reported that the proportion of 18-to-29-year-old Americans who live with their parents has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps you saw some of the breathless headlines hyping how it’s higher than at any time since the Great Depression. From my perspective, the real story here is less alarming than you might think. And it’s actually quite a bit more interesting than the sound bite summary. For 30 years I’ve been studying 18-to-29-year-olds, an age group I call “emerging adults” to describe their in-between status as no longer adolescents, but not fully adult. Even 30 years ago, adulthood – typically marked by a stable job, a long-term partnership and financial independence – was coming later than it had in the past. Yes, a lot of emergi...