Oh, how we all laughed at the prospect of Trump becoming President! “Ha ha ha, yes, Brexit told us to never trust the liberal lefties on our Twitter timelines”, but a meme? As PRESIDENT? An actual orange-faced, pussy-grabbin’, Muslim hatin’, wall-building MEME of a white man?! Oh my poor lord. I had this ridiculous feeling last night listening to Darkness on the Edge of Town as a kind of midnight prayer that the Democrats would pull through, because what Bruce says, surely must go right? Alas, we’re all left a bit dumbfounded about the result and the ten steps backward for the Western world with the appointment of such a gross old man.
Anyway, I’ve been writing a lot about different things recently and been feeling generally good about life as a 20-year-old (excepting the above and the fact that All of My Money Is Going at an Alarming Rate). But that’s life, right. I’ve had a really good couple of weeks. I decided, after a wonky mental health tremble, to be kinder to myself as long as I am essentially being a good person with good intentions. I decided to accept all the *arguable* traits about myself and my actions and instead carry them out with a seething conviction, i.e ‘Yes, I probably will sleep with this dude on the first date (this is hypothetical, obviously) but that doesn’t make me a bad person’. And yes, quite often my choices feel more like mistakes, but whatever. All of this stemmed from listening to Diamond Heart on LG’s latest album Joanne and thinking – hey, maybe I’ll get the words ‘diamond heart’ written inside a cute cartoon heart for my next tattoo! – but even I, queen of pointless tattoos, wouldn’t quite be able to pull that off.
I am so happy when I’m writing and luckily that is what I’m doing with my life every day. I felt immensely happier with myself the other day when I said to myself the only thing I have to concentrate on is: Trying to get peak-level excited about seemingly small things (when you’re in a slump, everything’s a total bore), listening to other people and what they have to say (if they’re worth my two cents, obviously), and reading lots of books (self-explanatory). I was feeling quite pressured by a mounting workload that had started to dig into my own sanity and happiness, and one night I was just like: Keep the faith, listen to others, read widely.
If you feel like parting with more your time to read my idiotic writing, I went to see The Low Anthem at Omeara last night (I gave it five stars – it was stupendous), Vagabonds: My Phil Lynott Odyssey at the Tara Theatre last week and Dare Devil Rides to Jarama at the Bussey Building a few weeks ago.
A-thank you, and until next time,
T.A.L x
Tara Lepore 
Ah love it tara, felt the same recently re. mental health wonkiness but its so easy to pump yourself back to life when you’re generally just being a good allround person and trying yer very best yano.
Ps. I get an email everytime you post! ITS 2016!!