Mask

I was scrolling through facebook and came across the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2025. The theme is "masks" and the first thing that I noticed is that the word mask contains the word ask. And that is what I will write about. There is a proverb that goes like this, "closed mouths do not get fed." Many of society teaches us that we must be strong. We must be able to stand on our own. We must fight our battles individually. No one cares. Everyone is busy fighting their own battles. We wear our battle masks to face the world full of problems and strife. We pretend that we are strong and that everything is going well. As someone who lives with mental illness and who has battled for more than twenty years, the best advise that I can give, is to ask for help. Take off the mask and ask. Ask for help from God. Ask for help from relatives. Ask for help from the professionals. Ask for help from the internet. Ask for help from the books. Ask for help from wherever help is available. You will be turned away. But not all the time. You will be ignored. But not all the time. You will be laughed at and criticized and mocked and misunderstood and the likes. But not all the time. You will find your people. You will find your help. You will learn to not need that mask so much. You will learn that it is ok to ask for help. You will learn who you can depend on. You will learn who you can trust. For me I found that in God the most. I pray to God to give me the strength to ask others for help when I need to. I do not ask for help enough but I am in a position where I can recognise how helpful it is to ask for help. I am not speaking to you as an expert on asking for help but as someone who struggles to ask others for help. We are in the same boat. I feel like I can help others by turning you away from the path I have taken by trying to do things on my own most of the times. I am unable to make the word count of 3000 to 5000 words to enter the contest and I feel like that is an unnecessary ask. A message should not be judged by the length of the message. I will ask them if they could remove the lower word count limit. The most they could say is no. When one door closes another door opens. There will be other opportunities for my essay to win a prize. My friend Gemini thinks that my essay is a powerful personal narrative that resonates with the theme of "masks." It's clear that I have poured my heart into this piece, and my message of seeking help is both important and inspiring. I hope my essay and message helps you and others. I love Maths and equations. Mask = my + ask. My ask of you is to not be afraid to ask for help.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cheesy

This is a chapter from my eight book called Learn to live Today I learnt from twitter then Word Hippo that in specific contexts the plural of pizza is pizze. Ordinarily the plural is pizzas but not always. But is this true in English? I learnt that in Italian the plural of pizza is pizze. Word Hippo says that the plural form can be pizze [in English] (rare), for example in reference to various types of pizze or a collection of pizze. It is a loan word. But they did not give any sentence use examples. My friend Gemini was able to give me an example, "At the restaurant, we offer a variety of pizze, including Margherita, pepperoni, and veggie." I guess we could be saying the pizze menu or I might ask the pizzaiolo what types of pizze do you serve? My mind has me thinking. What other words have double z in them? There are quite a few of them. Would be cool if these were known as buzzwords. I tried to be funny but ended up being fuzzy. My favorite z word is zen for calm, quiet and
Read more

Lovely

This is a chapter from my eight book called Learn to live When I came across this quote I thought to myself that this is lovely. I did not know but I wonder if it is true. Turns out to be factual. The quote comes from the TV series Mozart in the Jungle, "You say 'amateur' as if it was a dirty word. 'Amateur' comes from the Latin word amare, which means to love. To do things for the love of it." My friend Chatty gave me the history of the word amateur and it is a pity that it has adopted negative use. It is a beautiful word. The word "amateur" comes from the French word of the same spelling, which itself derives from the Latin "amator," meaning "lover." Originally, it referred to someone who engages in an activity for the love of it, rather than for financial gain. Over time, especially in the 19th century, the term took on a more specific connotation, often contrasting skilled professionals with those who participate in a field wi
Read more

Trinidad and Tobago Digital Readiness Assessment Survey

Update Feb 24 2023 - The survey has long been closed and the results/report was published and a copy can be found here . Lets hope that this does not become another report collecting dust and that we act on the recommendations. At the end of this year and the future I will contact the ministry to ask what was actioned and update this blog post. Original blog post - Sharing this important survey. Copied from the Ministry of Digital Transformation's facebook page. On our digital transformation journey, we want to ensure that we identify, prioritise and meet your needs. And who better to tell us your needs than YOU? The Ministry of Digital Transformation, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme Trinidad and Tobago, is rolling out the Digital Readiness Assessment (DRA), an internationally recognised survey-based tool developed by the UNDP, to provide insights into a country's digital strengths and weaknesses. Take part by answering the questions at the link
Read more