Many young people will be forced to rent forever and endure all the uncertainty that comes with that.
The woman who showed us around the house had her hair up in a bun and put out a cigarette before we walked inside. We asked her if she was the estate agent. She said no, she was the tenant.
It felt off. Here we were looking to potentially buy this home and here she was, with years of accumulated furniture, bric-a-brac, and memories — and no choice in the matter.
Later, the estate agent said the landlord was looking to consolidate his portfolio. He had many homes he was renting out and wanted to work with fewer properties. But…
In former communist nations, women dominate the science field — but is this an example the West can emulate to bridge its own STEM gap?
My mother grew up in communist Bulgaria. The Berlin wall didn’t fall until 1989 and she was a 70s kid. Her formative years were spent behind the iron curtain, where people queued for hours to buy their yearly allotment of oranges.
Communism was a grey regime where apathy and a general lack ruled. People lacked freedom, people lacked choice, people lacked oranges, and jeans, and cars, and most things we take for granted these days.
My grandparents were neither revolutionaries nor staunch communists. They existed in the apathetic majority that accepted its reality as commonplace. …
I am not willing to barter away my freedom.
Despite the pandemic sparking a work-from-home revolution, employees could be forced to return to physical offices in the next two years. According to analysis shared by UK-based think tank Centre for Cities, employers are ‘hopeful’ that staff will return to the office as soon as possible. Businesses reason that this would allow for the return of unscheduled interactions that are, apparently, the key to creativity.
The property industry jumped on the news and added that demand for office space is already on the rise again. It’s important to note that think tanks that aim to boost the economies of large…
These strategies helped me accept my mortality and live a fuller life.
When I was at university, I drank red wine, read Descartes in bed, and pondered my own mortality and existence. What is the point of it all, I thought. Our lives are but fleeting moments in time. In a few decades, we’ll all be dead and so will everyone we loved.
I suppose it’s a right of passage — every university student who studies philosophy has to question the meaning of life and despair at the insignificance of their existence at least once. I am not sure they let you graduate otherwise.
In my case though, my existentialism was chronic…
Why I walked away from a promising job in journalism in the middle of the pandemic
I lost my dream journalism job to the pandemic. In August last year, I was informed my regional reporter role was being made redundant. I felt numb — the career I’d been working towards for the last two years was snatched from me before I even had a chance to get started.
I’d worked so hard to get to where I was — from saving up to pursue a postgraduate degree in journalism to waitressing after classes to fund unpaid internships in the field, I’d done whatever I could to get my break.
As a non-native English speaker, I felt…
Sometimes you have to pivot. And that’s okay.
A year ago, I lost my dream job. Or so I thought.
I had just been made redundant after my company went through major restructuring as a result of the pandemic.
I was crushed.
I had spent my life’s savings on a master’s degree in journalism, moved to a completely different country where I knew nobody, and worked hard to stand out. All so I could pursue my dream.
What was that dream? To write for a living. To connect with people using the written word and to tell stories well. …
People who change jobs frequently shouldn’t be stigmatized.
Job-hopping is still seen as unacceptable by companies. The hypocrisy of that stance astounds me.
I’ve heard from many friends who were questioned over shorter stints with previous employers during interviews.
Many said this left them frustrated.
I can’t blame them.
In my short career, I have been through a redundancy consultation that saw more than 2,000 people placed at risk of losing their income in the middle of a pandemic.
Companies restructure, companies streamline, companies outsource. Companies do what is best for the company.
Fine.
But employees are doing the exact same thing. They are moving so they can…
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” — Edmund Burke
Inches separated the wailing toddler from his mother. He banged on the bus door in a desperate attempt to get to her, speaking in his baby gibberish, garnering no sympathy from the seated passengers who watched the child passively.
Outside, the refugee couple showed the bus driver their tickets. He saw fit to pull the lever and shut the doors as soon as he saw the woman in the hijab accompanied by the man who spoke in a foreign language.
He did not care that their little boy had already crawled onto the bus full of apathetic passengers and was…
Multi-level marketing schemes have surged in popularity during the pandemic
It was the middle of the pandemic and the economy was going to shit when I was furloughed. I kept my job but there was no guarantee I would have it in a few months. It was an uncertain time.
An acquaintance approached me to ask whether I’d like to attend a webinar he was organizing as part of his new business. It was all very vague but he seemed excited and I had nothing better to do so I signed up.
I went along to the 30-minute webinar and watched as 50 other people fell hook, line, and sinker…
Maybe I just haven't put in my 10,000 hours yet — but damn, I must be getting close.
When it comes to my writing, I feel like Jekyll and Hyde, and five other distinct personalities too. I have been writing since I learned how to put pen to paper. At first, this was in my native language — Bulgarian. But when I moved abroad and started learning English in elementary school, English became my language of choice.
I wrote creative stories and poems, and in journalism school, I wrote news pieces. Later, in the first newsroom where I worked, I wrote long-form features, live blogs, and snappy news articles. I wrote.
But something my mom said when I…
