Twiglet wisdom

This blog is dedicated to my fellow ex-VSO-er – Claire, as promised….

Finishing your placement with VSO can be very difficult because “When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it’s not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.” When we started with VSO some one should have told us  “I hope you enjoy disappointment.” I perhaps should have known how my placement would go, “Good luck tended to avoid me.” But “Hasn’t anyone ever told you? Life isn’t fair.”

Initially when the placement ended “It was nice to be alone, not to have to smile and look pleased; a relief to stare dejectedly out the window at the sheeting rain and let just a few tears escape.” Rainy season had come early this year!

There are many coping strategies to deal with this sense of loss & grieving, “I do a good job of blocking painful, unnecessary things from my memory.” Such as watching teenage Vampire movies or graduating on to True Blood – vampire porn. Sometimes the sense of relief & liberation was euphoric “You know, your mood swings are kind of giving me whiplash.”

These last two years “I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain.” Sometimes I would get so angry with people in my placement “My palms tingled — I wanted so badly to hit something. I was surprised at myself. I was usually a nonviolent person.”

Working in the health sector has been challenging & frustrating, “Death is peaceful, easy. Life is harder.”