Happy Tuesday!
Well, to get started, a very short-medium-length story about the blog and where the inspiration came from: "A day in the life of Eugene"... You might be wondering 'Who the heck is Eugene, if the author's name is Judete' ? Funny story actually. It all started in High School ( the tender and moody age of 16) where the girls and boys were lined up outside maths class; it was the beginning of a new school term, and, South African schooling being as regimented as it is, our teacher preferred to have us sit at assigned desks going according to our surnames--so that she could cross-reference with the class list/ register whenever she was unsure of who was asking questions, misbehaving, rocking on their chairs, not wearing the correct school uniform etc etc. Anyway, whilst we were waiting for our names to be called one-by-one to get given a seat in class, it was drawing nearer and nearer to the letter "F" (my surname being Fourie), and, what I probably should add right about now is that "Judete" has always, for some strange reason, been a very difficult name for the majority of South Africans to pronounce. I guess, people here haven't heard it frequently enough to know how to say it, and so, for that reason, I always get a little rosy when I know someone is about to say my name, because they always get it horribly wrong. The worst part is, even though most people get over the fact that they have to correct others when saying their name later in life, while one is in high school and trying one's best to blend in seamlessly with the rest of one's peers, a name like "Judete" is not exactly cut out to camouflage a young, teenage, sliiiiightly awkward girl. Maybe it is a different story in France or Portugal where the name (or variations of it) originates, but over here in South Africa, I've been face-palming for the past twenty-one years! I've heard every version of my name imaginable, and like Thomas Edison, a couple hundred ways of how Not to get it right. Getting back to my story, the teacher was running through the surnames: "Ferreira......Foba.....Fourie"...and, to the best of my knowledge, I was the only "Fourie" in my maths class, I waited for this new teacher to call out my name. And low and behold, having the class list in her hand, in other words, my full name and spelling in front of her eyes, she utters out the name: "Eugene Fourie. You're up!". Needless to say, my self-confidence had gone from questionable to non-existent. I may as well have turned into a bottle of Tabasco Sauce. I was bright red and hotter than one of those Ghost peppers they're always talking about on BBC Food. I covered my stunned face in dismay, as I walked to the front of the queue and quietly whispered my (real) name to her. She tried a couple of times to correct her (unforgivable) mistake, but I gave up and proceeded to my new bunker of shame in the fifth row, second from the back. I didn't hear the end of that story until my friends and I left school (which was three years later). Let alone my school friends, my family have now unofficially dubbed me as Eugene Fourie. I think a name like "Eugene" reminds me first and fore-mostly of the geeky teenager in the movie Grease (the nerd with the pocket-protector, cow-lick and suspenders). I don't mean to offend anyone with that name; I think there are probably millions of Eugene's around the world who are good looking, of social-butterfly descent and at the height of popularity within their peer group. We know what Bill Shakespeare says anyway; a rose by any other name still smells as sweet! (I was just paraphrasing there). I guess the reason I decided to incorporate that name into my blog is because I guess we all have a little bit of Eugene in us. The side we all pretend at times not to have, or hope for goodness' sake that there are not any general citizens of the public around when something involuntarily-crazy should happen. For the most part, we're all pretty weird, in a normal kind of way, but pretend that we don't really have those moments of pure LIFE happening to us. The irony there is that, it is in those moments when we want to crawl under the couch, shun our own existence or hide our faces away from others that we are the most beautiful and raw versions of ourselves. It is exactly then that we are unique, quirky, fresh, original human, living beings. I think, for that recent realization and reason, I have decided to harness my inner "Eugene" and make the most of every single day. To no-longer deny that part within me that makes up so much of my spirit and has contributed largely to why people want to get to know me and be proud to call me their friend. A true friend. There will be news-worthy days, and there will be days more mundane than rolling out the wheely-bin to the drive-way. A day is a day is a day. It is slightly cliche to mention, but we know that sometimes the most significant things happen when we are in those situations when we think nothing is possible. Those moments where we are caught 100 percent off-guard, those moments that we have not seen in movies, those moments that people don't think have happened according to plan. Once we strive for or even just embrace those things, elements such as popular social media and advertising will no longer have the power or authority over us as it has exercised for so many years. So, what I hope for you to take out of this is: Whatever you want! I think there's a win-win situation; I get to talk about my day and everything that happened in it, and someone gets to read about it. Since I currently study Anthropology as one of my modules, I know that the things which I talk about on this blog can be used as interesting fieldwork or findings for a research of some sort i.e. "How the psyche of a crazy person is compiled". Even more so, if there's anyone who feels that they can gain from the things I talk about, or my experiences, even better! I think we should share as much as we can, we all move forward together, in one way or another.
1 Comment
Sophi
7/23/2014 02:39:41 am
:) Eugene ;) you've gotto love this girl. xxx keep it up...keep sharing...I'll keep reading. Love the pics.
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AuthorHi there, my name is Judete Fourie. I am a twenty-something-year-old writer living in Stellenbosch in SA's Western Cape. Follow my day to day adventures that involve wine, wit and braaibroodjies. Archives
June 2017
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