DIARY OF A COAST GIRL

NB: FOR THE BEST VIEWING EXPERIENCE, PLEASE VIEW THIS POST IN LANDSCAPE MODE RATHER THAN PORTRAIT MODE. THANK YOU. PAINTED PAIN     I've been dependent on music for as long as I can remember. Music has been the one thing that holds me down and brings out the child in me, allowing me to see life as I did when I was a child. I grew up jamming to the music that played on the radio in my father's kiosk. I even danced in neighborhood competitions because my cousin would bet on me to beat the other kids. Some jams hit me so hard that I shout the lyrics out, while others make me go crazy with excitement. So, when I grew up and started fighting and being whipped by life, I turned to music. This time, I didn't listen to it jumping and falling while showing a new dance style. I listened to it to nod along and remind myself that I wasn't the first to get this lashing from life. In 2020, after a huge loss, I list...

THE ZONE Every now and then, you come across posts on social media about leaving your comfort zone. Motivational speakers and business moguls we look up to often emphasize that leaving their comfort zone is their first step to success. Time and again, we hear stories like: "That night, I carried my torn Ghana Must Go bag and left the house. When I got to Accra or Kumasi, I didn't even have 1000 (now 10 pesewas) or a kobo. I started selling medicine or spare parts with just 1.0 cedis, and now here I am, being invited to tell you my story." For many of us, "leaving your comfort zone" has meant moving from ZaleZale to Cape Town or from Susi to Sosa. There are even images of a fish leaving the water, its comfort zone, only to die—a humorous post in regards to the comfort zone. Honestly, I've always thought of the comfort zone as a physical place where I stay and enjoy being, that's because of the stories I've heard. If you had asked me months ago, I woul...

At the time I could hear the church bell even when in the arms of Morpheus, was the time one DR. TSIKATA donated a gigantic bell to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in my community. The church initially had a bell, yes, but not a bell that could wake me from my deepest slumber or remind a sleepy dreamer of the time. The bell then was the one used by the students in the EP school too. It was a bell that announced the time to people in the community. Living just a few houses away from the church made the church bell my alarm and reminder as well. I grew up thinking or believing the Church Bell is supposed to be on the church premises and call on people only when there's a church gathering just like the siren does until I met and started living with the legonites.  The legonites, unlike the EPC, have more than a "church bell". The legonites church bell is a "startling knock" " a knock that's gonna make you run to your door thinking you locked your 90-y...

                                                                      MATA❤️ In the early 2000s, I was born and knew just a woman as my mother but over the years and having understood mother differently, I celebrate the women with empathy and love for me or others. That's why on Mother's Day, I reach out to the ones in my life and to the ones in the world as well and thank them for showing love and being empathetic to us.  There are many women whose stories I could share and have the world's ears to ground and eyes glued on but today being the first time I do this, let me give it to Caesar since it belongs to Caesar.  It was on a Thursday in the year 2002, when the families of Aku and Kofi were on their knees, praying to God to do it again like He is being done. They were calling on Him days before that f...

                                                                                        WORDS FROM THE Js I woke up earlier today not only to the melodious tunes of the singing birds that the moist breeze of dawn had carried far, but to a message from the first J. 1st J is someone I've always admired from the first time I entered my English class in Level 100. We were both vocal in class, and she loved to ask questions. I admired her a lot and have seen her grow to be that lady of substance who brightens every corner.  She wanted to know if I had plans of holding any leadership position in the English Department as she was doing the same in another department. I told her I would've if not for the challenges I faced on my way to the top. Most of the time, some of my ...

  As the sun returned from the west to the east and left partial darkness behind, I sat on the retaining walls at the back of the house, staring at nowhere in particular. I had a lot on my mind. The journey of self-growth starts with awareness. However, after the awareness comes a lot of worries. You know you need to do this and that; you know you are not who you were or want to be. In the pursuit of finding myself and making this rebirth journey a successful one, I joined an initiative. I applied for a mental health and leadership program and got accepted. Luckily for me, I found a community with people who understand my problem and can relate to it. The Aya Initiative is a program I've psyched my mind up for to help me on this journey of being who I am and winning the battle against myself. The experience so far has been amazing, and I can't wait for it to get even better. Beautiful, intelligent people who share their time, thoughts, and experiences make you realize you aren...

 Dear Reader,  When I created this blog account, it was my plan to start writing  or creating posts from 25th April since that's my birthday, the beginning of my rebirth journey and the journey where you would be a witness and see how things change not drastically but gradually.  I'm Mavis Etornam Doe, a twenty-two-year-old trying to navigate my life and be a better version of myself. I hail from one of the coastal villages in the Volta Region. Growing up as a child, I used to enjoy reading. It was something I did every day and even enjoyed doing than any other thing, however, things changed an d I began to lose interest in a lot of things, including reading.  If you check my profile, one of my favorite music is Believer by Imagine Dragons, because the lyrics are my story, it's something I relate to. I used to write from a young age too but it also left when life happened, however, I write again only when I'm in pain and in distress so it became more like an esc...