Purple Lipstick

In the academic world, there is a group of words that are a nightmare to deal with. They are a nightmare, not because their bad or anything like that, they are a nightmare because we know exactly what they mean but have no way of defining them well enough to match the meaning in our head. There are quite a few of these words, but the most popular ones are “justice” and “love”. 

At first it may feel really easy to define them (that’s the meaning you have in your head speaking), but when you try and write it down, chances are you’re going to have either a biased description or a description that is describing something else. By “biased” I mean, your culture, beliefs, or experiences are determining the meaning of the word; and so outside of you, the meaning isn’t always applicable. People who ascribe to a religion tend to meet this problem more.
By “describing something else” I mean that you’re probably associating the word with a concept that runs really close to it. So for “justice” for example, people tend to confuse it with the word and concept of “fairness” but the two are very different. Or in the case of “Love” sometimes I tend to confuse it with the idea of “generosity” especially generosity in food.

Ironically Purple Lipstick’s motto is “Love Always”, a really intense application of the word.
As a part of the Purple Lipstick team I couldn’t walk around with this really powerful statement and not at least try and define what I meant when I said it. I feel as though my research turned up really successful, and though I haven’t had time to run them by my professors and peers (mostly because I’m scared I’m wrong, because I really like this definition) I think you might like it too.

What is Love? Love is not a feeling, it isn’t an emotion, it is not a chemically controlled reaction; it creates and expresses itself through these, but it is not them. If it were, it would be flimsy and inconstant, like anger or jealousy. Love is far more complex...

Love is a decision to expand your identity.

Before things get confusing let me first give you a decent philosophical definition and then we’ll break it down and you can decide what you think ;] :
“Love is the decision to include the other into the identity of the self, it is the expansion of what the self sees as “I” ”
key words here are “the self”, “expand”, “the other”, and “identity”. By “the self”, I mean “the thinking thing”, the voice reading this in your head; the thing, that the body feeds, defends, and holds as a priority for its existence. By “the other” I mean the things outside of the “thinking thing”. By “expand” I mean the action of including something else into the boundaries of the “thinking thing”, and by “identity” I mean the name you give your existence.

I know that was a lot of “things” and quite a lot to process, read it twice and slowly, and I guarantee it’ll sound less busy. What I define Love as, and what I mean when I say the word Love, is: I am expanding my identity, expanding the severity of relevance of something/someone to me. The way my limbs rush to my defense in reflex to danger, the way my immune system sacrifices and commits to threats to my survival, the way my heart pounds with the joy of my little successes, the way I take care of this body that makes up the “I” that it holds as the beginning and end of its identity. When I love something, I extend this behavior to them. Their life becomes as relevant as my own, and I rush to their defense, their goals, safety, and happiness are worth my sacrifice, their joy, sadness, experiences are as if they were my own, because “I” no longer only means me, but it means “them” too.

I really like this definition, but I’d really appreciate it if you have a different definition in mind, or if you had something you wanted to add. Go ahead and tell us what it is on one of your social platforms.

Love Always,

Albert

A roller coaster is usually used as an example of life. The ride goes up and down, up and down until it stops. Is this the perfect example though?

As we all know, roller coasters are much fun when they head down. The fear- the adrenaline rush- the anticipation of that downfall is what leads us to absolutely love roller coasters in the first place!

But we all know- life's downfalls are nothing like those of a roller coaster. Life's downfalls are the worst part of being alive. Or are they?

Yes-they usually are.

on a brighter note: with every downfall comes a new confidence- a new strength-a new person.

'Downfalls' is a word familiar with almost every teenage girl these days. We face a lot of challenges in our lives. When we talk about teen-girl problems, one word comes to everyone's minds. And that word is 'boyfriend'. Are boyfriends all the issues girls go through? Of course not!

We face so much more; from family problems to school problems. Pressure to do good in school to pressure to build your character and remain yourself in a world where everyone expects you to be who they want you to be or to be who they see you as five years  from now. We struggle to impress anyone who has an impact on our lives: our parents, our family members,our relatives. We strive to ensure that we uphold our family's respect and we do all we can to not be the cause of embarrassment or shame to our families. If you're the first born of your family and you're a girl- no doubt you face the burden of being held responsible for nearly everything. Parents expect you to be a role model for your young siblings ( Even though personally I reckon kids these days will grow up to be who and what they want to be regardless of how much you would have tried to set the standard for them).

Whether you are a girl living in luxury, living in fairly hard conditions or living in extremely difficult conditions- you've undoubtedly faced most or some of these issues. And if you haven't..well aren't you a lucky one

You must be wondering exactly where I'm leading to or where my point is.

YOU  see.. as much as your condition seems helpless or extremely impossible right now, just know that soon-you'll be out of it. Just try your best to be positive minded about everything. Never feel as though a situation is too great to be handled. Because no situation is too great for handling. obviously: rely on Jehovah God to guide you through your happiness and sadness .

IF you're facing friendship / relationship  problems (betrayal, constant arguments, fake friendships, lack of trust etc..) just know this: sometimes there is more harm in holding on than there is on in letting go. Never be afraid to let go of something that hurts you-either physically or emotionally and if a friendship / relationship is causing you discomfort..either try to fix things (of course) or let go. There will always be a thousand or more people out there waiting- in fact looking for someone like you.

IF you're facing family problems..well these can come in many forms, just stay as positive as you possibly can. Try and be the peace and happiness that you want to see in your family.

IF you're facing problems with school and school work, try to not look at school like a burden. Look at school like the bridge to the life you want to have. Please visualise: see yourself on a hard, rocky and broad road. See yourself walking on that road and visualize the road becoming narrower with every step you take  now imagine you come to the end of that road. You realize that there is no more road in fact no more surface for you to walk on to continue your journey. You look ahead and see the most breath taking view you have ever set your eyes on. But between you and that place is nothing but air. You're no bird- you can't just fly over.

That's you, the life you have now and the life you might have after surviving school. I used 'might' because it doesn't come with a guarantee

So you see:

WHETHER you face any of the challenges I've mentioned or you face those I've left out just know that nothing is impossible and no challenge can't be overcome. Stay focused and do all you can to surround yourself with positive surroundings. Never give up.

                         Never say never.

Earlier I talked about a roller coaster and asked if it was the best example of life..well the answer is really up to you but picture this: you're on the roller coaster and you know it's about to go down,obviously you cringe at the thought. As it always does, the roller coaster does slide down-you scream or fall into hysteria either way you go through it and before you know it it's over. Then? Then you smile and feel happy...or for others :puke.  Important point: you went through it and overcame.