What My Girlfriends Told Me , livre ebook

September Publishing - Sonia Bajic

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146 pages

English

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Description

From the funny to the strident to the profound, What My Girlfriends Told Me is a beautiful illustrated celebration of friendship, full of the best advice for times of heartache or uncertainty, long nights and new beginnings. Wisdom from women who have lived.

Sujets

Humour

Informations

Publié par	September Publishing
Date de parution	02 mars 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781910463802
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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First published in 2018 by September Publishing
Text and illustration copyright © Sonja Bajic 2018
The right of Sonja Bajic to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder
Cover and page design by Sonja Bajic and Martin Brown
Printed in and bound by L C Printing Group
ISBN 978-1-910463-79-6 ISBN 978-1-910463-80-2 (eBook) ISBN 978-1-910463-81-9 (Kindle)
September Publishing www.septemberpublishing.org
I was sitting on the Paris Métro, going home from work. My eyes were crying. I say my eyes, because actually I was perfectly OK, except my eyes - they were irritated and tears were running down my face for three or four stations. I was reading something and wiping them off. The Métro stopped at the station close to my house. I jumped out and I started walking towards the exit.
A girl tapped me on my shoulder. I looked at her. She made a heart using her hands. Confused, I pointed back at myself. A heart for me? She nodded and made a hand-heart sign once again. I smiled vaguely. She left. I said loudly, Merci ; she waved affirmatively, without turning her head.
I walked home smiling.

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It s somewhere after midnight and the night is warm - probably the first warm night of the season. I am walking slowly down the old dark street. I know the street, I feel safe, home is near. Two girls are passing by me. One is crying; her friend is hugging her and telling her soothing words. The non-crying one stops me and asks me if I have a Kleenex. I am surprised that I am being stopped - it s too late and too dark, people don t communicate often with strangers at this hour - but I am taking out my Kleenex packet with a drawing of a cartoon Frozen on it, I am giving it to the crying girl and I smile.
Big cities like Paris don t put you in these situations - you are usually left to laugh your own laugh or fight your own misery, but here . . . I was a witness and an accomplice to this small emotional whirlpool. Out of nowhere I became a part of their tribe, and I felt like I needed to say something - like I needed to give my fair share of soothing words to the crying girl in front of me, and not just a handkerchief. I told her that, Everything will be just fine when you clear your head up - things look much sillier now than they will look in the morning. I also added that, He probably wasn t worth that MAC mascara that is running down your cheeks. I told her what I got in similar situations from my girlfriends, my very personal tribe. I told her a simple truth, some simple well-known facts, something

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easily applicable to whatever situation she was fighting in the midst of the night and in drunken half-reality.
I was not sure if the girl understood me. I had decided to stick to safe ground and English for my little borrowed wisdom. She looked at me while wiping her tears, her non-crying friend looked at me and they gave me a nod and a timid smile. I said it again in French, and they nodded again. As they were walking away I heard them explaining to each other what I said, and then from the dark background of my walk home I heard one loud and one husky, Merci . I waved affirmatively.
I just knew I had to respond with something - to tell her that everything will be OK . This OK can come in many shapes and forms. I am always more than happy to participate in the it will be OKs of my friends and family, and I am lucky enough to have friends and family who want to participate in mine. I am also lucky enough to always be surrounded by amazing women - women who do not take no for an answer, women who fight their fights, who stay proud in front of danger, who believe in education and emancipation, women who support and who are worthy of being supported, and women who are ladies in every situation. Above all - I am lucky to be surrounded by women who know how to make simple, everyday life worth celebrating.

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Words from my mother, grandmothers and aunts gave a lot of structure to the woman I ve become. My first big no parents allowed vacations were with four girls. An Italian lady friend of mine got me hooked on illustration - making my reality totally different today. When I moved to Paris, there was a woman who let me stay with her for free and helped me find a good place of my own. Later I met that one lady friend who would support me today in 99 per cent of things (and who often stops me being a clown); I became her wedding witness.
My support system has been built from people of all five continents, and one cat. I tried to count nationalities of my friends and family - and there are simply too many. Each of them has brought something that has made me rethink my position, made me look wider and further. I am grateful for that. My lovely Brazilian friend, Renata - an ally from the moment she lent me her hand cream in the heat of the Calabrian summer - taught me the secrets of her South American aunt. Lily, a lady from Oxford, with whom I have a glass of white wine every now and then on Saturdays, after the market, always underlines how expecting the best you deserve and fighting for that best is always necessary. I was standing on the roundabout on Bastille with Annie from Minnesota one day, aching with heartache and weltschmerz and god knows what else . . . I have captured

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all her American positivity in this book as well. Some of these mind-blowing phrases I got in late-night messages from Australia, minutes after I turned down a job offer that undervalued my skills, education and personality. Many of these sentences are about new beginnings - in this or that way - and hopefully there is something that is applicable to any situation you might find yourself in.
I ve been a lifetime gatherer of lovely phrases and good stories. Some of those words pulse in my head at certain instants. Some of them were always and forever with me because they came in the moment of big changes; some of these words came from the depths of my memory and from what I was taught as a child. Others I found on the margins of my past journals and notebooks - written in green, gold, neon pink, almost erased graphite, very small and very big. These words were written down over long phone conversations or in the midst of an inspiring discussion or a boring lecture. They were written often on drawing paper, but also on other people s business cards. Anything was the right canvas for the right words at the right moment; I had an urge to scribble them down and I did. While compiling this book, I went through dozens of conversations with important friends on Facebook Messenger, through Instagram conversations, old emails, text messages, Viber and Skype and WhatsApp.

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Words are soothing and encouraging. Right words in the right moment can kill days of heartache. Right advice in the right moment can save you so much trouble. And the right anti-age cream recommendation can save your face so many lines. Having a support system that is there when your days are short and your nights are long is sometimes the best thing you can have. I am very grateful for these words of advice I got along the road. I am hoping those words will give you, too, a small - but often very needed - push.
In truth, there are actually a few phrases in this book I got from my male friends. It s not important which. Those men cared enough and that is why their phrases of wisdom are female enough to be here.
Recently, I went home to Serbia for some advice from my wise parents and some good food. I slept in my parents home and had a long late-night conversation with my sister, Senka . . . the next morning, I woke up and there was a message on the mirror in the bathroom written on a Post-it note: Do whatever you can to make this day better , with Senka written underneath in small letters. You ll find this advice among the pages of this tribute to the longest relationships in our lives - friendship.

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