Editorial

So, I’ve been staring at this blank page for a few days now that it’s becoming a bit of a joke. As I’m sure you can imagine, with every other stress that comes around this time of year like ‘oh shit, that assignment is due this week?’ or ‘really, its end of semester already… I have to find a job, w-w-what?’ finding a little inspiration and motivation can be difficult, I can tell ya that for free.

So being in a little bit of an inspirational slump I decided, ‘hey, what better way to be inspired than to check in with the internet’. (Yeah right Liv, like peering in the toilet bowl of the universe is going to help). But I did it anyway…  Do you know what happens when you google ‘something inspiring’? Basically nothing, just a bunch of random websites with entirely uninspiring inspirational quotes over muted images of children’s hands or chess boards and butterflies – nowhere near as many cats as I was hoping for – although there was a photo of a cassette made out of salami which, I’m not going to lie, was pretty inspiring.

I clicked on a link that read 15 quotes to inspire you to do something meaningful today (I was going to shuffle one in right about here to make fun of it) but as I scrolled lower and lower down the page, pausing briefly on a particularly quizzical quote by Kanya West about believing in what you believe in if you’re the only one who believes, I realised how particularly un-funny this attempt at inspiration had become and how inspiration truly requires something more.

It really had me thinking, who or what inspires me, have I really become that damned apathetic?Then I remembered an article that I read the other day about a woman in Africa, Fatu Kekula. Not only was it a refreshingly happy story to come out of a news media saturated with tales of death and fear mongering that has come hand in hand with the Ebola crisis, it was a truly remarkable story about a 22 year old woman who had successfully cared for numerous members of her family who had contracted the disease without the protective gear of healthcare professionals, practically just using gloves and garbage bags. I couldn’t even imagine, however, it did remind me that everyday people are capable of achieving such profound outcomes in the most unfathomable circumstances when they put their minds to it, and that in itself was uniquely inspiring.

So on that note, this particular Metior goes out to all the ladies. It’s our annual women’s edition for 2014, that special time of year when the magazine opens its doors to all manner of discourse of the female persuasion. And so within these pages you will find a plethora of fascinating fiction, photography, and factual debate from our team of contributors who are ever brimming with inspiration.