JK Rowling; The Saviour

God knows what I would have done throughout my childhood without the Harry Potter books to keep me sane, but for other people out there in the world these books were literally life saving reading material. 

Evanna Lynch, aged 11, battled Anorexia for 2+ years until she managed to gather the courage to write to her author-hero JK Rowling. The Irish actress, Evanna, wrote to Rowling to thank her for the magical wizarding world of Harry Potter that she could escape to; the books gave her "hope". 

Writing back "like a councellor" Rowling encouraged Evanna, through multiple letters to overcome her eating disorder with bravery and then to strive for the role of Luna Lovegood; the role Evanna is now famous for creating. Miss Lynch is noted to have looked up to Luna throughout reading the novels thus amplifying the significance if her finally landing the role. 

"Anorexia is destructive, not creative. The brave thing to do was not to succumb to it..." Lynch recalls from the resonating advice given by Joanna "Jo" Rowling. 

Evanna is now a survivor of Anorexia and has not returned to her disorder, she's pursuing her acting career and also working with the Harry Potter Alliance Charity where she gets to write and talk to young girls about body issues. 

Thank you, JK. 

Three for a girl, four for a boy...

So, I've been thinking about pregnancy a lot lately. Not in like a "Ooh, I'm feeling all maternal" way, but just in a pondering way. More like a "hmmm" than a "ooh" way. Gettit? 

70% of the girls in my college class are pregnant or have already had one child. Okay, that's clearly not an exact percentage because I'm not that mathematically motivated, but I'm pretty sure 70% is an accurate representation of what is going on. Okay, back to my original point; There's a lot of girls who're pregnant. And now a bunch of my adult friends are getting married and getting pregnant.

I don't need that for me now, I don't want that right now, I'm happy where I am but I can't help but ponder it all. 

The girls in my college class can't have planned their pregnancies, surely? They can't have wanted that for themselves at 18/19/20? They're Facebook's give a different idea though, so many announcements of "happy news" and news they have "waited so long to share..." Along with various photos of blurry bean-shaped things in a sea of black that is apparently what the pregnancy-savvy call Ultrasounds. 

I was talking to someone today who's bruised their coccyx doing God knows what, I offered them some painkillers as any friendly person would do. However, the person in question knows that I don't take paracetamol or ibuprofen, I take Cocodomol; just because I'm a wimp and I really don't like pain. She declined my offer, with "No thank you, I can only take paracetamol at the moment." Something clearly code for "I can't put strong pharmaceuticals in my body currently because I'm carrying an unborn foetus..."

Does pregnancy really put a lot of strain on what you can and can't do? 

Are there things apart from the obvious narcotics that you can't ingest? 

Am I wrong to believe that if you're pregnant you're meant to glow and be happy and glossy all the time? Is that not what pregnancy feels like, even if you look like the cautionary whale? 

Maybe I have more to learn than I thought.... 

Lex