The Label

Introductions, the first taste of making an impression, showing someone who you are in a short space of time... An introduction that most of the time allows people to brand you.

It's apparently rude to ask when voting which side you're backing, which box you're ticking and who you've decided would best back you. However, through a process where we are giving ourselves freedom of speech... Just how many boxes do we fit in and why has life become all about labels?

When did it start being about what we are and not who we are?

If voting is such a private thing, then someone should really tell this to my neighbour who has put up a big conservative flag across their house. They did apologise as I walked up to my house, then shouted as if part of the campaign themselves, “Back Conservative!” They really are such private people.

It seems we have become a race striving to define what each and every person is. Sexuality, status, race... Forgetting that these are also things that have been targeted and turned against us in the past.

The fact is, everyone is and has many labels... For most they are something to hold onto, something that is needed. Putting people in boxes, categories and branding is our way of telling each other who and what we are. It's not just a label, its comfort.

Something un-defined can be scary.

Life has become about what label you wear, gay, straight, black, white, married, single the on-going list is endless. This is ok; just don't find yourself stopping at the label. Because under each very different brand is a person.

An introduction is only a snippet, sometimes we box too soon and sometimes we get it wrong.

The biggest label we wear is the one we give ourselves! The voice in our heads that call us ugly when we feel fat, making us feel uncomfortable. The decisions we make that might not always be right and the fear we have if others brand us wrong.

Everyone fears what box we tick.

That’s the brilliant thing about being branded, everyone see’s it different. Some will brand you wrong. No one will see the same label as you, it’s hard to judge when we all have labels and then theirs some that will see past the label. Some will see you.

I have learnt that you just have to love the label you wear. Use you're vote, but don't get annoyed if you don't win. Everyone has a box.

Don’t always let introductions get in the way.

It’s not bad to be branded, but remember we all do it and then also remember…Life’s so much more than just a label.