As I mentioned in the ‘Going to shops would give me crippling anxiety’ blog post, I’ve struggled and felt uncomfortable taking up space. One way this has manifested itself in my life has been being afraid of voicing my own opinions. I’ve always admired people who could stand firm in their beliefs and opinions, especially in the face of overwhelming opposing views. Even if I didn’t agree with them I still aspired to be as confident and courageous as them. Whenever I would be in a situation where my own opinion was a huge minority in a group I would keep it to myself in fear of judgement. This is exactly why it took me so long to share my atheistic view of life. I was scared of what people would think of me.
A perfect current example of someone who is courageous and sticks up for their beliefs and opinions is Rawiri Waititi. He stands in the lion’s den which is parliament and unapologetically shares his Māori worldview and calls out racism and the suffering and treatment Māori have endured at the hand of the crown and government. He doesn’t back down and I can’t help but be inspired by his unwavering resolve in those spaces.
I’m learning to be more like people like him. E mihi ana ki ā koe e Rawiri.
There are plenty of examples of people like him, but I’ve used him as an obvious example to illustrate what I mean.