Unhappy girl looking troubled

May E&D Competition Winners Announced

Congratulations to Laura Kemp and Claire Edgington for being joint winners of our May Equality and Diversity competition in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Week. During May, the College invited students and staff to submit a piece of work to help raise awareness of mental health. The winning entries consisted of a thought provoking poem by Laura and a powerful account of post-natal depression from Claire.

The winning entries are:

Personal account of post-natal depression
Read one mother’s experience of post-natal depression.

Poem
Perfection Dejection

Finding it hard to strive for that level of perfection?
Don’t let it get you down, it’s an unnecessary obsession
You need to learn to be happy with your own reflection
No need to worry so much about making a good impression

Don’t base your ideals on other people’s social media feed
Ignore those weighing scales, who cares what they say?
Facebook, Instagram, it’s a filtered snapshot, take heed
Size doesn’t matter, have that treat – enjoy your frappe!

Jealous of your friend’s home and wish you could be as neat?
You don’t know what goes on behind each closed door
There’s better things to do than eat, sleep, clean, repeat!
Upon closer inspection, perfection isn’t everything and more.

The grass isn’t always greener, other people don’t always have it better
Enjoy the moment, relish what you have now, don’t feel blue.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with being a go-getter
Just remember, keep things in perspective and make time for you

If you, or someone you know has been affected by a mental health problem, you can find sources of information on the Mental Health Awareness Week website.