My Background
I am the youngest in a large family, and for much of my life, I have felt dismissed. Like my thoughts were unimportant. My feelings, unimportant. I have come to realize they are not.
My name is not Gretyl, but it’s something close, something unusual. I could never find bookmarks, or little cups, or refrigerator magnets with my name on them as a kid. I have long been fascinated with Gretel, from Hansel and Gretel. The little sister, underestimated, who saves her brother from the witch, and gets the candy at the same time. Sorry for the spoiler. But I didn’t save the day. I did my best to stay out of the way, stay quiet.
Still, even in my quiet, I longed for adventure, even if it was in my mind. I escaped into my own stories, my own words. I delved into my imagination to create beauty in stories and poems, even when my thoughts and both my inner and outer worlds weren’t always beautiful.
What’s beautiful is that all that’s broken can sometimes be pulled together like a paperclip chain. Some clips can be twisted and broken, others can attach hope.
Why Be Loud?
Right now, the world is in crisis. As an American, my country is in crisis. We have a demented dictator wannabe in power, trying to crush everything different and diverse. Everything weird. Everything beautiful. Those of us with authentic voices can’t afford to stay quiet.
The Marmalade Menace and his posse have rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. They have used military force to pull hardworking, taxpaying people away from their workplaces and their families. They are rolling back environmental protection. Sacrificing air safety, making travel riskier. Cherry picking FEMA funding for those who hold the “right” opinions. Pulling books off shelves. Attempting to rewrite history to downplay the horrors of slavery and indigenous genocide. A woman’s right to choose her own healthcare is in danger. For the LGBTQ+ community, the right to live authentically is challenged.
In our education system, many teachers are encouraged to bypass critical thinking skills in favor of blind loyalty to the flag and the President.
At the same time, they are supposed to keep children safe from potential shooters that may come onto the school with military weapons intending death and destruction.
Loyalty should never be blind. Blind loyalty says you are important, and nothing else matters.
Using My Voice, Learning My Worth
I am imperfect, but don’t mess with me. I am valuable as I am, but I am also very grateful that not everyone is like me. I am a work in progress. I’m clumsy in more ways than one. I’m not done falling. I’m not done getting up.
In my day job, for now, I work in food service within a healthcare facility. That work has been an important part of my healing journey. Working to help others and working with people who look very different from me and have vastly different backgrounds has served and nurtured me. At the same time, I have seen how often service workers are treated with disrespect, judgment, and sometimes even abuse. They are here to help us and our loved ones. Sometimes they can do better, but the rest of us can do better, too.
Woke is a Compliment
While I am not always as “woke” as I should be. I do consider it a compliment. I plan to use the Gretyloutloud brand to promote.
Through a mix of poetry, articles, product promotion, and sharing of social media posts I plan to promote the following, and more.
- The arts and creative expression
- Sensible gun control
- Mental health awareness
- Women’s healthcare awareness
- Free Speech and Public Media
- Voting Fairness and Freedom
- Basic Nutrition and Healthy Living
- Respect for Working Class
- Cultural Diversity
- Disability Awareness
- Neurodiversity awareness and celebration
- Quality Education that Encourages Critical Thinking
- A Safe Learning Environment
- Fair Workplaces
- Human Dignity
I Believe in Fairness and the Value of Everyone
There is too much destruction to just sit back, and not fight. We all play a part. We all are important pieces of the puzzle. When we let those pieces fall, we never get to see the picture.
Gretyloutloud is a version of myself that intends to speak out for people and causes that the current administration would rather stay quiet, or hidden, or obliterated. But more than ever, it is time to be loud.
Today, I am a middle-aged white woman with ADHD and possible other neurodivergence. I am in the throes of perimenopause, hopefully on the cusp of menopause. I am inconsistent and flawed. I am too warm, and my keys are missing.
I am reclaiming my voice, and encourage anyone fighting for fairness and justice to do the same. Disagreements are okay, but it is not a place for hate. The more we build each other up, the more we can accomplish. Let’s celebrate our best, and make the world a bit better, one corner at a time.
Gretyloutloud 