Page 22 - ADU Voice Volume 4 Issue 1

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22 • • • FALL 2024
Abu Dhabi University

I will never forget days spent at my
grandmother’s house when I was
young, especially between the ages of
5 and 10. I would be over at her place
multiple times a week, and it was a
time in my life where I remember
feeling such unbridled creativity. I’m
a journalist and media instructor
now, with more practice and
professional experience under my
belt, but there is just something so
pure and easy about the experience
of writing in your youth that I wish I
could have bottled up and kept with
me as an antidote to the infamous
“writer’s block” that often plagues
me these days! At my grandma’s,
back in the day, I couldn’t yet
conceptualize self-doubt; I would
spend hours ferociously writing
creative stories, sketching pictures,
with her love and encouragement
palpable in the air. Can you believe
she still has some of these pictures
pasted on her cupboards 20 years
later! It’s safe to say: these are
Ms treasured memories for both of us.
Dr. Bianca Roberts

Now, regarding advice for any ADU
students reading, on the topic of
nostalgia. Well, the warm and fuzzy
memories are never a problem to
revisit, but if you are susceptible to
experiencing the negative analogue
of nostalgia— regret— I would advise
keeping this concept in mind from
the German philosopher, Friedrich
Nietzsche: “amor fati”. Translating
from Latin to mean ‘love of fate’, this
phrase encourages us to accept in
full all that has happened in our
lives previously— the good, the bad
and the ugly— acknowledging that all
threads of the past are necessary
components of the complex tapestry
that is your present self. For every
mistake you’ve made, I am sure, if
you think hard enough, you will find
one thing in the present that you
hold dear that is solely dependent on
that less than perfect path being
Here's a picture of me with my walked down. Sometimes
Grandma back in the day. empowering ourselves into the future
requires first making peace with the
past, so don’t ever shy away from
deep retrospection ■