4 minute read
Editorial
Editorial to issue 1 Modern Women Bali magazine.
We are the women who left home.
The ones who ventured out of familiar comforts in search of je ne sais quoi. Some of us weren’t buying the little roles and expectations and piercing boredom sold as obligatory. Some were girl-Magellan-ing it across the seas to check if the grass is indeed greener. Some were so utterly miserable and misplaced and, yup, sometimes abused that they were prepared to weather any storm to escape the storms within. And some of us didn’t even know they were missing something until they landed in Bali for a short vacation, never to leave the island again. We all wanted more. More opportunities, bigger opportunities, a bigger life. We wanted to see who else we could be, how else it was possible to live, what other kinds of people can become our family.
And so we arrived. Impossible and unbelieving.
And the rice fields are sure nice and green. And the surf is high, and so are the lovely surfers. And other sensual delights aplenty. And freedom is here, if you know how to do freedom. And still, still, the paradise has been hacked and sallied. And the baggage has arrived. And where’s home now?
Despite our cheerful social media and the #balilivin click-baits here too, we struggle sometimes.
Mentally, emotionally, financially, socially. Shit gets real. Adaptation and exploration are made all the more difficult by the aggressively commercial environment Bali is dancing towards.
Some of us are introverts, many - closeted. We don’t quite know how to do the ever-smiling everloud crowds. But isn’t this how you make friends? Isn’t this aggressive networking key to surviving outside the corporate world? Whom do we ask our many questions? Surely not the coaches?! We are pretty tired of the same clichéd ideas getting repackaged and resold to us in shiny new, customisable wrappers. We have a sneaky feeling another way is possible. But we don’t quite know how, and we are turning and turning this-and-that-a-way.
We yearn to find our way. To be seen, to matter. To live independently and successfully. To connect deeply in our own way. To stay true to who we are in whatever we are doing.
We walk past the burnouts, past the lines fearfully scribbled on the sand, beyond the frontiers of self. We walk where there are no paths. We make up our own. And we lose the way, oh we lose it good. And we lose balance, and we fall off the edge of sanity. And out there, in a place the orderly logical mind can’t see into, we find our vision, we find ourselves.
We are here to remind each other that what we dreamed of is possible. That it all is worth it. That we are here to together - to win, to lose, to be with each other in unsightly ugly moments; in silence, in dizzying conversations, in work and play. We are the Ubud girls, dressed in divinity and incense smoke. We are the curious Indonesian women, half here, half there, cautiously optimistic about ourselves and the future. We are the unsubtle kitties of Canggu, ready to blow minds, hearts and bank accounts. The mermaids of Amed. We are the secret communities in between. The quiet, bright badasses writing poetry and running the shows.
We all are here. The kaleidoscope girls.
This magazine is for us. By us. For all others like us. For all others who are different, but curious.
