“Take a stand for the and, boxes are boring .” - Natalie Yates

Introduction:

I want a successful career AND a life filled with adventure. I like spending time with people AND I adore my own company. I love all things fancy (think tasting menus and champagne) AND I like burgers and beer. I like to squat it out to hypertechno AND screech along to Taylor Swift…..

You get the picture by now I'm sure?! I've finally recognised the need to take a stand for the and.

STOP TRYING TO PUT ME IN THE EITHER/OR BOX!!!.

Hear the crazy ranty lady out;

 Ok, apologies for the shouting, but I am so done with having to be straightforward.

I don't have a simple answer to what music I like, how I like to spend my spare time, or my favourite place to eat. Call me greedy, but I want it all, the full rainbow spectrum of choice and I reserve the right to decline to pick a side.

See, I am a wonderfully messy, complex, wild child. A force of nature that prefers to make her judgement based on the season, her cycle, or the circumstance. I am done with making apology for my lack of neat and decisive answer, and I am done with making one choice only.

I am standing for the and.

I am declaring my status as an eclectic chameleon that will make a home and find joy wherever she may be placed.

Join the stand;

If any of this resonates with you then I would like you to join me in my stand for the and. Let us rejoice in our openminded curiosity, our outright refusal to be defined by one choice or other. Why should we not have, and enjoy, it all? Doesn't that make life infinitely more magical and wonderful. I for one am never going to make apology again for not wanting to fit in a box. Nor am I going to think I sound like I'm being either difficult, or unopinionated when I explain I have a multitude of likes when it comes to music, food, pastimes and people for that matter.

From this day forward I will proudly stand for the and, I ask you too to do the same. Let us unite as a terrific tribe of try-it-outers. We are far too magnificent to be placed into boxes.

With limitless love,

Natalie x